Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T05:18:24.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Timing of advance and basal condition of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum in the Richardson Mountains, NWT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Denis Lacelle ,
Bernard Lauriol ,
Grant Zazula ,
Bassam Ghaleb ,
Nicholas Utting  and
Ian D. Clark
Denis Lacelle*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Bernard Lauriol
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Grant Zazula
Affiliation:
Department of Tourism and Culture, Government of Yukon, Whitehorse, Canada
Bassam Ghaleb
Affiliation:
Centre de recherche en géochimie et géodynamique, GEOTOP, Université du Québec a Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Nicholas Utting
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada BGC Engineering Inc, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Ian D. Clark
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:dlacelle@uottawa.ca (D. Lacelle).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study presents new ages for the northwest section of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) glacial chronology from material recovered from two retrogressive thaw slumps exposed in the Richardson Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada. One study site, located at the maximum glacial limit of the LIS in the Richardson Mountains, had calcite concretions recovered from aufeis buried by glacial till that were dated by U/Th disequilibrium to 18,500 cal yr BP. The second site, located on the Peel Plateau to the east yielded a fossil horse (Equus) mandible that was radiocarbon dated to ca. 19,700 cal yr BP. These ages indicate that the Peel Plateau on the eastern flanks of the Richardson Mountains was glaciated only after 18,500 cal yr BP, which is later than previous models for the global last glacial maximum (LGM). As the LIS retreated the Peel Plateau around 15,000 cal yr BP, following the age of the Tutsieta phase, we conclude that the presence of the northwestern margin of the LIS at its maximum limit was a very short event in the western Canadian Arctic.

Keywords

Laurentide Ice SheetLast glacial maximumGround iceRichardson MountainsWestern Arctic
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , September 2013 , pp. 274 - 283
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bateman, M.D., Murton, J.B., (2006). The chronostratigraphy of Late Pleistocene glacial and periglacial aeolian activity in the Tuktoyatuk Coastlands, NWT, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 2552–2568.Google Scholar
Beaumont, W., Beverly, R., Southon, J.R., Taylor, R.E., (2010). Bone preparation at the KCCAMS Laboratory. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B268, 906–909.Google Scholar
Beget, J., (1987). Low profile of the northwest Laurentide map sheets. Arctic and Alpine Research 19, 81–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beverly, R.K., Beaumont, W., Tauz, D., Ormsby, K.M., von Reden, K.F., Santos, G.M., Southon, J.R., (2010). The Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Laboratory, University of California Irvine: status report. Radiocarbon 52, 2 301–309.Google Scholar
Bottinga, I., (1968). Calculation of fractionation factors for carbon and oxygen exchange in the system calcite-CO2-water. Journal of Physical Chemistry 72, 800–808.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., (2009). Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51, 1 337–360.Google Scholar
Burke, A., Cinq-Mars, J., (1989). Paleoethological reconstruction and taphonomy of Equus lambei from the Bluefish Caves, Yukon Territory, Canada. Arctic 51, 105–115.Google Scholar
Burn, C.R., (1997). Cryostratigraphy, paleogeography, and climate change during the early Holocene warm interval, western Arctic coast, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 34, 912–925.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardyn, R., Clark, I.D., Lacelle, D., Lauriol, B., Zdanowicz, C., Calmels, F., (2007). Molar gas ratios of air entrapped in ice: a new tool to determine the nature and origin of relict massive ground ice bodies in permafrost. Quaternary Research 68, 239–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catto, N.R., (1986). Quaternary sedimentology and stratigraphy, Peel Plateau and Richardson Mountains, Yukon and Northwest Territories. (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis) Department of Geology, University of Alberta.(728 pp.).Google Scholar
Catto, N.R., (1996). Richardson Mountains, Yukon-Northwest Territories: the northern portal of the postulated “ice-free corridor”. Quaternary International 32, 3–19.Google Scholar
Clark, I.D., Lauriol, B., (1997). Aufeis of the Firth River basin, northern Yukon, Canada: insights into permafrost hydrogeology and karst. Arctic and Alpine Research 29, 240–252.Google Scholar
Clark, P.U., Dyke, A.S., Shakun, J.D., Carlson, A.E., Clark, J., Wohlfarth, B., Mitrovica, J.X., Hostetler, S.W., McCabe, A.M., (2009). The Last Glacial Maximum. Science 325, 5941 710–714.Google Scholar
Coplen, T.B., Kendall, C., Hopple, J., (1983). Comparison of isotope reference samples. Nature 302, 236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duk-Rodkin, A., Hughes, O.L., (1991). Age relationships of Laurentide and Montane glaciations, Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories. Geographie Physique et Quaternaire 45, 79–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duk-Rodkin, A., Hughes, O.L.. (1992). Surficial geology, Fort McPherson-Bell River. Yukon-Northwest Territories. Geological Survey of Canada. Map 1745A, scale 1:250 000.Google Scholar
Duk-Rodkin, A., Hughes, O.L., (1995). Quaternary geology of the northeastern part of the central Mackenzie Valley Corridor, District of Mackenzie, Northwest Territories. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 458, (45 pp.).Google Scholar
Duk-Rodkin, A., Lemmen, D.S., (2000). Glacial history of the Mackenzie region. Dyke, L.D., Brooks, G.R. The Physical Environment of the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Terrotories: a Base Line for the Assessment of Environmental Change. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 547, 11–20.Google Scholar
Duk-Rodkin, A., Barendregt, R.W., Tarnocai, C., Phillips, F.M., (1996). Late Tertiary to Late Quaternary record in the Mackenzie Mountains, Northwest Territories, Canada: stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, and chlorine-36. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 33, 875–895.Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Andrews, J.T., Clark, P.U., England, J.H., Miller, G.H., Shaw, J., Veillette, J., (2002). The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 9–31.Google Scholar
England, J.H., Furze, M.F.A., Doupé, J.P., (2009). Revision of the NW Laurentide Ice Sheet: implications for paleoclimate, the northeast extremity of Beringia, and the Arctic Ocean sedimentation. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 1573–1596.Google Scholar
Fritz, M., Herzschuh, U., Wetterich, S., Lantuit, H., De Pascale, G.P., Pollard, W.H., Schirmeister, L., (2012). Late glacial and Holocene sedimentation, vegetation, and climate history from easternmost Beringia (northern Yukon Territory, Canada). Quaternary Research 78, 549–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Froese, D.G., Zazula, G.D., Reyes, A.V., (2006). Seasonality of the late Pleistocene Dawson tephra and exceptional preservation of a buried riparian surface in central Yukon Territory, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 1542–1551.Google Scholar
Guthrie, R.D., Stoker, S., (1990). Paleoecological significance of mummified remains of Pleistocene horses from the North Slope of the Brooks Range, Alaska. Arctic 43, 267–274.Google Scholar
Hall, D.K., (1980). Mineral precipitation in North Slope river icings. Arctic 33, 343–348.Google Scholar
Harington, C.R., (1990). Ice Age Vertebrates in the Canadian Arctic Islands. Canada's Missing Dimension Vol. 1. Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa.138–160.Google Scholar
Harington, C.R., Cinq-Mars, J., (1995). Radiocarbon dates on saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) fossils from Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Arctic 48, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillaire-Marcel, C., Causse, C., (1989). The Late Pleistocene Laurentide Glacier: Th/U dating of its major fluctuations and δ18O range of the ice. Quaternary Research 32, 125–138.Google Scholar
Hopkins, D.M., Smith, P.A., (1981). Dated wood from Alaska and Yukon: implications for forest refugia in Beringia. Quaternary Research 15, 217–249.Google Scholar
Hughes, O.L., (1972). Surficial geology of northern Yukon Territory and northwestern District of Mackenzie, Northwest Territories. Geological Survey of Canada Paper 69–36, (11 pp.).Google Scholar
Hughes, O.L., Harington, C.R., Janssens, J.A., Matthews, J.V., Morlan, R.E., Rutter, N.W., Schweger, C.E., (1981). Upper Pleistocene stratigraphy, paleoecology and archeology of northern Yukon interior, eastern Beringia 1. Bonnet Plume Basin. Arctic 34, 329–365.Google Scholar
Kaufman, D.S., (2004). Holocene thermal maximum in the western Arctic (0–180°W). Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 529–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, K.E., Froese, D.G., Zazula, G.D., Lauriol, B., (2010). Last Glacial Maximum age for the northwest Laurentide maximum from the Eagle River spillway and braid delta complex, northern Yukon. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 1288–1300.Google Scholar
Lacelle, D., (2007). Environmental setting, (micro)morphologies and stable C-O isotope composition of cold carbonate precipitates — a review and evaluation of their potential as paleoclimate proxies. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 1670–1689.Google Scholar
Lacelle, D., (2011). On the δ18O, δD and D-excess relations in meteoric precipitation and during equilibrium freezing: theoretical approach and field examples. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 22, 13–25.Google Scholar
Lacelle, D., Bjornson, J., Lauriol, B., Clark, I.D., Troutet, Y., (2004). Segregated-intrusive ice of subglacial meltwater origin in retrogressive thaw-flow headwalls, Richardson Mountains, NWT, Canada. Quaternary Sciences Reviews 23, 681–696.Google Scholar
Lacelle, D., Lauriol, B., Clark, I.D., (2006). Effect of chemical of water on the oxygen-18 and carbon-13 signature preserved in cryogenic carbonates, Arctic Canada: Implications in paleoclimatic studies. Chemical Geology 234, 1–16.Google Scholar
Lauriol, B., Cinq-Mars, J., Clark, I.D., (1991). Les naleds du nord Yukon: localisation, genèse et fonte. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 2, 225–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lauriol, B., Lacelle, D., St-Jean, M., Clark, I.D., Zazula, G.D., (2010). Late Quaternary paleoenvironments and growth of intrusive ice in eastern Beringia (Eagle River valley, northern Yukon, Canada). Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 47, 941–955.Google Scholar
Lemmen, D.S., Duk-Rodkin, A., Bednarski, J.M., (1994). Late glacial drainage systems along the northwestern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Quaternary Science Reviews 13, 805–828.Google Scholar
Michel, F., (2011). Isotope characterisation of ground ice in northern Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 22, 3–12.Google Scholar
Moorman, B.J., Michel, F.A., (2000). The burial of ice in the proglacial environment on Bylot Island, Arctic Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 11, 161–175.Google Scholar
Morlan, R.E., (1986). Pleistocene archaeology in Old Crow basin: a critical reappraisal. Bryan, A.L. New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, University of Maine. Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono.27–48.Google Scholar
Murton, J.B., Frenchen, M., Maddy, D., (2007). Luminescence dating of mid- to Late Wisconsinan aeolian sand as a constraint on the last advance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet across the Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, western Arctic Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 44, 857–869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, D. K., (1985). Geology of the northern Yukon and northwestern District of Mackenzie. Geological Survey of Canada, map 1581A, scale 1:500,000.Google Scholar
Pollard, W.H., (2005). Icing processes associated with High Arctic perennial springs, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 16, 51–68.Google Scholar
Rampton, V.N., (1982). Quaternary Geology of the Yukon Coastal Plain. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 317, (49 pp.).Google Scholar
Refsnider, K.A., Miller, G.H., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Fogel, M.L., Ghaleb, B., Bowden, R., (2012). Subglacial carbonates constrain basal conditions and oxygen isotopic composition of the Laurentide Ice Sheet over Arctic Canada. Geology 40, 135–138.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Southon, J.R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E., (2009). IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0"50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51, 4 1111–1150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweger, C.E., Matthews, J.V., (1991). The last (Koy-Yukon) interglaciation in the Yukon: comparison with Holocene and interstadial pollen records. Quaternary International 10"12, 85–94.Google Scholar
St-Jean, M., Lauriol, B., Clark, I.D., Lacelle, D., Zdanowicz, C., (2011). Understanding the filling process in ice wedges using crystallography, stable O-H isotopes and gas composition (O2, N2, Ar). Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 22, 49–64.Google Scholar
Utting, N., (2010). Geochemistry and noble gases of permafrost groundwater and ground ice in Yukon and the Northwest Territories, Canada. (Unpublished PhD thesis) University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.Google Scholar
Vincent, J.-S., (1989). Quaternary geology of the northern Canadian Interior Plains. Fulton, R.J. Quaternary Geology of Canada and Greenland, 1. Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of Canada 100–137.Google Scholar
Vincent, J.S., Hardy, L., (1979). The evolution of glacial lakes Barlow and Ojibway, Québec and Ontario. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 316, (18 pp.).Google Scholar
Zazula, G.D., Duk-Rodkin, A., Schweger, C.E., Morlan, R.E., (2004). Late Pleistocene chronology of glacial Lake Old Crow and the north-west margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Ehlers, J., Gibbard, P.L. Quaternary Glaciations — Extent and Chronology, Part II. 347–362.Google Scholar
Zazula, G.D., Hare, P.G., Storer, J.E., (2009a). New radiocarbon dated vertebrate fossils from Herschel Island: implications for the glacial chronology and palaeoenvironments of the Beaufort Sea Coastlands. Arctic 62, 273–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zazula, G.D., Mackay, G., Andrews, T.D., Shapiro, B., Letts, B., Brock, F., (2009b). A Late Pleistocene steppe bison (Bison priscus) partial carcass from Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories, Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 2734–2742.Google Scholar