Late Wisconsinan Glaciation of Southern Eureka Sound: Evidence for Extensive Innuitian Ice in the Canadian High Arctic During Th
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Quaternary Science Reviews 19 (2000) 1319}1341 Late Wisconsinan glaciation of southern Eureka Sound: evidence for extensive Innuitian ice in the Canadian High Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum Colm OD Cofaigh! *, John England!, Marek Zreda" !Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E3 "Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Abstract Southern Eureka Sound was originally proposed as the centre of an Innuitian Ice Sheet in the Canadian High Arctic at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) based largely on the pattern of Holocene emergence. This paper focuses on the glacial geological evidence for such an ice sheet in the region. Granite dispersal trains and ice-moulded bedrock record regional, westward #ow of warm-based ice into Eureka Sound from SE Ellesmere Island. Regional ice was coalescent with local ice domes on inter-"ord peninsulas. Marine limit in the form of raised deltas, beaches and washing limits formed during deglaciation of the regional ice. Throughout southern Eureka Sound, marine limit dates )9.2 ka BP, indicating that ice commenced retreat during the early Holocene. Ice-divides were located along the highlands of central Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands, from which ice inundated Eureka Sound, #owing north and south along the channel. Regional radiocarbon dates on marine limit show that deglaciation occurred in two steps. Initial break-up and radial retreat of ice from Eureka Sound to the inner "ords was rapid and preceded stabilisation along adjacent coastlines and at "ord heads. Two-step deglaciation is also re#ected in di!erences in glacial geomorphology between the inner and outer parts of many "ords. A prominent belt of "ord-head glaciogenic landforms, long proposed to mark the last glacial limit, is re-interpreted to record initial, stabilisation of ice margins due predominantly to bathymetric control. ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction (England, 1976). Most previous Quaternary investiga- tions are from the northern part of the sound, and these This paper is the "rst detailed reconstruction of the have advocated a restricted Late Wisconsinan ice cover Late Wisconsinan glacial history of southern Eureka (England, 1987, 1990, 1992; Bell, 1992, 1996), although Sound, Queen Elizabeth Islands, Arctic Canada (Figs. 1 more recent work rejects that interpretation (Bednarski, and 2). Blake (1970) originally proposed the existence of 1998; England and OD Cofaigh, 1998; OD Cofaigh, 1998, a Late Wisconsinan Innuitian Ice Sheet in this region 1999a, b). based mainly on a corridor of maximum Holocene The paper focuses on the Ellesmere Island side of emergence extending from Eureka Sound to Bathurst southern Eureka Sound, but also includes Stor Island in Island. He argued that this emergence recorded the re- the central part of the channel (Figs. 1 and 2). Emphasis is moval of a pan-archipelago Innuitian Ice Sheet, which placed on Late Wisconsinan ice con"guration, dynamics was coalescent with the Laurentide Ice Sheet to the south and chronology. This reconstruction is based on sur"cial and the Greenland Ice Sheet to the northeast. A persist- mapping and sedimentological investigation of gla- ent problem with this reconstruction has been the lack of ciogenic and raised marine deposits and landforms. direct stratigraphic and chronologic evidence for such Chronological control is provided by radiocarbon dating an ice sheet along its proposed axis in Eureka Sound of marine shells and driftwood. In this paper the term Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) refers to the period of maximum ice cover, prior to the * Corresponding author. Current address: Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, onset of deglaciation. On western Ellesmere and Axel UK. Tel.: #44-117-928-9954; fax: #44-117-928-7878. Heiberg islands, radiocarbon dates on shell fragments E-mail address: [email protected] (C. OD Cofaigh). from till and outwash indicate that the LGM occurred 0277-3791/00/$- see front matter ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 2 7 7 - 3 7 9 1 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 0 4 - 3 1320 C. O! Cofaigh et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 19 (2000) 1319}1341 Fig. 1. The Queen Elizabeth Islands and northwest Greenland showing location of the study area (box) and contemporary ice cover (dark shading). Fig. 2. Southern Eureka Sound showing contemporary ice cover (dark sometime after 28}27 ka BP (Bednarski, 1998; this pa- shading) and location of placenames referred to in text. per), and possibly (20 ka BP based on an AMS date on sub-till organic detritus (Blake, 1992a). On eastern Elles- mere Island, AMS dates on shell fragments in till indicate sive ice"elds on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands that the LGM may have occurred (19 ka BP (England, (Figs. 1 and 2). 1999). Throughout Ellesmere Island, deglaciation was underway by 10}11 ka BP (Hodgson et al., 1991; Be- 1.2. Previous work dnarski, 1995, 1998; Blake et al., 1996; England, 1998). Early investigations into the glacial history of Eureka 1.1. Regional setting Sound noted crystalline erratics (granite, gneiss and quartzite) derived from a source to the east, probably Eureka Sound separates Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg under the Prince of Wales Ice"eld (Troelsen, 1952; Fyles, islands, and extends from Norwegian Bay to Nansen in Jenness, 1962; Tozer, 1963), as well as evidence for high Sound (Figs. 1 and 2). Stor Island occupies the central relative sea levels (Schei, 1904; Farrand and Gadja, 1962). part of the channel (Fig. 2). Geologically the study area is Several workers (e.g., Fyles, in Jenness, 1962; Boesch, dominated by NE striking sedimentary rocks with ig- 1963; Hattersley-Smith, 1969) also noted elevational dif- neous dykes (Trettin, 1991). Precambrian granite out- ferences in the degree of weathering and preservation of crops 60 km to the east and underlies the Prince of Wales glacial landforms, and postulated that these re#ected Ice"eld (Fig. 2). Uplands in the study area reach multiple glaciations, with the last being thinner and more '1000 m asl and are dissected by "ords and valleys, restricted. These early observations broadly de"ne con- aligned both parallel to bedrock structure (e.g., Trold trasting reconstructions over the last three decades con- Fiord) and cross-cutting it (e.g., Bay Fiord). Contempor- cerning the extent of Late Wisconsinan glaciation in ary ice cover is limited to small, upland ice caps, although the Queen Elizabeth Islands. These have ranged from the study area is bordered to the east and west by exten- that of an extensive Innuitian Ice Sheet (e.g., Blake, 1970, C. O! Cofaigh et al. / Quaternary Science Reviews 19 (2000) 1319}1341 1321 1972, 1992b, 1993; Blake et al., 1992; Tushingham, 1991; to fresh. However, no elevational di!erences were noted HaK ttestrand and Stroeven, 1996; Bednarski, 1998; Dyke, in weathering characteristics. Granite erratics and ice- 1998, 1999; England, 1998, 1999; Zreda et al., 1999), to moulded bedrock extend unevenly westwards across the a much more restricted ice cover, the Franklin Ice Com- study area from the margin of the Prince of Wales Ice"eld plex (e.g., England, 1976, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1996; (Figs. 3}5). At many sites, granites form part of a silty England and Bradley, 1978; Bednarski, 1986; Lemmen, diamict that also contains shell fragments. This diamict is 1989; Evans, 1990; Bell, 1996). interpreted as till on account of its regional continuity Eureka Sound has been a key area in this debate, and above marine limit, the presence of striated erratics, and illustrates the issues around which these contrasting re- its stratigraphic position overlying ice-moulded and stri- constructions have centred: ated bedrock. Granite-bearing Tertiary #uvial deposits have also (1) Postglacial emergence of up to 150 m along Eureka been reported on western Ellesmere Island (e.g., Fyles, Sound, and whether this represents a solely gla- 1989, 1990; Hodgson et al., 1991; Bell, 1992). They are cioisostatic response to the removal of a regional ice mostly sandy, but localised beds of rounded pebble to sheet (e.g., Blake, 1970) or that of a smaller ice load cobble gravel outcrop at the head of Strathcona Fiord with a possible neotectonic contribution (e.g., Eng- and contain granite (Fyles, 1989; John Fyles, pers. land, 1997). comm., 1998). These gravels lay in the path of ice advanc- (2) The signi"cance of a `drift belta (Hodgson, 1985) of ing westward through Bay Fiord (Fig. 2) from the Prince glacial landforms and sediments at many "ord heads of Wales Ice"eld, and therefore were likely to have been (e.g., Lemmen et al., 1994; OD Cofaigh, 1998), and partly glacially eroded and re-deposited. However, the whether this marks the limit of Late Wisconsinan #uvial gravels contrast texturally with the overlying re- glaciation, or a stillstand during retreat of a more gional till (2}3 m thick) which contains striated granite extensive ice cover. boulders up to 3 m in diameter (cf. Fyles, 1989; Hodgson (3) A sparsity of fresh glacial landforms beyond this drift et al., 1991; Bell, 1992). Therefore, granite erratics record belt in several locations (e.g., England, 1987; Lemmen glacial transport from the Prince of Wales Ice"eld, as well et al., 1994; OD Cofaigh, 1998), coupled with a greater as a subsidiary component of pebble to cobble-sized degree of weathering in many outer "ords and at clasts from Tertiary #uvial deposits. higher elevations (Boesch, 1963; England, 1987; Bell, The granites form a major dispersal train centred on 1996). Bay Fiord, extending westwards from the Prince of (4) The age of granite erratics and shelly till beyond the Wales Ice"eld to Stor Island and beyond (Figs.