There Is Something Bigger Than Fact: the Underlying Spirit, All It Stands For, the Mood, the Vastness, the Wildness
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There is something bigger than fact: the underlying spirit, all it stands for, the mood, the vastness, the wildness. Emily Carr University of Alberta Quaternary glaciation of central Banks Island, NT, Canada by Thomas Ryan Lakeman A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences ©Thomas Ryan Lakeman Fall 2012 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. For Mom and Dad Without your tremendous example, none of this would have been possible. ABSTRACT The glacial geology and geomorphology of central Banks Island record the extent and dynamics of the northwest Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during Late Wisconsinan glaciation. Additional stratigraphic exposures document Mid Quaternary environmental changes. Detailed mapping and a new chronology indicate that the island was inundated by the northwest LIS during the Late Wisconsinan. The maximum limit of the ice sheet was offshore on the Beaufort Sea shelf, one of several source regions for floating glacier ice that scoured the Arctic Ocean sea floor to a depth of 450 m. Ice sheet retreat was underway by ~14 cal ka BP when an ice stream withdrew rapidly from M’Clure Strait. A readvance or stillstand 13.75–12.75 cal ka BP resulted in deposition of widespread controlled moraines, comprising the Jesse moraine belt on eastern Banks Island and adjacent Victoria Island. This deposit records predominantly cold-based ice margins giving way to polythermal bed conditions, which were conducive to widespread deposition of controlled moraines and ice stream bedforms. The expansion of warm-based thermal regimes in the northwest LIS followed ice sheet withdrawal from M’Clure Strait and western Amundsen Gulf, suggesting a re-equilibration of regional ice divides in response to rapidly changing ice sheet margins and surface gradients. These reconstructed ice sheet dynamics provide new constraints for assessing the sensitivity of the northwest LIS to past changes in climate and sea level. Stratigraphic exposures at Morgan Bluffs on eastern Banks Island comprise an archive of Mid to Late Quaternary environmental change. New, detailed sedimentological analyses and stratigraphic investigations negate the previously reported climatostratigraphy, which involved multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Instead, three distinct intervals of sedimentation are now recognized. The first records the progradation of a delta, followed by aggradation of a braided river valley perhaps ~1 Ma ago. The second documents a glacier advance across a former marine delta more than 780 ka ago. The third succession is interpreted to record sedimentation by an ice-contact delta into an ice-dammed lake during the last deglaciation, ~12.75 cal ka BP. The revised stratigraphic framework adds important new terrestrial observations to a sparse and fragmentary dataset of Arctic environmental change. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was principally funded by Dr. John England’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Northern Chair and Discovery Grant programs at the University of Alberta. Additional funding from the Canadian Circumpolar Institute (CCI) and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) in the form of Circumpolar-Boreal Alberta Research (CBAR) grants and Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP) grants, respectively, is also acknowledged. The Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP) provided logistical support required to access the remote field sites documented in this study. I am particularly grateful to several funding agencies for postgraduate scholarships, including NSERC (Postgraduate Scholarship D3), the Alberta Ingenuity Fund (Alberta Innovates; Ph.D. Graduate Student Scholarship), the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies, and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation (Garfield Weston Doctoral Award for Northern Research). As well, I would like to thank the members of my supervisory committee, John England, Marianne Douglas, Duane Froese, Doug Schmitt, Martin Sharp, and Martyn Unsworth, as well as my external examiner, Chris Stokes, for their interest, valuable comments, and guidance over the course of my program. I owe special gratitude to my supervisor, John England, who first introduced me to the Arctic in 2003. Your mentorship, encouragement, and humility over the past decade have kept me on an engaging and rewarding path. The vastness, silence, and intimacy of the Arctic have changed me in ways I never thought possible. I consider this a great blessing and privilege, one I hope everyone can experience. For this I shall remain forever thankful. Many people contributed greatly to extensive fieldwork on Banks Island from 2007 to 2012. A selfless, Vernon Amos, welcomed me to Banks Island and provided stalwart assistance at Stewart Point in 2007. For what it’s worth… always watch. Guy Springett provided comradeship and many laughs during a long, arduous field season in 2008. Our paddle down the Thomsen River and our frequent visits by the wolves at Jesse Harbour are cherished adventures. Additional field assistance at Storkerson Bay, Burnett Bay, and Jesse Bay by Stacey Harrison during many snowy days in 2009 is also acknowledged. Roy Coulthard provided many valuable insights, mentorship, and above all, friendship. Our long conversations over many micro-brewed ales, often straying from science and geomorphology into politics and the magic of the North, are sure to be missed. I thank Mark Furze for many fruitful discussions throughout the course of my program and for the opportunity to teach at Grant MacEwan University. I am particularly indebted for his assistance and mentorship in 2010 on Phillips Island. Anna Pienkowski is acknowledged for her keen, satirical sense of humour, and her legendary general kindness. Jessica Vaughan’s sheer energy and hilarity contributed much colour to otherwise grey days in the office. I thank Jonathan Doupé for many discussions about cosmogenic nuclides and for organizing Monday morning shinny. Dave Evans helped stimulate my continuing interest in glacial sedimentology and provided many insights that improved my field research in 2008 and 2010. Catherine La Farge offered many encouragements and kindly shared her vast knowledge of Arctic bryophytes (and French cooking!). Finally, I would like to thank my family. Mom and Dad (Patricia and Gordon Lakeman) fostered in me a great love of the outdoors and a strong independent spirit, without which I would only be a fragment of the person I am today. Thanks also to my brother, Ken, and sister, Katherine, for sharing my interests and for your sense of humour. Ours is the most Canadian family I know. My daughter, Sasha, and new son, Oscar, provided much needed respite from my research. It is a joy being your father and I can’t wait to share new Arctic experiences with you in the future. Lastly, I wish to thank my Partner, Chantel Nixon. Your unending support, affection, and patience over these many years, has made our remarkable journey possible. As we move forward to face life’s new opportunities, may our love remain, forever, Resolute. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………… 1 SCOPE …..…………………………………………………………………………… 1 STRUCTURE AND OBJECTIVES ..…………………………………………………… 5 RATIONALE ......……………………………………………………………………… 7 REFERENCES.......……………………………………………………………………… 8 CHAPTER 2: THE EXTENT OF LATE WISCONSINAN GLACIATION AND THE NATURE OF POSTGLACIAL RELATIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGE ON WESTERN BANKS ISLAND, CANADIAN ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO .……….. 30 INTRODUCTION ..…………..……………………………………………………… 30 PREVIOUS WORK .……..…………………………………………………………… 32 METHODS ..…………………………………………………………………………. 36 GLACIAL LANDFORMS AND SEDIMENTS ..……..………………………………… 38 RAISED MARINE DEPOSITS ...………………………..……………………………… 40 CHRONOLOGY .………………………………….………………………………… 43 DISCUSSION ….……………………………………………...……………………… 45 TIMING AND EXTENT OF LATE WISCONSINAN GLACIATION…………….... 45 LATE WISCONSINAN ICE SHEET DYNAMICS ………………………………… 47 POSTGLACIAL RELATIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGE ...………………………………. 50 ARCTIC OCEAN BATHYMETRY ………………...………………………………. 52 CONCLUSIONS …....……………………………………………………………….. 55 REFERENCES ……….……………………………………………………………….. 57 CHAPTER 3: PALEOGLACIOLOGICAL INSIGHTS FROM THE AGE AND MORPHOLOGY OF THE JESSE MORAINE BELT, WESTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC ………………………………………………………………..........…………..... 78 INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………… 78 METHODS ……...……………………………………………………………………. 81 GEOMORPHIC OBSERVATIONS ……………...…………………………………… 81 NORTH-CENTRAL BANKS ISLAND AND THE THOMSEN RIVER VALLEY …..... 83 EASTERN BANKS ISLAND .…………………………………………………...…... 85 PRINCE ALBERT PENINSULA, VICTORIA ISLAND..…………..…………………. 87 CHRONOLOGY …………………….………….…………………………………… 90 DEGLACIATION OF BANKS ISLAND AND PRINCE OF WALES STRAIT …….…… 92 THOMSEN PHASE ……………………………...……………………………… 93 PRINCE