Beryllium-10 Dating of the Foothills Erratics Train in Alberta, Canada, Indicates Detachment of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Rocky Mountains at ∼15 Ka
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Quaternary Research Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019. This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. doi:10.1017/ qua.2019.10 Beryllium-10 dating of the Foothills Erratics Train in Alberta, Canada, indicates detachment of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from the Rocky Mountains at ∼15 ka Martin Margolda,b*, John C. Gossec, Alan J. Hidyd, Robin J. Woywitkaa, Joseph M. Younga, Duane Froesea aDepartment of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada bDepartment of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, 128 43 Praha 2, Czech Republic cDepartment of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada dCentre for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA *Corresponding author at: e-mail address: [email protected] (M. Margold). (RECEIVED May 25, 2018; ACCEPTED February 11, 2019) Abstract The Foothills Erratics Train consists of large quartzite blocks of Rocky Mountains origin deposited on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountain Foothills in Alberta between ∼53.5°N and 49°N. The blocks were deposited in their present locations when the western margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) detached from the local ice masses of the Rocky Mountains, which initiated the opening of the southern end of the ice-free corridor between the Cordilleran Ice Sheet and the LIS. We use 10Be exposure dating to constrain the beginning of this decoupling. Based on a group of 12 samples well-clustered in time, we date the detachment of the western LIS margin from the Rocky Mountain front to ∼14.9 ± 0.9 ka. This is ∼1000 years later than previously assumed, but a lack of a latitudinal trend in the ages over a distance of ∼500 km is consistent with the rapid open- ing of a long wedge of unglaciated terrain portrayed in existing ice-retreat reconstructions. A later separation of the western LIS margin from the mountain front implies higher ice margin–retreat rates in order to meet the Younger Dryas ice margin position near the boundary of the Canadian Shield ∼2000 years later. Key words: Laurentide Ice Sheet; Cordilleran Ice Sheet; Rocky Mountains; 10Be exposure dating; deglaciation INTRODUCTION humans might have taken when settling the Americas in the late Pleistocene (Johnston, 1933; Antevs, 1935; Haynes, The beginning of the last deglaciation in interior North Amer- 2002; Potter et al., 2017). Despite its importance for testing ica was marked by a separation of the Cordilleran and Lauren- evolutionary models and the rates and nature of human migra- tide Ice Sheets (CIS, LIS) and the formation of an ice-free tion in North America, relatively little information exists corridor (IFC used through this paper) as the LIS retreated about the precise age of the initial opening of the IFC eastward from the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains. (Dyke et al., 2003; Dyke, 2004;Ivesetal.,2014; Potter The IFC has long been a subject of discussion because of et al., 2017). The minimum limiting radiocarbon dates avail- its importance as a biogeographic connection between non- able are subject to a lag, of unknown duration, between the ice glaciated Beringia and the rest of the Americas south of the retreat and the deposition of the recovered organic material. ice sheets (Johnston, 1933; Antevs, 1935; Mandryk et al., The IFC represents the land area formed as the LIS and CIS 2001; Goebel et al., 2008; Ives et al., 2014; Heintzman separated during deglaciation. The IFC measured more than et al., 2016; Pedersen et al., 2016; Potter et al., 2017). Migra- 2000 km in length from north to south, and the last portion tion of animal species has been documented through the cor- to open is suggested to have been between 62 and 65°N at ridor (Shapiro et al., 2004; Heintzman et al., 2016) and, 14 13–12.5 C ka (15.6–14.8 cal ka; Dyke et al., 2003), in an importantly, it has been suggested as one of the routes that area formerly occupied by the northern slopes of the Cordilleran–Laurentide ice saddle (Dyke and Prest, 1987; Tarasov et al., 2012; Peltier et al., 2015; Lambeck et al., Cite this article: Margold, M., Gosse, J. C., Hidy, A. J., Woywitka, R. J., 2017). However, the opening of the corridor started in the Young, J. M., Froese, D. 2019. Beryllium-10 dating of the Foothills Erratics Train in Alberta, Canada, indicates detachment of the Laurentide Ice Sheet south, with a wedge of unglaciated terrain growing between from the Rocky Mountains at ∼15 ka. Quaternary Research 1–14. the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains and the retreating 1 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 17 Apr 2019 at 08:52:18, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2019.10 2 M. Margold et al. ice margin of the southwestern LIS (Dyke et al., 2003; Dyke, were, in combination with the study of Young et al. (1994), 2004). To establish a more precise age on the opening, it is key to the argument that broad coalescence of the Laurentide, desirable to use methods that directly date the initial ice Cordilleran, and local montane ice masses in central and south- retreat. Cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating of erratic boul- ern Alberta only happened in the Late Wisconsinan (Oxygen ders can provide such ages. Here we use 10Be in quartz to Isotope Stage 2). However, the relatively large spread of the determine the age of the Foothills Erratics Train (FET) in 36Cl ages prevented the authors from making inferences on order to establish the timing of the separation of the south- the timing of the ice retreat. We have elected to resample western LIS from the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. some of the FET boulders dated by Jackson et al. (1997) along with others that were not previously dated. The 36Cl chronometer has, in this case, two disadvantages. First, when THE FOOTHILLS ERRATICS TRAIN whole-rock samples are used (as was common at the time of The FET consists of large quartzite blocks scattered in a linear Jackson et al. [1997]), there is a variable but often significant pattern along the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in component of 36Cl that is produced when slow (thermal) cos- southern Alberta. The FET stretches between ∼53.5 and 49°N mogenic or radiogenic neutrons are captured by native 35Cl over a distance of almost 600 km (Stalker, 1956; Jackson (the most abundant isotope of natural chlorine in rock minerals et al., 1997; Jackson, 2017; Fig. 1), and its distribution docu- such as hornblende, biotite, and quartz fluid inclusions). The ments the interaction between the local montane, Cordilleran, disadvantage therefore relates to the contribution to age uncer- and Laurentide ice masses during the last glacial maximum tainty owing to (1) the difficulty of precisely measuring the (LGM; Fig. 1). The quartzite blocks of the FET originate 35Cl concentration and (2) the inability to know the history from the Lower Cambrian Gog Group of the Canadian of moisture contents and snow cover over millennial time Rocky Mountains, likely largely but not exclusively, from scales, factors that moderate the thermal neutron flux in com- the Mount Edith Cavell area of Jasper National Park (Mount- plex ways (Dunai et al., 2007;Zwecketal.,2013;Delunel joy, 1958; Roed et al., 1967; Fig. 1). It has been speculated that et al., 2014). Second, the production rate of 36Cl is more poorly the blocks were part of a rock fall from Mount Edith Cavell defined than that of 10Be (Phillips et al., 2016a, 2016b). We onto the surface of the Athabasca Valley glacier that brought have therefore chosen to measure the ages using 10Be, and them onto the foothills (Stalker, 1956; Jackson et al., 1997). we do so for 16 boulders that span the length of the FET. The highest portions of the Rocky Mountains hosted local ice-dispersal centres at the LGM, while at the regional scale, METHODS Cordilleran ice was drained from the Interior Plateau in Brit- ish Columbia across the Continental Divide in the Rocky Samples for cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating were col- Mountains to the Interior Plains (Fig. 1). South of the Peace lected with a diamond-blade cutoff saw and a hammer and River, Cordilleran ice was deflected by Laurentide ice to chisel. Samples ALT-MM-15-10 and ALT-MM-15-11 were flow in a southeasterly direction along the Rocky Mountain collected with a hammer and chisel only to minimize the vis- Foothills, forming a tributary of the High Plains Ice Stream, ible traces of the sampling on the erratic blocks in publicly itself a branch of an ice-stream system draining the saddle sensitive areas. Because large erratic blocks can be objects between the CIS and the Keewatin Ice Dome of the LIS (Mar- of significance for the Canadian First Nations (Brink, gold et al., 2018; Fig. 1). Local montane ice emanating from 1981), we collaborated with the Alberta Archaeological Sur- the eastern outlets of the Rocky Mountains was captured by vey and inspected each sampled block closely to rule out the this ice-stream system and flowed along the right lateral mar- occurrence of artifacts or cultural modification. gin of the High Plains Ice Stream (Fig. 1). This configuration The samples were prepared as BeO targets at CRISDal Lab, of ice masses is well documented by the dispersal pattern of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.