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Late Glacial and Holocene Environmental Change Inferred from Sedimentary Archives of Kusawa Lake, Boundary Range Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada

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Late Glacial and Holocene Environmental Change Inferred from Sedimentary Archives of Kusawa Lake, Boundary Range Mountains, Yukon Territory, Canada LATE GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE INFERRED FROM SEDIMENTARY ARCHIVES OF KUSAWA LAKE, BOUNDARY RANGE MOUNTAINS, YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA by Nicole Angela Chow A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Graduate Department of Geography University of Toronto © Copyright by Nicole Angela Chow (2009) LATE GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE INFERRED FROM SEDIMENTARY ARCHIVES OF KUSAWA LAKE, BOUNDARY RANGE MOUNTAINS, YUKON TERRITORY, CANADA M.Sc., 2009 Nicole Angela Chow Deptartment of Geography, University of Toronto Abstract Modern Kusawa Lake (60° 19' 55” N, 136° 4' 48” W, 142 km 2) of southwestern Yukon Territory drains a 4290 km 2 catchment, 4.7 % of which is glacier covered. Sediment cores show variability both down-lake and within specific sub-basins of the lake. In Regions II -V of Kusawa Lake, sediments are mainly clastic with massive to weakly laminated silts and clays interrupted by fine sand units, which reflect distinct runoff events into Region IV from glacier sources. In Region I, massive silts, silt-clay couplets are interrupted by thick sand deposits derived from the Primrose River delta. Further up-lake, the sediment record is further interrupted by modern sediment delivery from the Kusawa Campground alluvial fan. The relatively small accumulation of lake glacial and Holocene sediment input in Kusawa Lake is similar to other large lakes of the Canadian Cordillera. These patterns reflect a particular style of deglaciation and Holocene sediment inputs. ii Frontispiece: Kusawa Lake, looking south from the outlet. July 2007 (Photograph taken by Joe Desloges) “Field work can be carried out in all weather conditions provided that you are dressed appropriately for it! ” – Dr. Joe Desloges. iii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank Dr. Joe Desloges. His passion, enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge for geomorphic studies have been inspiring. I would also like to thank Dr. Sarah Finkelstein for her encouragement and words of wisdom. Both Professors have been a huge support to my academic growth and especially the development of this project. A huge thank you to Mr. Mircea Pilaf, who over looked the splitting of cores, floods, shipments, ceiling collapses, and issues with the photocopier. Life in PGB would be a disaster without him. I would like to acknowledge the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada for their funding. In addition, to Dr. John Westgate and Dr. Mike Gorton in Geology, Sam Roshdi in Chemical Engineering and Dr. Rolf Beurkens in Physics for access to different laboratory analyses. To Dr. Sharon Cowling, Dr. Tony Davis and Susan Calanza whom have generously provided guidance throughout my time here at U of T. Muddy times spent in the field with Dr. Bob Gilbert, and Tim Phillpot were certainly fun and memorable. Thank you, Monique Stewart and Dr. Gilbert for the acquisition of the cores and to Krish Chakraborty for the analysis of diatoms. Fellow graduate PGBers also provided a source of diversion: Carlos Avendaño, Cameron Balfour, Feng Deng and Lisa Zhang who made lunch hours a multi-cultural (tri-lingual) experience. For times of laughter and advice during those mind-boggling times: Jen Adams, Nyssa Clubine Jane Devlin, Anastasia Gousseva, J-P Iamonaco, Vito Lam, Kathy Miller, Young- Lan Shin, Rebecca Snell, Roger Philips, and Jenn Weaver. Many written pages, figures and tables of thanks to David Pabke who provided a solution to laptop woes six days before this thesis was due. iv Finally, my parents Joyce Yeo and Chow Lok Leung have loved and supported me unconditionally. Armed with a B.Ed, and a Dip-Ing in Civil Engineering respectively, they listened to me patiently natter on about the significance of mud and flipped the phone bill regardless. Thank you! v Table of Contents Abstract ii Frontispiece iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Figures ix List of Tables xiii Chapter 1 – Introduction 1 1 Introduction 1 1.2 Research objective 4 Chapter 2 – Literature review 5 2 Introduction 5 2.1 Glaciations 6 2.1.1 Late Pleistocene 7 2.1.2 Late Wisconsin glaciation of northwestern Canada 8 2.1.3 Early Holocene sedimentary environment of the upper Takhini River drainage basin 11 2.2 The Holocene climate record of northwestern Canada 15 2.3 Pro-glacial fluvial hydrology and sediment transport 18 2.4 Lacustrine processes 19 2.4.1 Thermal stratification 20 2.4.2 Inflow behaviour 21 2.4.3 Turbidity current dynamics 22 2.4.4 The effect of turbidity currents upon lake bottoms 25 2.5 Varves 27 2.5.1 Varve formation 27 2.5.2 Varves as inferences of past climates 28 Chapter 3 – Study Area 30 3.1 Physiography of the Yukon Territory 30 3.2 Upper Takhini River drainage basin morphology 34 3.2.1 Primrose River sub-basin 34 3.2.2 Upper-most Takhini River sub-basin 35 vi 3.2.3 Kusawa River sub-basin 35 3.2.4 Jo-Jo Creek sub-basin 35 3.2.5 Devilhole Creek sub-basin 36 3.2.6 Kusawa Campground alluvial fan-delta complex 36 3.3 Bedrock and surficial geology 37 3.4 Glacial cover 38 3.5 Hydrology 39 3.6 Climate 42 3.7 Vegetation 45 Chapter 4 – Methods 46 4.1 Field Methods 46 4.1.1 Acoustic Profiling 46 4.1.2 Sediment cores 46 4.1.3 CTD’s 46 4.1.4 Geographic Information Systems 47 4.2 Laboratory methods 49 4.2.1 Sediment core properties 49 4.2.2 Loss on Ignition 50 4.2.3 Laser particle analysis 52 4.2.4 Geology – X-ray fluorescence 53 4.2.5 Microprobe tephra glass analysis 54 4.2.6 Radiocarbon-14 Analysis 54 4.3 Secondary data 55 4.3.1 Pb 210 and Cs 137 55 Chapter 5 – Results 56 5 Introduction 56 5.1 CTD’s 56 5.1.1 Temperature 56 5.1.2 Turbidity 58 5.1.3 Conductivity 60 5.2 Aerial imagery 63 5.3 Acoustic records and lake bathymetry 68 5.4 The sedimentology of Kusawa Lake 74 5.4.1 Sediment structure and grain size 74 5.4.2 Stratigraphy and grain size trends 87 5.4.3 Loss on Ignition 93 5.4.4 X-ray fluorescence 98 5.5 Chronology 99 5.5.1 Lead 210 and Caesium 137 99 vii 5.5.2 Radiocarbon-14 100 5.5.3 White River Ash 101 5.5.4 Rate of sediment deposition 103 Chapter 6 – Discussion 105 6.1 The Kusawa lacustrine system 105 6.2 Post-glacial sedimentary environment of Kusawa Lake 106 6.3 Sediment as a proxy for Holocene environmental change in Kusawa Lake 109 6.3.1 Late-glacial, early Holocene (10.5 – 7.0 ka cal. BP) 110 6.3.1.1 Sedimentary environment 110 6.3.1.2 Kusawa Lake diatoms 112 6.3.1.3 Climate 113 6.3.2 The Neo-glacial (7.0 – 2.0 ka cal. BP) 114 6.3.2.1 Sedimentary environment 114 6.3.2.2 Climate 115 6.3.3 Little Ice Age (1200 – 1900 AD) 117 6.3.3.1 Sedimentary environment 117 6.3.3.2 Climate 118 6.3.4 Post-LIA to present (1900 – present) 120 6.4.1 Specific Sediment Yield of Kusawa Lake 121 6.4.2 Sediment trapping 124 Chapter 7 – Conclusion 127 7.1 Spatial conclusions 127 7.2 Temporal conclusions 128 7.3 Future directions 130 List of Citations 131 Appendix A – Mean annual discharge of the lower Takhini River 141 Appendix B – CTD profiles 142 Appendix C – Laser particle size results 144 Appendix D – Loss on Ignition results 187 Appendix E – X-ray Fluorescence results 191 Appendix F – Chronology: Pb 210 and Cs 137 results, Microprobe tephra glass results 192 viii List of Figures: Frontispiece Kusawa Lake, July 2007 ii Figure 2.1 Conceptual model of the pro-glacial system generating lacustrine sediment 5 Figure 2.2 Glacial ice limits and ice flow directions of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet of southern Yukon Terriotry 10 Figure 2.3 Southewestern Yukon showing names referred to in the text 14 Figure 2.4 Schematic subdivision of a turbidity current 24 Figure 3.1 Southwestern Yukon showing names referred to in the text 32 Figure 3.2 The upper Takhini River drainage basin of Kusawa Lake and sub-basins 33 Figure 3.3 Mean annual discharge of the lower Takhini River 1950 – 2007 40 Figure 3.4 Annual hydrograph for the lower Takhini River at the outlet of Kusawa Lake 1986 41 Figure 3.5 Annual hydrograph for the lower Takhini River at Highway Bridge 1986 42 Figure 3.6 Temperature precipitation graph of Whitehorse based on 1971 – 2000 averages 44 Figure 3.7 Monthly rainfall normals for the Takhini River Branch based on 1971 – 2000 averages 44 Figure 3.8 Monthly snowfall normals for the Takhini River Ranch based on 1971 – 2000 averages 45 Figure 4.1 Kusawa Lake vibra core sample locations 48 Figure 5.1a Temperature profiles of Kusawa Lake taken on July 19 th , 20 th and 21 st , 2004 (southern region) 58 Figure 5.1b Temperature profiles of Kusawa Lake taken on July 19 th , 20 th and 21 st , 2004 (northern region) 58 Figure 5.2a Turbidity profiles of Kusawa Lake taken on July 19 th , 20 th and 21 st , 2004 (southern region) 60 Figure 5.2b Turbidity profiles of Kusawa Lake taken on July 19 th , 20 th and 21 st , 2004 (northern region) 60 ix Figure 5.3 Conductivity profiles of Kusawa Lake taken on July 19 th , 20 th and 21 st , 2004 62 Figure 5.4 Aerial photo A27149-12 of Hendon River and surrounding glacial features 64 Figure 5.5a Aerial photo of A27149-100 Upper most Takhini River sub-basin mouth 65 Figure 5.5b Aerial photo A27149-63 Takhini Lake 65 Figure 5.6 Aerial photos A27217-136 and A27217-134 Primrose River sub-basin delta 66 Figure 5.7 Aerial photo A27327-52 Campground Alluvial fan 67 Figure 5.8 Locations of Regions, Lake bathymetry and CHIRP Acoustic transects 69 Figure 5.9 Acoustic section from southern Kusawa Lake near the upper-most Takhini River mouth 70 Figure 5.10 Acoustic section from Region II, south of Primrose River delta 72 Figure 5.11 Acoustic section from Region I, proximal to the Primrose River delta 73 Figure 5.12 Acoustic
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