Magnetostratigraphy of Quaternary and late Tertiary sediments on Banks Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
R W Barendregt ◽  
J -S Vincent ◽  
E Irving ◽  
J Baker
Keyword(s):  
Climate Changes ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Pleistocene Climate ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Normal Polarity ◽  
Continental Glaciation ◽  
Geocentric Axial Dipole

Sediments approximately 50 m thick from Banks Island (Canadian Arctic Archipelago) contain one of the longest terrestrial records of Pleistocene climate changes in North America. Samples have been obtained from 126 horizons distributed among four localitites, of which 116 horizons yielded acceptable paleomagnetic data. In sediments of the Matuyama Reversed Zone, there are recorded at least two and possibly as many as five full continental glaciations, two interglacial intervals, and a nonglacial interval at the beginning which is considered preglacial. Subzones attributable to the Olduvai and Jaramillo are present within the Matuyama Reversed Zone. The Brunhes Normal Zone records three full continental glaciations and three interglaciations. The Brunhes-Matuyama boundary occurs within interglacial deposits. The preglacial Worth Point Formation records a climate milder than today, and cooler than that of the late Tertiary. Based on floral, faunal, stratigraphic, and paleomagnetic constraints, a normal polarity sequence in the Worth Point Formation is assigned to the Olduvai normal polarity subzone (1.95-1.77 Ma). The earliest direct evidence of glaciation on Banks Island occurs in sediments that postdate the Worth Point Formation ( <<1.77 Ma). Consequently, in the western Canadian Arctic, the first continental glaciation postdated the first glaciation in the Canadian Cordillera (2.6 Ma) by at least a million years. The overall mean direction of the Quaternary geomagnetic field in Banks Island does not differ significantly from the geocentric axial dipole field, and these sediments contain no inclination error.

Late Cenozoic paleomagnetic record of Duck Hawk Bluffs, Banks Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Barendregt ◽  
Jean-Serge Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Unconsolidated Sediments ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Precise Position ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Late Tertiary

Detailed paleomagnetic investigations have been completed on unconsolidated sediments from Duck Hawk Bluffs on Banks Island, in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, that record some of the oldest late Cenozoic glacial and nonglacial events in Canada. The preglacial Worth Point Formation, the overlying Duck Hawk Bluffs Formation, including marine and glacial deposits laid down during the Banks Glaciation, and the lower part of the interglacial Morgan Bluffs Formation have magnetically reversed directions and therefore are of Matuyama age (>790 ka). Upper Morgan Bluffs Formation organic beds and deposits of the younger Thomsen Glaciation, Cape Collinson Interglaciation, and Amundsen Glaciation are normally magnetized and therefore of Brunhes age (<790 ka). The Brunhes–Matuyama boundary is recorded in the upper portion of the Morgan Bluffs Formation. Its precise position within the interglacial sequence can be identified, since the sediments document the gradual change from reversely inclined directions to normally inclined ones. These results confirm that the preglacial Worth Point Formation is at least Early Pleistocene in age and that the Banks Glaciation (the oldest and strongest continental glaciation recorded in the western Arctic) and a good part of the Morgan Bluffs Formation are of Early Pleistocene age. The study also documents a rare site in Canada where terrestrial sediments record the Brunhes–Matuyama transition and in doing so permits a precise correlation of part of the Banks Island stratigraphy with other key late Tertiary and Early to Middle Pleistocene arctic terrestrial and marine sequences.

The late Tertiary – Quaternary stratigraphic record of the Duck Hawk Bluffs, Banks Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago

1983 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1694-1712 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-S. Vincent ◽  
S. Occhietti ◽  
N. Rutter ◽  
G. Lortie ◽  
J.-P. Guilbault ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
Amundsen Sea ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
Marine Deposits ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Composite Section ◽  
Glaciomarine Sediments

The Duck Hawk Bluffs, of southwestern Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, record a succession of late Tertiary – Quaternary events. Organic-bearing sediments of eolian, fluvial, and lacustrine origin that overlie the Late Cretaceous Kanguk Formation and the Miocene Beaufort Formation record preglacial events of Pliocene and (or) early Quaternary age and are assigned to the Worth Point Formation. These are covered by glacial sediments of the Duck Hawk Bluffs Formation associated with the Banks Glaciation, the oldest of the three recognized glaciations to reach the island. Associated with the glacial deposits are marine or glaciomarine sediments deposited in the glacio-isostatically depressed area as the ice both advanced and retreated. These sediments are in turn covered by interglacial sediments (Morgan Bluffs Formation), by marine deposits (Big Sea sediments associated with the Thomsen Glaciation), and by younger interglacial sediments (Cape Collinson Formation). Events associated with the early Wisconsinan M'Clure Stade of the last or Amundsen Glaciation are recorded in a coastal section east of the Duck Hawk Bluffs. There, marine deposits (pre-Amundsen Sea sediments) are covered by glacial deposits (Sachs Till) of the M'Clure Stade, D/L ratios of aspartic acid in fossil wood from the Morgan Bluffs and Cape Collinson interglacial sites, respectively, vary between 0.22 and 0.31 and 0.12 and 0.13, while Holocene wood is 0.08. A composite section is proposed for these bluffs that record some of the oldest events in the Canadian Quaternary and the various units are correlated with the previously published Quaternary framework for Banks Island.

Limnology of 46 lakes and ponds on Banks Island, N.W.T., Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Hydrobiologia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 545 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darlene S.S. Lim ◽  
Marianne S.V. Douglas ◽  
John P. Smol
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Banks Island

New evidence from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago for the resubmergence of Bering Strait

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. England ◽  
Mark F.A. Furze
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Laptev Sea ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Laptev Sea

AbstractWidespread molluscan samples were collected from raised marine sediments to date the last retreat of the NW Laurentide Ice Sheet from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago. At the head of Mercy Bay, northern Banks Island, deglacial mud at the modern coast contains Hiatella arctica and Portlandia arctica bivalves, as well as Cyrtodaria kurriana, previously unreported for this area. Multiple H. arctica and C. kurriana valves from this site yield a mean age of 11.5 14C ka BP (with 740 yr marine reservoir correction). The occurrence of C. kurriana, a low Arctic taxon, raises questions concerning its origin, because evidence is currently lacking for a molluscan refugium in the Arctic Ocean during the last glacial maximum. Elsewhere, the oldest late glacial age available on C. kurriana comes from the Laptev Sea where it is < 10.3 14C ka BP and attributed to a North Atlantic source. This is 2000 cal yr younger than the Mercy Bay samples reported here, making the Laptev Sea, ~ 3000 km to the west, an unlikely source. An alternate route from the North Atlantic into the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was precluded by coalescent Laurentide, Innuitian and Greenland ice east of Banks Island until ~ 10 14C ka BP. We conclude that the presence of C. kurriana on northern Banks Island records migration from the North Pacific. This requires the resubmergence of Bering Strait by 11.5 14C ka BP, extending previous age determinations on the reconnection of the Pacific and Arctic oceans by up to 1000 yr. This renewed ingress of Pacific water likely played an important role in re-establishing Arctic Ocean surface currents, including the evacuation of thick multi-year sea ice into the North Atlantic prior to the Younger Dryas geochron.

Vascular plants from some localities in the western and northern parts of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

1970 ◽  
Vol 48 (11) ◽  
pp. 1931-1938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Kuc
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Good Friday ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Axel Heiberg Island

The paper lists 123 species of vascular plants from several areas hitherto not investigated botanically: Masik River Valley, Banks Island; Eglinton Island; Fitzwilliam Owen Island; and Good Friday Bay, Axel Heiberg Island. Also, collections are listed from Meighen Island and from the vicinity of Eureka, Axel Heiberg Island, both areas where botanical work has been carried out earlier.

Coleoptera fossils: their potential value for dating and correlation of late Cenozoic sediments

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2339-2347 ◽  
Author(s):  
John V. Matthews Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Fossil Plants ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Extinct Species ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Climatic History ◽  
Cenozoic Sediments ◽  
Insect Fossils

Coleoptera (beetle) fossils play an important role in paleoecological research, but as yet have contributed little information bearing on dating and correlation. The reason for this is that most Quaternary fossils represent extant species, precluding the evolutionary approach to dating, while the rarity and poor preservation of Tertiary beetle fossils, many of which are from extinct species, seriously limit their application to stratigraphic studies.Tertiary beetle fossils recently discovered in Arctic Canada and Alaska are both well preserved and abundant. Most of them represent extinct species that are closely related to living forms, hence they have potential stratigraphic value. In one case treated herein comparison of fossils of an Alaskan Tertiary species with those of a related species from the Beaufort Formation on Meighen Island (Canadian Arctic Archipelago) implies that the latter sediments were deposited less than 5.7 Ma ago. However, this conclusion requires testing because it is at odds with the date on Meighen Island exposures reached by study of fossil plants. I submit that further study of the insect fossils from the Beaufort Formation and other late Tertiary sites will help resolve such problems of dating and correlation.Quaternary beetle fossils have stratigraphic value even though fragments of that age represent for the most part only existing species. For example, it has been shown that late Pleistocene fossils of stenothermal Coleoptera species can provide a sensitive record of climatic change, and thus such fossils may be used for site to site correlation in areas where climatic history is well documented. In exceptional cases beetle fossils appear to provide a more accurate basis for correlation than even fossil pollen.

Implications of Early Devonian poles from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago for the North American apparent polar wander path

1982 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 1802-1809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dankers
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Early Devonian ◽  
Polar Wander ◽  
The North ◽  
Apparent Polar Wander Path ◽  
Late Cambrian ◽  
Normal Polarity ◽  
North American Craton

Lower Devonian red beds from the upper member of the Peel Sound Formation at Prince of Wales Island (Canadian arctic) yield two different paleopoles at 25N 099E and at 01N 091E, the first one being older than the second one. The magnetic directions from which the poles are calculated are derived from vector analysis of thermal, chemical, and alternating magnetic field demagnetization results. Normal and reversed polarities are recorded for the northerly pole, whereas the pole at the equator reveals mainly a normal polarity. The position of the pole close to the equator has significant implications for the early Paleozoic apparent polar wander path of the North American craton. It appears that from the Late Cambrian to Early Devonian the craton moved continuously in a counter-clockwise direction that ended abruptly in the Early Devonian when the direction of the motion of the continent was reversed in a very similar manner to what occurred in Late Cambrian times.

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