Late Tertiary and Early Pleistocene Deposits and History of Banks Island, Southwestern Canadian Arctic Archipelago

ARCTIC ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Serge Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
History Of

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.

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.

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.

Paleomagnetism of Quaternary and late Tertiary sediments on Mokowan Butte, southwestern Alberta

1991 ◽  
Vol 28 (12) ◽  
pp. 1956-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Barendregt ◽  
E. Irving ◽  
E. T. Karlstrom
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Geomagnetic Field ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Quaternary Sequences ◽  
Matuyama Chron ◽  
Late Tertiary ◽  
Unconsolidated Sediment ◽  
Accurate Record

Mokowan Butte in southwestern Alberta is capped by 32 m of unconsolidated sediment comprising five tills and their associated paleosols. Previous stratigraphic work has indicated that the older tills are probably Early Pleistocene to late Tertiary in age. Paleomagnetic studies, based on 125 samples, show that the uppermost till–paleosol unit and the modern subsoil are normally magnetized, whereas the till–paleosol units from the middle of the sequence have reversed magnetization. We argue that these belong to the Brunhes and Matuyama polarity zones, respectively. The lowest part of the sequence has not been studied in detail and is generally too coarse for paleomagnetic sampling, and samples that have been obtained contain no accurate record of the paleofield. These new data, together with those from Wellsch Valley in Saskatchewan, Banks Island in the Northwest Territories, Fort Selkirk in the Yukon, and Merritt in British Columbia, bring to five the number of early Quaternary sequences in Canada that have yielded a record of glacial sediments deposited during the Matuyama chron, and hence record glacial events prior to the last reversal of the geomagnetic field (720 ka).

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.

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