Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:27:21.704Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Continuous Holocene Glacial Record Inferred from Proglacial Lake Sediments in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Eric M. Leonard  and
Mel A. Reasoner
Eric M. Leonard
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80903, E-mail: eleonard@coloradocollege.edu
Mel A. Reasoner
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G, 2E3, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sediment cores from three proglacial lakes in northern Banff National Park, Alberta, preserve a record of Holocene glacial activity upvalley which is more continuous and better dated than available surficial records. Dating of the cores is based on tephrochronology and 16 AMS14C ages of terrestrial macrofossils. All cores contain a threefold sequence of lacustrine sediments overlying a late Pleistocene diamicton. Basal lacustrine sediments >10,10014C yr old contain little organic matter. Sediment composition indicates a large glacigenic contribution. A sharp increase in organic content marks the beginning of the Altithermal interval at all three lakes. This transition occurred abruptly at about 10,10014C yr B.P. at Crowfoot Lake and possibly more gradually at the other lakes. Altithermal sediments contain relatively little glacigenic material, and during most of the Altithermal, glaciers may have been absent above Crowfoot and Bow Lakes. Glaciers draining into Hector Lake appear to have persisted through the Altithermal. A subsequent decrease in organic content in each lake, reflecting increased clastic sedimentation, marks the end of the Altithermal and the onset of Neoglacial ice advances. The transition took place between about 5800 and 400014C yr B.P. and may be time-transgressive, beginning earlier in Hector Lake than in Crowfoot Lake. Changing Neoglacial clastic sedimentation rates through the Neoglacial interval indicate two main periods of increased glacier extent, between ca. 3000 and 1800 varve yr ago (ca. 2900–190014C yr B.P.) and during the last several hundred years. During the intervening period glaciers were less extensive, but much more extensive than during the recessions of the Altithermal interval.

Keywords

glaciolacustrine sedimentationglacial historyCanadian Rocky MountainsHoloceneAltithermal
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 1999 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, L.E. (1965). Organic carbon. Methods of Soil Analysis American Association of Agronomy, Madison.p. 1367–1378Google Scholar
Andrews, J.T., and Miller, G.H. (1972). Quaternary history of northern Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, N. W. T., Canada. IV. Maps of present glaciation limits and lowest equilibrium line altitude for northern and southern Baffin Island. Arctic and Alpine Research 4, 45–59.Google Scholar
Bacon, C.R. (1983). Eruptive history of Mount Mazama and Crater Lake caldera, Cascade Range, USA. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 18, 57–115.Google Scholar
Beierle, B. (1997). Early Holocene Climate of Southwestern Alberta, Canada, Reconstructed from Lake Sediment Cores. University of Calgary, Google Scholar
Beierle, B., and Smith, D.G. (1998). Severe drought in the early Holocene (10,000–6800 BP) interpreted from lake sediment cores, southwestern Alberta, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 140, 75–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Church, M., and Ryder, J.M. (1972). Paraglacial sedimentation: A consideration of fluvial processes conditioned by glaciation. Geological Society of America Bulletin 83, 3059–3071.Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., Evans, S.G., Rampton, V.N., and Woodsworth, G.J. (1995). Improved age estimates for the White River and Bridge River tephras, western Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 32, 1172–1179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crandell, D. R., Mullineaux, D. R., Rubin, M., Spiker, E., and Kelley, M. L. (1981). Radiocarbon Dates from Volcanic Deposits at Mount St. Helens.Washington.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dirszowsky, R.W., and Desloges, J.R. (1997). Glaciolacustrine sediments and neoglacial history of the Chephren Lake basin, Banff National Park, Alberta. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire 51, 41–53.Google Scholar
Espitalié, J., Medec, M., Tissot, B., Menning, J.J., and Leplat, P. (1977). Source rock characterization method for petroleum exploration. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Offshore Technology Conferencep. 439–448Google Scholar
Gardner, J.S., and Jones, N.K. (1985). Evidence for a Neoglacial advance of the Boundary Glacier, Banff National Park, Alberta. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22, 1753–1755.Google Scholar
Hallett, D.J., Hills, L.V., and Clague, J.J. (1997). New accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages for the Mazama tephra layer from Kootenay National Park, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 34, 1202–1209.Google Scholar
Harbor, J., and Warburton, J. (1993). Relative rates of glacial and nonglacial erosion in alpine environments. Arctic and Alpine Research 25, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hicks, D.M., McSaveney, M.J., and Chinn, T.J.H. (1990). Sedimentation in proglacial Ivory Lake, Southern Alps, New Zealand. Arctic and Alpine Research 22, 26–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karlén, W. (1976). Lacustrine sediments and tree-limit variations as evidence of Holocene climatic fluctuations in Lappland, northern Sweden. Geografiska Annaler 58A, 1–34.Google Scholar
Kelts, K., and Hsü, K.J. (1978). Freshwater carbonate sedimentation.Lerman, A. Lakes—Chemistry, Geology, Physics Springer-Verlag, New York.295–323.Google Scholar
Leonard, E. M. (1981). Glaciolacustrine Sedimentation and Holocene Glacial History.Northern Banff National Park,Alberta, University of Colorado, Google Scholar
Leonard, E.M. (1985). Glaciological and climatic controls on lake sedimentation, Canadian Rocky Mountains. Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie 21, 35–42.Google Scholar
Leonard, E.M. (1986). Varve studies at Hector Lake, Alberta, Canada, and the relationship between glacial activity and sedimentation. Quaternary Research 25, 199–214.Google Scholar
Leonard, E.M. (1986). Use of lacustrine sedimentary sequences as indicators of Holocene glacial history, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Quaternary Research 26, 218–231.Google Scholar
Leonard, E.M. (1995). A varve-based calibration of the Bridge River tephra fall. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 32, 2098–2102.Google Scholar
Leonard, E.M. (1997). The relationship between glacial activity and sediment production: Evidence from a 4450-year varve record of neoglacial sedimentation in Hector Lake, Alberta, Canada. Journal of Paleolimnology 17, 319–330.Google Scholar
Livingstone, D.A. (1955). A light-weight piston sampler for lake deposits. Ecology 36, 243–248.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H. (1986). Reconstruction of Little Ice Age events in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Géographie Physique et Quaternaire 40, 17–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luckman, B.H. (1995). Calendar-dated, early Little Ice Age glacier advance at Robson Glacier, British Columbia, Canada. Holocene 5, 149–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luckman, B.H. (1996). Dendroglaciology at Peyto Glacier, Alberta.Dean, J.S., Meko, D.S., Swetnam, T.W. Tree-Rings, Environment, and Humanity Radiocarbon, Tucson.679–688.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H., Holdsworth, G., and Osborn, G.D. (1993). Neoglacial glacier fluctuations in the Canadian Rockies. Quaternary Research 39, 144–155.Google Scholar
Luckman, B.H., and Osborn, G.D. (1979). Holocene glacier fluctuations in the middle Canadian Rocky Mountains. Quaternary Research 11, 52–77.Google Scholar
Mullineaux, D.L. (1986). Summary of pre-1980 tephra-fall deposits erupted from Mount St. Helens, Washington State, USA. Bulletin Volcanologique 48, 17–26.Google Scholar
Nasmith, H., Mathews, W.H., and Rouse, G.E. (1967). Bridge River Ash and some other recent ash beds in British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 4, 163–170.Google Scholar
Osborn, G. (1996). Onset of the Little Ice Age at the Columbia Icefield, as reconstructed in lateral moraines of the Stutfield Glacier. American Quaternary Association Program and Abstractsp. 181Google Scholar
Osborn, G., and Gerloff, L. (1997). Latest Pleistocene and early Holocene fluctuations of glaciers in the Canadian and Northern American Rockies. Quaternary International 38/39, 7–19.Google Scholar
Osborn, G., and Luckman, B.H. (1988). Holocene glacier fluctuations in the Canadian Cordillera (Alberta and British Columbia). Quaternary Science Reviews 7, 115–128.Google Scholar
Porter, S.C. (1970). Quaternary glacial record in Swat Kohistan, West Pakistan. Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, 1421–1446.Google Scholar
Reasoner, M.A. (1993). Equipment and procedure improvements for a lightweight, inexpensive percussion core sampling system. Journal of Paleolimnology 8, 273–281.Google Scholar
Reasoner, M. A., Huber, U. M. Postglacial palaeoenvironments and climate history of the upper Bow River Valley.Banff National Park,Alberta, Quaternary Science Reviews, 17 Google Scholar
Reasoner, M.A., Osborn, G.D., and Rutter, N.W. (1994). Age of the Crowfoot advance in the Canadian Rocky Mountains: A glacial event coeval with the Younger Dryas oscillation. Geology 22, 439–442.Google Scholar
Reasoner, M.A., and Rutter, N.W. (1988). Late Quaternary history of the Lake O'Hara region, British Columbia—An evaluation of sedimentation rates and bulk amino acid ratios in lacustrine records. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 25, 1037–1048.Google Scholar
Smith, N.D. (1978). Sedimentary processes and patterns in a glacier-fed lake with low sediment input. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 15, 741–756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, N.D., Vendl, M.A., and Kennedy, S.K. (1982). Comparison of sedimentation regimes in four glacier-fed lakes of western Alberta.Davidson-Arnott, R., Nickling, W., Fehey, B.D. Research in Glacial, Glacio-fluvial, and Glacio-lacustrine Systems Geo Books, Norwich.203–238.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P.J. (1993). Extended14 14 . Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Tabatabai, M.A., and Bremner, J.M. (1970). Use of the LECO automatic 70-second carbon analyzer for total carbon analysis of soils. Soil Science Society of America Proceedings 34, 608–610.Google Scholar