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Evidence for Wisconsinan Glaciations in the Verrill Canyon Area, Scotian Slope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David C. Mosher ,
David J. W. Piper ,
Gustavs V. Vilks ,
A. E. Aksu  and
Gordon B. Fader
David C. Mosher
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1B 3X5 Canada
David J. W. Piper
Affiliation:
Atlantic Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada B2Y 4A2
Gustavs V. Vilks
Affiliation:
Atlantic Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada B2Y 4A2
A. E. Aksu
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland A1B 3X5 Canada
Gordon B. Fader
Affiliation:
Atlantic Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, P.O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada B2Y 4A2
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Abstract

A composite thickness of about 25 m of sediment has been cored from the Verrill Canyon on the Scotian Slope. It is interpreted that the majority of this sequence was deposited in a glaciomarine environment during oxygen isotopic stage 2 and the top of stage 3. These sediments, as seen in high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, are well stratified, become thicker upslope, are laterally variable in thickness, and pass upslope into possible outer shelf tills. Three wedge-shaped units of incoherent reflections interfinger with the parallel reflections and terminate in water depths greater than 700 m. These wedge-shaped units are interpreted as slumped diamict and outwash deposits. The age of the uppermost wedge-shaped unit is 26,000–21,000 yr based on extrapolation of radiocarbon dates. This unit documents a late Wisconsinan glacier readvance on the outer Scotian Shelf. The underlying wedge-shaped unit, estimated to be 70,000 yrs old, extends further west along the continental slope, and may represent a more extensive early Wisconsinan ice advance. A third wedge-shaped unit, inferred to have formed during isotopic stage 6, is possibly a remnant of the first glaciation in the study area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 1989 , pp. 27 - 40
Copyright
University of Washington

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