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Single-grain OSL dating of glaciofluvial quartz constrains Reid glaciation in NW Canada to MIS 6

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Martina Demuro ,
Duane G. Froese ,
Lee J. Arnold  and
Richard G. Roberts
Martina Demuro*
Affiliation:
Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, CENIEH, Paseo de Atapuerca s/n, 09002 Burgos, Spain Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Duane G. Froese
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E3
Lee J. Arnold
Affiliation:
Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, CENIEH, Paseo de Atapuerca s/n, 09002 Burgos, Spain Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Richard G. Roberts
Affiliation:
Centre for Archaeological Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
*
*Corresponding author at: Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, CENIEH, Paseo de Atapuerca s/n, 09002 Burgos, Spain. Fax: + 34 947 04 50 66. E-mail address:martina.demuro@gmail.com (M. Demuro).
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Abstract

Improved chronological control on the penultimate advance of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in northwest Canada (the Reid glaciation) is required for a better understanding of late Quaternary palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental change in eastern Beringia. However, reliable dating of glaciation events beyond the last glacial maximum is commonly hindered by a lack of directly dateable material. In this study we (i) provide the first combined minimum and maximum age constraint on the Reid glaciation at Ash Bend, its reference locale in the Stewart River valley, northwestern Canadian Cordillera, using single-grain optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz; and (ii) compare the timing of the Reid glaciation with other penultimate ice sheet advances in the region with the aim of establishing improved glacial reconstructions in eastern Beringia. We obtain ages of 158±18 ka and 132±18 ka for glaciofluvial sands overlying and underlying the Reid till, respectively. These ages indicate that the Reid advance, at its reference locale, occurred during MIS 6. This precludes an earlier MIS 8 age, and suggests that the Reid advance may have been synchronous with the Delta glaciation of central Alaska, and is likely correlative with the Mirror Creek glaciation in southern Yukon.

Keywords

Reid glaciationOSL datingSingle-grainGlacial depositsCordilleran Ice SheetBeringiaAsh Bend
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 305 - 316
Copyright
University of Washington

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