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Advance of the Late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet in Southern British Columbia Since 22,000 Yr B.P.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

J. J. Clague
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, 100 West Pender Street, Vancouver, V6B 1R8 Canada
J. E. Armstrong
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, 100 West Pender Street, Vancouver, V6B 1R8 Canada
W. H. Mathews
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1W5 Canada

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates from critical stratigraphic localities in southern British Columbia indicate that the growth history of the late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet was different from that of most of the Laurentide Ice Sheet to the east. Much of southern British Columbia remained free of ice until after about 19,000 to 20,000 yr ago; only adjacent to the Coast Mountains is there a record of lowland glacier tongues in the interval 22,000 to 20,000 yr B.P. A major advance to the climax of late Wisconsin Cordilleran glacier ice in the northern States was not begun until after about 18,000 yr B.P. in the southwest of British Columbia and after about 17,500 yr B.P. in the southeast. The rate of glacier growth must have been very rapid in the two to three millennia prior to the climax, which has been dated in western Washington at shortly after 15,000 yr B.P.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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