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Glaciated landscapes along Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2017

Weston Blake Jr*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8, Canada
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Abstract

Both the Ellesmere Island and Greenland coasts of Smith Sound, at 78°20' N to 78°50' N, exhibit exceptionally well-sculptured and heavily striated Precambrian bedrock. The glacial features were created by the southward flow of the “Smith Sound Ice Stream”, which overrode Pim Island (550 m), where Smith Sound is > 500 m deep and 40 km wide. The Smith Sound Ice Stream was the drainageway to Baffin Bay for ice derived from the coalescence of the Innuitian and Greenland ice sheets over Kane Basin, the shallowest part (much of it <200m) of the Nares Strait system, in late-Wisconsinan (Weichselian) time. The north-south oriented glacial features along the outermost coasts of Smith Sound contrast markedly with the present-day eastward flow of outlet glaciers from the Prince of Wales Icefield (Ellesmere Island) and the westward flow of outlet glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet (Inglefield Land). The oldest 14C ages on marine shells and lake sediments show that glacier ice had receded from the Ellesmere Island coast of Smith Sound by 9000 14C yr BP. The heads of the three longest fiords, 120-140 km to the west and northwest, did not become ice-free until 450014C yr BP.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1999
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Queen Elizabeth Islands and northwestern Greenland, showing localities mentioned.

Figure 1

Fig. 2. Landsat image of Smith Sound and southern Kane Basin. Arrows indicate flow direction of Smith Sound Ice Stream, as well as former directions of ice flow in bays and fiords tributary to Kane Basin. Note development of the North Water polynya on 4 April 1973 (image E-10255-18054, spectral band 7).

Figure 2

Fig. 3. View eastward across glacially sculptured bedrock on summit plateau of Pim Island, from highest point at 550 m a.s.l. Scale of3+m high rock boss in foreground is given by man below the plucked lee side (22 July 1977, GSC-203242).

Figure 3

Fig. 4. Detail of striated and polished granite surface near highest point of Pim Island (550 m a.s.l.). Direction of ice flow is away from observer (toward the south). Note absence of differential weathering at contacts with the aplite dyke (22 July 1977, GSC-203243).

Figure 4

Fig. 5. View south-eastward of glacially sculptured bedrock at ~160 m a.s.l. on peninsula leading to Cache Point, Inglefield Land (cf. Fig 2). The former direction of ice flow was NNE to SSW, roughly parallel with the coast of Smith Sound (11 June 1984, GSC-205033).

Figure 5

Fig. 6. Sculptured red granite boss on Cape Herschel plateau at ~ 26.5m a.s.l. View southward, in direction of former ice flow, with Cape Isabella in the distance (22 July 1981, GSC-1998-035B).