Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T00:51:50.480Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New evidence from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago for the resubmergence of Bering Strait

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John H. England  and
Mark F.A. Furze
John H. England*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E3
Mark F.A. Furze
Affiliation:
Department of Arts and Sciences, Grant MacEwan College, P.O. Box 1796, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 2P2
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 780 492 2030. E-mail address:john.england@ualberta.ca (J.H. England).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Widespread molluscan samples were collected from raised marine sediments to date the last retreat of the NW Laurentide Ice Sheet from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago. At the head of Mercy Bay, northern Banks Island, deglacial mud at the modern coast contains Hiatella arctica and Portlandia arctica bivalves, as well as Cyrtodaria kurriana, previously unreported for this area. Multiple H. arctica and C. kurriana valves from this site yield a mean age of 11.5 14C ka BP (with 740 yr marine reservoir correction). The occurrence of C. kurriana, a low Arctic taxon, raises questions concerning its origin, because evidence is currently lacking for a molluscan refugium in the Arctic Ocean during the last glacial maximum. Elsewhere, the oldest late glacial age available on C. kurriana comes from the Laptev Sea where it is < 10.3 14C ka BP and attributed to a North Atlantic source. This is 2000 cal yr younger than the Mercy Bay samples reported here, making the Laptev Sea, ~ 3000 km to the west, an unlikely source. An alternate route from the North Atlantic into the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was precluded by coalescent Laurentide, Innuitian and Greenland ice east of Banks Island until ~ 10 14C ka BP. We conclude that the presence of C. kurriana on northern Banks Island records migration from the North Pacific. This requires the resubmergence of Bering Strait by 11.5 14C ka BP, extending previous age determinations on the reconnection of the Pacific and Arctic oceans by up to 1000 yr. This renewed ingress of Pacific water likely played an important role in re-establishing Arctic Ocean surface currents, including the evacuation of thick multi-year sea ice into the North Atlantic prior to the Younger Dryas geochron.

Keywords

ArcticCanadaBanks IslandBering StraitBeringiaCyrtodaria kurrianaSea levelMolluscsQuaternary
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 70 , Issue 1 , July 2008 , pp. 60 - 67
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

Alfimov, A.V., Berman, D.I., (2001). Beringian climate during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 127–134.Google Scholar
Bard, E., Hamelin, B., Arnold, M., Montaggioni, L., Cabioch, G., Faure, G., Rougerie, F., (1996). Deglacial sea-level record from Tahiti corals and the timing of global meltwater discharge.. Nature 382, 241–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bard, E., Arnold, M., Hamelin, B., Tisnerat-Laborde, N., Cabioch, G., (1998). Radiocarbon calibration by means of mass spectrometric 230Th/234U and 14C ages of corals: an updated database including samples from Barbados, Muroroa and Tahiti.. Radiocarbon 40, 1085–1092.Google Scholar
Bauch, H.A., Mueller-Lupp, T., Taldenkova, E., Spielhagen, R.F., Kassens, H., Grootes, P.M., Thiede, J., Heinemeier, J., Petryashov, V.V., (2001). Chronology of the Holocene transgression at the North Siberian margin.. Global and Planetary Change 31, 125–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennike, O., Böcher, J., (1990). Forest–Tundra neighbouring the North Pole: plant and insect remains from the Plio-Pleistocene Kap København Formation, North Greenland.. Arctic 43, 331–338.Google Scholar
Bernard, F.R., (1979). Bivalve mollusks of the western Beaufort Sea.. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Contributions in Science vol. 313, .Google Scholar
Bernard, F.R., (1983). Catalogue of the Living Bivalvia of the Eastern Pacific Ocean: Bering Strait to Cape Horn. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Science 61.. Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Blake, W. Jr. (1970). Arctic Studies of glacial history in Canada.. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 7, 634–664.Google Scholar
Bradley, R.S., England, J.H., (2008). The Younger Dryas and the Sea of Ancient Ice.. Quaternary Research 70, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, A.G., (1979). The distribution, abundance, diversity and productivity of the western Beaufort Sea benthos.. Oregon State University School of Oceanography, .Google Scholar
Cook, M.S., Keigwin, L.D., Sancetta, C.A., (2005). The deglacial history of surface and intermediate water of the Bering Sea.. Deep-Sea Research, Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 52, 2163–2173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darby, D.A., Bischof, J.F., Jones, G.A., (1997). Radiocarbon chronology of depositional regimes in the western Arctic Ocean.. Deep-Sea Research, Part II: 44, 1745–1757.Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Savelle, J.M., (2001). Holocene history of the Bering Sea bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) in its Beaufort Sea summer grounds off southwestern Victoria Island, western Canadian Arctic.. Quaternary Research 55, 371–379.Google Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Dale, J.E., McNeely, R.N., (1996). Marine molluscs as indicators of environmental change in glaciated North America and Greenland during the last 18 000 years.. Géographie physique et Quaternaire 50, 125–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyke, A.S., Andrews, J.T., Clark, P.U., England, J.H., Miller, G.H., Shaw, J., Veillette, J.J., (2002). The Laurentide and Innuitian ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum.. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 9–31.Google Scholar
Elias, S.A., (2001). Beringian paleoecology: results from the 1997 workshop.. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 7–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elias, S.A., Short, S.K., Phillips, R.L., (1992). Paleoecology of Late-Glacial Peats from the Bering Land Bridge, Chukchi Sea Shelf Region, Northwestern Alaska.. Quaternary Research 38, 371–378.Google Scholar
Elias, S.A., Short, S.K., Nelson, C.H., Birks, H.H., (1996). Life and times of the Bering land bridge.. Nature 382, 60–63.Google Scholar
Ellis, D.V., Wilce, R.T., (1961). Arctic and subarctic examples of intertidal zonation.. Arctic 14, 224–235.Google Scholar
England, J.H., Atkinson, N., Bednarski, J., Dyke, A.S., Hodgson, D.A., Ó Cofaigh, C., (2006). The Innuitian Ice Sheet: configuration, dynamics and chronology.. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, 689–703.Google Scholar
England, J.H., Furze, M.F.A., Doupé, J., submitted for publication. An extensive NW Laurentide Ice Sheet during the LGM: implications for paleoclimate, Arctic Ocean sedimentation and the NE extremity of Beringia.. Quaternary Science Review.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G., (1989). A 17,000 year glacio-eustatic sea level record: influence of glacial melting rates on the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation.. Nature 342, 367–642.Google Scholar
Feder, H.M., Foster, N.R., Jewett, S.C., Weingartner, T.J., Baxter, R., (1994). Distribution of mollusks in the northeastern Chukchi Sea.. Arctic 47, 145–163.Google Scholar
Feyling-Hanssen, R.W., (1990). Foraminiferal stratigraphy in the Plio-Pleistocene Kap København Formation, North Greenland: Meddelelser om Grønland.. Geoscience 24, 3–32.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., Weihe, R., Lubinski, D., Tarasov, G., Korsun, S., Matishov, G., (1997). Holocene relative sea level history of Franz Josef Land, Russia.. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109, 1116–1133.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, N.R., (1991). Intertidal Bivalves: a Guide to the Common Marine Bivalves of Alaska.. University of Alaska Press, .Google Scholar
Foster, N.R., Feder, H.M., Jewett, S.C., Weingartner, T.J., Baxter, R., (1993). Distribution of mollusks in the northeastern Chukchi Sea. Chapter 7.. Barber, W.A., Smith, R.L., Weingartner, T.J. Fisheries Oceanography of the Northeastern Chukchi Sea. Draft Final Report, Minerals Management Service Contract No. 14-35-001-30559 Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska, .Google Scholar
Funder, S., Hjort, C., Kelly, M., (1991). Isotope stage 5 (130–74 ka) in Greenland, a review.. Quaternary International 10–12, 107–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, C.R., (2005). The eastern limit of Beringia: mammoth remains from Banks and Melville Islands, Northwest Territories.. Arctic 58, 361–369.Google Scholar
Hill, J.C., Driscoll, N.W., Donnelly, J.P., (2005). Holocene Record of Deglaciation on the Chukchi Shelf, Offshore NW Alaska.. Eos vol. 86, fall meeting supplement, abs. OS51B-0567.Google Scholar
Hjort, C., (1981). A glacial chronology for northern East Greenland.. Boreas 10, 25–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, D.M., (1967). The Cenozoic history of Beringia — a synthesis.. Hopkins, D.M. The Bering Land Bridge. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.451–484.Google Scholar
Hopkins, D.M., Rowland, R.W., Patton, W.W. Jr. (1972). Middle Pleistocene molluscs from St. Lawrence Island and their significance for the paleo-oceanography of the Bering Sea.. Quaternary Research 2, 119–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, D.M., Matthews, J.V. Jr., Schweger, C.E., Young, S.B. (Eds.), (1982). Paleoecology of Beringia.. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Hughen, K.A., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Bertrand, C.J.H., Blackwell, P.G., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Cutler, K.B., Damon, P.E., Edwards, R.L., Fairbanks, R.G., Friedrich, M., Guilderson, T.P., Kromer, B., McCormac, G., Manning, S., Ramsey, C.B., Reimer, P.J., Reimer, R.W., Remmele, S., Southon, J.R., Stuiver, M., Talamo, S., Taylor, F.W., van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E., (2004). Marine04 marine radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP.. Radiocarbon 46, 1059–1086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulsemann, K., (1962). Marine Pelecypoda from the north Alaskan coast.. Veliger 5, 67–73.Google Scholar
Hultén, E., (1937). Outline of the History of Arctic and Boreal Biota during the Quaternary Period.. Akiebolaget Thule, Stockholm.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, I., James, T.S., Reimer, P.J., Bornhold, B.D., Clague, J.J., (2004). Marine and limnic radiocarbon reservoir corrections for studies of late- and postglacial environments in Georgia Basin and Puget Lowland, British Columbia, Canada and Washington, USA.. Quaternary Research 61, 193–203.Google Scholar
Jensen, A.S., (1917). Quaternary fossils collected by the Danmark Expedition.. Meddelelser om Grønland 43, 621–632.Google Scholar
Kafanov, A.I., Ogasawara, K., (2004). Neogene and Paleogene molluscan (Bivalvia) cenozones of the Russian Northeast.. Science Reports of the Institute of Geoscience, University of Tsukuba, Section B 25, 9–45.Google Scholar
Kaufman, D.S., Ager, T.A., Anderson, P.M., Andrews, J.T., Bartlein, P.J., Brubaker, L.B., Coats, L.B., Cwynar, L.C., Duvall, M.L., Dyke, A.S., Edwards, M.E., Eisner, W.R., Gajewski, K., Geirsdóttir, A., Hu, F.S., Jennings, A.E., Kaplan, M.R., Kerwin, M.W., Lozhkin, A.V., MacDonald, G.M., Miller, G.H., Mock, J.J., Oswald, W.W., Otto-Bleisner, B.L., Porinchu, D.F., Rühland, K., Smol, J.P., Steig, E.J., Wolfe, B.B., (2004). Holocene thermal maximum in the western Arctic (0–180°W).. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 529–560.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D., Donnelly, J.P., Cook, M.S., Driscoll, N.W., Brigham-Grette, J., (2006). Rapid sea-level rise and Holocene climate in the Chukchi Sea.. Geology 34, 861–864.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khlebovich, V.V., (1997). Selection and criteria for biological indicator species for Arctic monitoring.. Marine Pollution Bulletin 35, 381–383.Google Scholar
Kovanen, D.J., Easterbrook, D.J., (2002). Paleodeviations of radiocarbon marine reservoir values for the northeast Pacific.. Geology 30, 243–246.Google Scholar
Kuroda, T., Habe, T., (1952). Check List and Bibliography of the Recent Marine Mollusca of Japan.. Hosokawa Co., Tokyo.Google Scholar
Lubinski, D.J., Polyak, L., Forman, S.L., (2001). Freshwater and Atlantic water inflows to the deep northern Barents and Kara seas since ca. 13 14C ka: foraminifera and stable isotopes.. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 1851–1879.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lubinsky, I., (1980). Marine bivalve molluscs of the Canadian Central and Eastern Arctic: faunal composition and zoogeography.. Canadian Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 207, 111 p.Google Scholar
MacNeil, F.S., (1957). Cenozoic megafossils of northern Alaska.. United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 294, (C) 99–126.Google Scholar
Mangerud, J., Svendsen, J.I., (1990). Deglaciation chronology inferred from marine-sediments in a proglacial lake basin, western Spitsbergen, Svalbard.. Boreas 19, 249–272.Google Scholar
Mangerud, J., Bolstad, M., Elgersma, A., Helliksen, D., Landvik, J.Y., Lonne, I., Lycke, A.K., Salvigsen, O., Sandahl, T., Svendsen, J.I., (1992). The last glacial maximum on Spitsbergen, Svalbard.. Quaternary Research 38, 1–31.Google Scholar
McManus, D.A., Creager, J.S., (1984). Sea-level data for parts of the Bering–Chukchi shelves of Beringia from 19,000 to 10,000 14C yr B.P.. Quaternary Research 21, 317–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McManus, D.A., Creager, J.S., Echols, R.J., Holmes, M.L., (1983). The Holocene transgression on the Arctic flank of Beringia: Chukchi valley to Chukchi estuary to Chukchi Sea.. Masters, P.M., Flemming, N.C. Quaternary Coastlines and Marine Archaeology Pergamon, London.365–388.Google Scholar
Polyak, L., Curry, W.B., Darby, D.A., Bischof, J., Cronin, T.M., (2004). Contrasting glacial/interglacial regimes in the western Arctic Ocean as exemplified by a sedimentary record from the Mendeleev Ridge.. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 203, 73–93.Google Scholar
Polyak, L., Darby, D.A., Bischof, J.F., Jakobsson, M., (2007). Stratigraphic constraints on late Pleistocene glacial erosion and deglaciation of the Chukchi margin, Arctic Ocean.. Quaternary Research 67, 234–245.Google Scholar
Siegert, M.J., Dowdeswell, J.A., (2002). Late Weichselian iceberg, meltwater and sediment production from the Eurasian High Arctic ice sheet: results from numerical ice-sheet modelling.. Marine Geology 188, 109–127.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., (1993). Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program.. Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Cromer, B., McCormic, G., van der Plicht, J., Spurk, M., (1998). INTCAL 98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000–0 cal BP.. Radiocarbon 40, 1041–1083.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taldenkova, E., Bauch, H.A., Stepanova, A., Strezh, A., Dem'yankov, S., Ovsepyan. (in press) Postglacial to Holocene history of the Laptev Sea continental margin: palaeoenvironmental implications of benthic assemblages. Quaternary International.Google Scholar
Turgeon, D.D., Bogan, A.E., Coan, E.V., Emerson, W.K., Lyons, W.G., Pratt, W.L., Roper, C.F.E., Scheltema, A., Thompson, F.G., Williams, J.D., (1988). Common and scientific names of aquatic invertebrates from the United States and Canada: mollusks.. American Fisheries Society Special Publication vol. 16, viii.Google Scholar
Vilks, G., Wagner, F.J.E., Pelletier, B.R., (1979). The Holocene Marine Environment of the Beaufort Shelf. Geological Survey Bulletin 303.. Ottawa, Geological Survey of Canada.Google Scholar
Vincent, J.-S., (1982). The Quaternary history of Banks Island, Northwest Territories, Canada.. Géographie physique et Quaternaire 36, 209–232.Google Scholar
Vincent, J.-S., (1983). La géologie du Quaternaire et la géomorphologie de l'île Banks, Arctique canadien.. Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 405, .Google Scholar