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Late Stage 5 Glacio-isostatic Sea in the St. Lawrence Valley, Canada and United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Serge Occhietti ,
Sanda Balescu ,
Michel Lamothe ,
Martine Clet ,
Thomas Cronin ,
Pierre Ferland  and
Pierre Pichet
Serge Occhietti
Affiliation:
GEOTOP, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888 Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8
Sanda Balescu
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de luminescence LUX, GEOTERAP, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888 Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8
Michel Lamothe
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de luminescence LUX, GEOTERAP, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888 Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8
Martine Clet
Affiliation:
Centre CNRS de géomorphologie, rue des Tilleuls, 14 000, Caen, France
Thomas Cronin
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 970 National Center, Reston, Virginia, 22092
Pierre Ferland
Affiliation:
GEOTOP, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888 Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8
Pierre Pichet
Affiliation:
GEOTOP, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888 Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada, H3C 3P8
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Abstract

Although post-glacial marine sediments of late Wisconsinan and early Holocene age are common in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, remnants of older Pleistocene marine sediments are scarce. A fossiliferous marine clay that predates the classical Wisconsinan was recently discovered in the St. Lawrence Valley. A dominantly estuarine environment is inferred from the geochemistry of the shells (δ18O = −7.1) and from benthic foraminifer and ostracode assemblages. The clay indicates a marine invasion (Cartier Sea) shallower and probably shorter than that during the upper late Wisconsinan Champlain Sea episode (12,000–9,500 yr B.P.). The pollen content shows that regional vegetation during the marine episode began as open tundra, then became a Betula and Alnus crispa forest, reached a climatic optimum with Quercus, Corylus, and Abies, and concluded as a Pinus/Picea boreal forest. A corrected infrared stimulated luminescence age of 98,000 ± 9000 yr is compatible with the epimerization ratio of shells. The Cartier Sea resulted from a post-glacial glacio-isostatic marine invasion in the St. Lawrence lowlands. It probably occurred during late stage 5 and is tentatively assigned to the transition of oxygen isotope substages 5b/5a. This marine episode dates to stage 5 of the preceding continental glacier which extended to middle latitudes in NE America.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , March 1996 , pp. 128 - 137
Copyright
University of Washington

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