Late Quaternary glacial and sea level history of the Bernier Bay area, Northwestern Baffin Island, N.W.T

Hooper, James Matthew (1990) Late Quaternary glacial and sea level history of the Bernier Bay area, Northwestern Baffin Island, N.W.T. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

During the 1988 field season data were gathered for an investigation of the glacial and sea level history of the Bemier Bay area, northwestern Baffin Island. Twenty-eight new radiocarbon dates were obtained on samples of marine shells and whalebone. The dates indicate that the area was deglaciated by about 8200 BP by ice receding toward the east. Marine limit in the field area is approximately 120 m asl and decreases in age towards the east. Dates on whalebone collected from raised beaches have been used to construct three emergence curves. The curves show an exponential decline in the rate of postglacial emergence from an eariy Holocene maximum. The radiocarbon dates and geomorphic evidence are consistent with the interpretation that the bay was occupied by a large ice stream which flowed westward from the Foxe Dome. Prior to the Cockbum Phase (8000- 9000 BP), the ice tongue uncoupled from the seabed to form an extensive ice shelf. Large lateral moraines along the north and south coasts of the bay, deposited during this interval, have a near horizontal profile indicating deposition by an ice shelf rather than grounded ice. An independent ice cap was also present on southern Brodeur Peninsula during this interval.

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