The Steensby Inlet Ice Stream in the context of the deglaciation of Northern Baffin Island, Eastern Arctic Canada

• Published in: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
• Main Author: Dyke, Arthur S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2008
• Subjects: Baffin Island; Baffin; Foxe Basin; Steensby Inlet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/esp.1664; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fesp.1664; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/esp.1664

Abstract Deglaciation of northern Baffin Island involved several large ice streams with contrasting histories. Three north‐flowing, marine‐based ice streams were in place during the Last Glacial Maximum, but they retreated at widely varying rates during the early and middle Holocene. The Steensby Inlet Ice Stream formed in response to over‐steepening of the ice front during deglaciation of Foxe Basin. It caused an abrupt change, in places a general reversal, of flow about 6 ka BP and operated across its full width for only about 500 years. Nevertheless, it left a distinct subglacial footprint, including an hourglass shaped bedform set. A dense network of till samples from the region of the ice stream reveals a sharp‐sided, pluglike dispersal of carbonate debris that was sustained by erosion in the source area of about 5 mm a −1 . The ice stream devolved into valley‐controlled ice streams separated by cold‐based ice over interfluves. The former evacuated debris along valleys and left erosional till scarps along the sides of sliding ice. Post‐ice‐stream end moraines, including the large Gifford Moraine, require later cold‐based flow across the drumlins formed by the ice stream. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.