Glacial style and ice limits, the Quaternary stratigraphic record, and changes of land and ocean level in the Atlantic Provinces, Canada

• Published in: Géographie physique et Quaternaire
• Main Author: Grant, D. R.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal 1977
• Subjects: Canada; glacier*; Ice Sheet; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1000276ar; https://doi.org/10.7202/1000276ar

Evidence from scattered stratigraphie sections, from the relationship of a sequence of ice flow indicators to a raised interglacial marine platform, together with the limits of freshly glaciated terrain against weathered bedrock areas, indicates that late Wisconsinan glaciers spread weakly toward, and in many areas not beyond, the present coast. These were fed by a complex of small ice caps located on broad lowlands and uplands. The limiting factor was the deep submarine channels that transect the region. Thus, Laurentide ice was limited to northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. With this pattern of centripetal flow toward the Gulf, large areas remained unglacierized. There is now better geological corroboration of Fer-nald's hypothesis of nunatak botanic réfugia, though there was, perhaps during early Wisconsinan time, grounded ice in the Gulf and an outlet glacier in Laurentian Channel. Raised postglacial shorelines fit the model, with a general tilt toward the main shield ice sheet, but with two broad domes reflecting the ice complexes over New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Older emerged and submerged shorelines beyond the glacial limit complicate the pattern. At present northern regions are still rebounding while a zone of subsidence is migrating inland from the continental margin. Un certain nombre de faits prouvent que les glaciers, à la fin du Wisconsinien, se sont écoulés vers les côtes actuelles, et dans plusieurs cas, ne sont pas allés au-delà : les coupes stratigraphiques, les liens entre une série d’indicateurs de l’écoulement glaciaire et la plateforme marine interglaciaire relevée, ainsi que les rapports entre les limites des dernières régions englacées et les régions dont la roche en place a été altérée. Ces glaciers étaient nourris par un ensemble de petites calottes localisées sur de vastes étendues. Toutefois, les profonds chenaux qui entaillent la région, en ont empêché l’extension. Le glacier laurentidien s’est donc confiné au nord du golfe du Saint-Laurent. Ce mouvement centripète vers le golfe a ...