Shorelines beneath the sea: Geomorphology and characterization of the postglacial sea-level lowstand, Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, Nunavut

• Main Author: Cowan, Beth
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2015
• Subjects: Nunavut; Baffin Bay; Baffin Island; Cumberland Peninsula; Qikiqtarjuaq; Broughton Channel; Akpait Fiord; Baffin
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/11633/; https://research.library.mun.ca/11633/1/thesis.pdf

This thesis presents the discovery of eight submerged deltas (-19 to -45m), the first documented submerged boulder barricade, a submerged sill platform and spits off the coast of Cumberland Peninsula, eastern Baffin Island, NU. The geomorphic characteristics of these features in relation to contemporaneous sea-level are presented and compared with the modern shore-zone. The submerged boulder barricade at Qikiqtarjuaq in the west indicates a -16 m sea level that isolated Broughton Channel from Baffin Bay to the north, changing the coastal dynamics from those observed at present. A shoreline deeper than -50 m planed off the fiord-mouth sill in Akpait Fiord and formed spits at -50 m and -30 m present depth. These features define a submerged shoreline gradient of 0.35 m/km to the east across northeastern Cumberland Peninsula. The linear gradient sediment supply requirements for delta formation suggest a synchronous lowstand, bracketed by ice margins and sourced from glacial outwash between 11.8-8.5 ka. This confirms the submergence trend hypothesized for eastern Cumberland Peninsula (Dyke, 1979).