Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon.
Upland soils formed in three different parent materials in the Lewes Plateau of the Central Yukon were studied: till from the McConnell (MIS 2) and penultimate (MIS 4 or 6) glaciations, and weathered bedrock beyond the penultimate limit. Soils at penultimate and McConnell sites have solum thicknesse...
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University of Northern British Columbia
2010
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ftunbcolumbiadc:oai:unbc.arcabc.ca:unbc_16096 2024-05-19T07:41:53+00:00 Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. Dampier, Lesley (Author) Sanborn, Paul Clague, John University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution) 2010 electronic Number of pages in document: 244 https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc:16096/datastream/PDF/download https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A16096 https://doi.org/10.24124/2010/bpgub679 English eng University of Northern British Columbia Copyright retained by the author. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Soil formation -- Yukon Soil structure -- Yukon Glacial landforms -- Yukon S592.2 .D36 2010 Text thesis 2010 ftunbcolumbiadc https://doi.org/10.24124/2010/bpgub679 2024-04-19T00:30:46Z Upland soils formed in three different parent materials in the Lewes Plateau of the Central Yukon were studied: till from the McConnell (MIS 2) and penultimate (MIS 4 or 6) glaciations, and weathered bedrock beyond the penultimate limit. Soils at penultimate and McConnell sites have solum thicknesses of 50-75 cm and <50 cm respectively but other field and chemical observations did not identify differences in weathering patterns between age groups. The two groups have distinctive clay mineral assemblages, with smectite present in the youngest deposits. These results contrast with reconnaissance studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s on low-elevation soils in the Klondike Plateau. My study shows that field criteria are insufficient for differentiating between McConnell and penultimate deposits in upland landscape positions in the Lewes Plateau and that the presence of smectite clay may be attributable to different parent materials and source areas for ice and into solely changing paleoclimatic conditions. Soils formed on weathered bedrock have characteristics consistent with both limited and significant weathering. These pedons have solum thicknesses that exceed the depth of the excavated pits (85-110 cm) as well as distinctive clay mineralogy, but chemical data suggest that only limited weathering has occurred. Sola are strongly cryoturbated despite the restricted occurrence of permafrost in the contemporary environment. Two scenarios for the genesis of these soils are proposed which favour either preservation of relict soil features beneath cold-based ice, or prolonged interglacial soil formation following erosion of till deposited by warm-based ice. Alternatively, the area may have remained ice-free throughout the Quaternary so that soil evolution was shaped by multiple glacial-interglacial climatic cycles. --P.ii. Sample data collected for the thesis is available here: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/0PNPGC The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b1659516 Thesis Ice permafrost Yukon UNBC's Digital Institutional Repository (University of Northern British Columbia) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
UNBC's Digital Institutional Repository (University of Northern British Columbia) |
op_collection_id |
ftunbcolumbiadc |
language |
English |
topic |
Soil formation -- Yukon Soil structure -- Yukon Glacial landforms -- Yukon S592.2 .D36 2010 |
spellingShingle |
Soil formation -- Yukon Soil structure -- Yukon Glacial landforms -- Yukon S592.2 .D36 2010 Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. |
topic_facet |
Soil formation -- Yukon Soil structure -- Yukon Glacial landforms -- Yukon S592.2 .D36 2010 |
description |
Upland soils formed in three different parent materials in the Lewes Plateau of the Central Yukon were studied: till from the McConnell (MIS 2) and penultimate (MIS 4 or 6) glaciations, and weathered bedrock beyond the penultimate limit. Soils at penultimate and McConnell sites have solum thicknesses of 50-75 cm and <50 cm respectively but other field and chemical observations did not identify differences in weathering patterns between age groups. The two groups have distinctive clay mineral assemblages, with smectite present in the youngest deposits. These results contrast with reconnaissance studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s on low-elevation soils in the Klondike Plateau. My study shows that field criteria are insufficient for differentiating between McConnell and penultimate deposits in upland landscape positions in the Lewes Plateau and that the presence of smectite clay may be attributable to different parent materials and source areas for ice and into solely changing paleoclimatic conditions. Soils formed on weathered bedrock have characteristics consistent with both limited and significant weathering. These pedons have solum thicknesses that exceed the depth of the excavated pits (85-110 cm) as well as distinctive clay mineralogy, but chemical data suggest that only limited weathering has occurred. Sola are strongly cryoturbated despite the restricted occurrence of permafrost in the contemporary environment. Two scenarios for the genesis of these soils are proposed which favour either preservation of relict soil features beneath cold-based ice, or prolonged interglacial soil formation following erosion of till deposited by warm-based ice. Alternatively, the area may have remained ice-free throughout the Quaternary so that soil evolution was shaped by multiple glacial-interglacial climatic cycles. --P.ii. Sample data collected for the thesis is available here: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/0PNPGC The original print copy of this thesis may be available here: http://wizard.unbc.ca/record=b1659516 |
author2 |
Dampier, Lesley (Author) Sanborn, Paul Clague, John University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution) |
format |
Thesis |
title |
Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. |
title_short |
Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. |
title_full |
Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. |
title_fullStr |
Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Soil genesis in relation to glacial history, Central Yukon. |
title_sort |
soil genesis in relation to glacial history, central yukon. |
publisher |
University of Northern British Columbia |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc:16096/datastream/PDF/download https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A16096 https://doi.org/10.24124/2010/bpgub679 |
genre |
Ice permafrost Yukon |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost Yukon |
op_rights |
Copyright retained by the author. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.24124/2010/bpgub679 |
_version_ |
1799481501686956032 |