Animating the Temporal Progression of Cordilleran Deglaciation and Vegetation Succession in the Pacific Northwest during the late Quaternary Period

• Main Author: Haro, Henry
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2017
• Subjects: Environmental Studies; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/scholwk/2017/Day_one/20; https://cedar.wwu.edu/context/scholwk/article/1260/viewcontent/guestaccess.aspx

The topography of the Pacific Northwest, its fjords, inland waterways and islands, are a result of an extended period of glaciation and glacial retreat. This retreat influenced the physical features and the resulting succession of vegetation that led to the landscape we see today. Despite this importance of the Cordilleran ice sheet and the large volume of research on the topic, there lacks a good detailed animation of the movement of the entire ice sheet from the last glacial maximum to the present day. In this study, I used spatial data of the glacial extent at different periods of time during the Quaternary period to model and animate the movement of the Cordilleran ice sheet as it retreated from 18,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE. I then used pollen data from lake sediment collection sites to model and animate the changing vegetation cover corresponding to the periods of glacial retreat. The visual result displays the temporal relationship between vegetation successions on a broad scale as a result of significant deglaciation. Fluctuations in the shape and size of the ice sheet are quantified and show how it lost and gained material over time. The visualization also revealed the sequential development of geologic events important to the region such as the opening of the Salish Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The resulting animation product can be used for educational and display purposes to illustrate the importance of the Cordilleran ice sheet on the development of the region’s physical identity.