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Late Pleistocene evolution of glacial Lake Purcell: a potential floodwater source to the Channeled Scabland

Resource type
Thesis type
(Thesis) M.Sc.
Date created
2012-09-18
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
The Quaternary history of the Channeled Scabland (CS) and its primary floodwater sources during marine isotope stage (MIS) 2 are well documented and understood. However, putative floodwaters from glacial lakes in British Columbia are poorly understood; these lakes may have supplied floodwaters to the CS in late MIS 2 during northward retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. This study combines geomorphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, aerial photograph interpretation, ground penetrating radar, and geographic information science to reconstruct the paleogeography and evolution of glacial Lake Purcell in the Purcell Trench. Glacial Lake Purcell was a proglacial, ice-contact lake that was ~90 km long, up to 12 km wide, and ~360 m deep against its dam (Purcell Lobe). It contained >70 km3 of water just prior to drainage. It likely drained catastrophically (~47 km3 of water) down the Kootenay River valley into the Columbia River, though geomorphic evidence is equivocal.
Document
Identifier
etd7469
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Copyright is held by the author.
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The author granted permission for the file to be printed and for the text to be copied and pasted.
Scholarly level
Supervisor or Senior Supervisor
Thesis advisor: Brennand, Tracy A.
Thesis advisor: Lian, Olav
Member of collection
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etd7469_JPeters.pdf 12.99 MB

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