Quaternary history in the Iskut region, British Columbia

The geomorphology of British Columbia has been strongly affected by the Quaternary history of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. This project uses a high resolution lidar dataset combined with field observations to inform on the multiple glaciations of the area south of Iskut, in northwestern British Columbia. A surficial geology map at 1:50,000 scale was produced. Observations of surficial materials, glacial landforms, stratigraphy and radiocarbon ages were combined to interpret the recent glacial history. At least two glacial cycles are present in the valley stratigraphy. During the last glaciation, MIS 2, the ice divide migrated from the Coast Mountains to central British Columbia. During deglaciation, high elevation areas were deglaciated first and a large ice dammed proglacial lake formed in the Kinaskan Lake Valley with at least four distinct lowering levels. Deglaciation occurred through a combination of active retreat and ice stagnation, generally following Fulton's model of deglaciation for the Cordilleran Ice Sheet.