Surficial geology of the Komie Creek map area and an investigation of an ice-contact glaciofluvial delta, northeast British Columbia (NTS 94P/05)

dc.contributor.authorDemchuk, Tania Ellen
dc.contributor.supervisorLevson, Victor M.
dc.contributor.supervisorVan der Flier-Keller, Eileen
dc.date.accessioned2011-06-02T15:36:53Z
dc.date.available2011-06-02T15:36:53Z
dc.date.copyright2010en_US
dc.date.issued2011-06-02
dc.degree.departmentSchool of Earth and Ocean Sciencesen_US
dc.degree.levelMaster of Science M.Sc.en_US
dc.description.abstractThe Komie Creek map area was fully glaciated by the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) during the Late Wisconsinan Fraser Glaciation. Ice flow during the glacial maximum was towards the southwest, as indicated by the orientation of streamlined landforms on the Etsho Plateau. At some time after the Fraser Glaciation maximum, the LIS divided into two lobes (upland and lowland). The subsequent landform assemblages, highlighted well in LiDAR imagery, provide evidence that the upland lobe retreated to the northeast and the lateral margin of the lowland lobe dropped to the southwest. Organic deposits are the dominant surficial material type in the Komie Creek map area. They have accumulated and been deposited on poorly drained clay and silt-rich morainal and glacio-lacustrine deposits. Morainal deposits are the next most common surficial material type in the area and dominate along the top of the Etsho Escarpment and in the northeast corner of the study area. Glaciofluvial deposits are rare. During ice retreat, an ice-marginal lake formed in the south-central part of the study area where the lowland lobe prevented drainage of meltwater out of the area. An aerially extensive landform, interpreted as an ice-contact glaciofluvial delta complex, was deposited into this dynamic glacial lake. The lake levels rose abruptly several times during delta deposition as a result of large west-flowing outburst floods in the Cabin Creek melt water channel, generated when a glacial lake breached its margins on or under the upland lobe. The delta is composed of several lobate landforms that sedimentologically are highly variable. This thesis presents a new, detailed 1:50,000-scale surficial geology map for the Komie Creek map area. This map was generated using aerial photographs, LiDAR DEMs, ground-based geophysics and field observations. This research also contributes to an increased understanding of the sedimentology and internal structure of ice-contact glaciofluvial deltas.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/3340
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights.tempAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectglacialen_US
dc.subjectKomie Creek (B.C.en_US
dc.subjectCabin Creek (B.C.)en_US
dc.subjectglaciofluvialen_US
dc.titleSurficial geology of the Komie Creek map area and an investigation of an ice-contact glaciofluvial delta, northeast British Columbia (NTS 94P/05)en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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