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Basal gravel and sand mantling the bedrock floors of buried valleys throughout the Canadian Interior Plains, and conformably overlying proglacial lacustrine sediment, comprise the Empress Group. While previously conceptualized as stratigraphically equivalent deposits of preglacial rivers prior to the first and most extensive continental and montane glaciations, subsequent stratigraphic studies indicated that buried valley basal gravel must have been deposited between, or during, progressively more extensive continental glaciations and could not be stratigraphically equivalent throughout the buried valley network. However, in the general absence of formation-rank stratigraphic description of basal gravel units that might better inform the geologic history of the deposits, most workers simply consider Empress Group sediments time-transgressive. In this paper, we examine basal gravel at provincial and regional scales to understand its genesis and geologic history. At the provincial scale, we map basal gravel in three dimensions using a novel machine learning approach. At the regional scale, we formally define basal gravel formations at either end of the largest buried valley system in Alberta, which informs its glacial history and physiographic development and shows the importance of formation-rank stratigraphic description. Our results indicate that the buried valley network across Alberta is palimpsest in genesis and basal gravel units within it are chronostratigraphically intercalated between tills. We advocate that the Empress Group definition be extended across Alberta with modifications to improve its clarity and utility, and formally define the Old Fort, Unchaga, Ipiatik, and Winefred formations as part of the Empress Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Texas Creek rock avalanche is a prehistoric deposit in the Fraser River Canyon, 17 km south of Lillooet, southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Original mapping suggested that the debris consisted of two landslides: a 45 Mm3 event deposited after the Mazama tephra but before about 2 ka ago, and a 7.2 Mm3 event about 1.1 ka ago. The proposed timing of the younger landslide was correlated with a decline in the First Nations population and was proposed as an agent of cultural collapse driven by its impact on salmon returns vital to the population's sustenance. We provide six surface exposure ages using 10Be from boulder tops, with three samples from each surface that were originally posited to be older and younger debris. The six samples yielded similar ages suggesting the landslide deposit represents a single event with an average age of 2.28 ± 0.19 (2σ external error) ka before 1950 AD. Evidently, the landslide played no role in the cultural collapse. Fraser River Holocene incision rates, estimated pre- and post-landslide are between 13 and 24 mm/yr, consistent with previous estimates for the mid-Fraser River region. Landslide timing is coincident with the explosive eruption of Mount Meager, 120 km to the northwest, and with a possible landslide at Mystery Creek 85 km to the west and 65 km south of Mount Meager. The landslide may have been seismically triggered, but attribution is speculative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sandy Lake basin in northwestern Ontario is a potentially important area for insights into the late history of glacial Lake Agassiz because of its extensive glaciolacustrine deposits and well-preserved shoreline features of this geological episode. However, little information is available on its deglaciation history. Recent mapping shows the withdrawal of the ice from the basin center and subsequent deposition of extensive varved clay in the lake with an optically stimulated luminescence-dated maximum age at 11.4 ± 0.9 ka. With its further recession, the ice constructed the Opasquia moraine on the northern rim of the basin sometime before the development on the moraine of the first major shoreline of the lake (the The Pas, inferred at 10.1 ka). Lowering of the lake level formed many strandlines on the moraine and elsewhere in the basin, which can be correlated with those in the main Agassiz basin based on projected water planes (the The Pas to Ponton). Radiocarbon dating on basal wood remains of surface peat in a former strait defined by the Ponton shoreline and a nearby site on the former lake floor indicates the abandonment of this shoreline and hence the withdrawal of Lake Agassiz from the Sandy Lake basin by 8.3 ± 0.1 cal ka (UOC-7883). The date, although a minimum-limiting age, provides the hitherto best possible age constraint for the Ponton–Kinojévis shorelines, which many hypothesize represent one of the major lake levels during the final drainage of Lake Agassiz into Hudson Bay but have never been adequately dated before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on responding to Hadlari's interpretation of the Fire Bay area in northern Ellesmere Island, Canada, which differs from Koch et al.'s conclusions. Topics include the rationale for changing the stratigraphic nomenclature, the significance of the Fire Bay fault, and a clarification of U–Pb zircon data, challenging Hadlari's assumptions and supporting Koch et al.'s proposed revisions to the geological framework.

Lying at the large-scale tectonic boundary between the Yukon Tanana and northern extremity of the Stikinia and Quesnellia terranes, mafic eruptions have occurred over the past 4 million years in the Fort Selkirk area. Eruptions have included effusive (lava), explosive activity, and subglacial and subaqueous eruptions that produced hyaloclastite complexes. Eruptions have dammed or disrupted Yukon River at least five times. These volcanic rocks and interstratified sediments are collectively referred to as the Fort Selkirk Volcanic Group. Eruptions occurred from seven centers with activity progressively moving north. An explanation for the northern migration of volcanism is elusive at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the importance of unburnt patches (refugia) within the wildfire of Alberta for survival of organisms. Topics discussed include that the forests throughout Alberta experience wildfire as a naturally occurring disturbance that has dominated and molded the landscape, it defines the term refugia and its role in preserving the forest and the animal habitat of the forest; and presents an image showing examples of organisms using different refugia types and scales.

The article discusses the effect of climate change on vegetation in Yukon, Canada and on subarctic ecosystems. Topics discussed include that Yukon has a wide variety of vegetation communities, and paleoecological evidence indicates that vegetation changes have occurred throughout the territory; discussed adverse effect of the changes in climate in the Arctic and boreal regions and presents a table on Yukon's bioclimate zones and historical and natural changes in dominant vegetation communities.