QUATERNARY GLACIAL GEOLOGY OF THE CANNING RIVER AREA, NORTHEASTERN BROOKS RANGE, ALASKA

Glacial mapping combined with measurements of moraine morphometry and soil formation form the basis for assessing the Quaternary glacial history in the Canning River, Kavik River, and Juniper Creek drainages in the northeastern Brooks Range, Alaska. Moraine slope angles, slope heights, crest widths, and depth of soil oxidation provided relative-weathering data for discerning between moraines of different ages. Glacial landforms and deposits in the area correlate to the Sagavanirktok (middle Pleistocene), Itkillik (early Wisconsin), and Echooka (late Wisconsin) glaciations as they have been identified in the central Brooks Range and to the east of the present study area. Sagavanirktok-age deposits are found in each of the valleys, although they extend more than 50 km north of the range front in the Canning River valley and only to within a few kilometers of the range front in the Kavik River and Juniper Creek valleys. The Sagavanirktok-age moraines have slope angles of less than 10°, slope heights of greater than 100 m, crest widths of greater than 100 m, and depth of oxidation of greater than 50 cm. Itkillik- and Echooka-age moraines only extend north of the range front in the Canning River valley, where they occur more than 40 km north of the range front. Itkillik-age moraines in the Canning River valley have slope angles of 16 ± 2°, slope heights of 12 ± 2 m, crest widths of 23 ± 7 m, and depth of oxidation of 31 ± 1 cm. Echooka-age moraines in the Canning River valley have slope angles of 21 ± 3°, slope heights of 17 ± 6 m, crest widths of 16 ± 3 m, and depth of oxidation of 25 ± 7 cm. The greater extent of glaciation in the Canning River valley—as well as the Echooka River and Ivishak River valleys farther to the west—compared to the Kavik River and Juniper Creek valleys likely reflects the significantly larger catchment areas of the Canning, Echooka, and Ivishak Rivers, which preferentially routed flow from the Pleistocene ice cap along those larger valleys.