Cordilleran Section - 103rd Annual Meeting (4–6 May 2007)

Paper No. 4
Presentation Time: 2:35 PM

LATE-HOLOCENE GLACIAL ACTIVITY IN UPPER LILLOOET PROVINCIAL PARK, SOUTHERN COAST MOUNTAINS, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA


KOEHLER, Lindsey1, SMITH, Dan J.1, PENROSE, Kelly2 and MAIN, Michi1, (1)University of Victoria Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3P5, Canada, (2)University of Victoria Tree-Ring Laboratory, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 3P5, lynn.koehler@gmail.com

A multiproxy approach was used to detail the late-Holocene history of glaciers located within the Manatee Group in the Pacific Range of the southern British Columbia Coast Mountains. Field work in July of 2006 yielded glacier events ages inferred from lichenometric, dendrogeomorphologic, and dendroglaciologic investigations. Further support for our interpretations was provided by radiocarbon analysis of recenty exposed glacially-sheared stumps and boles. The data gathered to data supports the interpretation of multiple advances during the late-Holocene, however reconstruction of the earliest episodes of late Holocene glacier activity was difficult due to the destruction of evidence by during the succeeding Little Ice Age glacier advances. Previous events have been recognized within the forefield based on the recovery and dating of buried, subfossilized logs. Our reconstruction broadly correlates with the findings of researchers working at nearby Bridge and Lilloet glaciers, and at glaciers located within the Mt. Waddington area in the southern BC Coast Mountains.