Glacial Geomorphology of the Canadian Interior Plains: Implications for Soft-Bedded Glaciated Terrains
The soft bedrock of the Canadian Interior Plains has been influential in the dynamics of the former Laurentide Ice Sheet, creating the conditions suitable for fast glacier flow (ice streaming) and regional surging in particular. This has resulted in the production of a wide range of glacial landforms of significant size and extent and which have figured as textbook examples since the early 20th century. Regional patterns of various landform assemblages have been employed in palaeoglaciological reconstructions of the western sector of the last Laurentide Ice Sheet, leading to the recognition of complex, cross-cutting ice stream footprints, shifting proglacial lake extents and spillway incisions, inset sequences of genetically variable moraine belts, and spatio-temporal changes in ice dynamics and thermal regimes. This special session will showcase the range of recent research related to these various aspects of ice sheet interactions with soft bedrock terrain, from southern Alberta to Banks Island. The implications of this research for applied geology will also be discussed. The following sub-themes are envisaged:
· Ice sheet subglacial bedform genesis and palaeo-ice stream reconstructions
· Moraine belt genesis and implications for spatio-temporal thermal regime changes
· Landforms of proglacial lakes
· Regional till stratigraphies and architecture
· Glacitectonic features and their palaeoglaciological and applied geology implications
