Glacial landforms on German Bank, Scotian Shelf: evidence for Late Wisconsinan ice-sheet dynamics and implications for the formation of De Geer moraines

Boreas
By: , and 

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Abstract

The extent and behaviour of the southeast margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in Atlantic Canada is of significance in the study of Late Wisconsinan ice sheet-ocean interactions. Multibeam sonar imagery of subglacial, ice-marginal and glaciomarine landforms on German Bank, Scotian Shelf, provides evidence of the pattern of glacial-dynamic events in the eastern Gulf of Maine. Northwest-southeast trending drumlins and megaflutes dominate northern German Bank. On southern German Bank, megaflutes of thin glacial deposits create a distinct northwest-southeast grain. Lobate regional moraines (>10km long) are concave to the northwest, up-ice direction and strike southwest-northeast, normal to the direction of ice flow. Ubiquitous, overlying De Geer moraines (<10 km long) also strike southwest-northeast. The mapped pattern of moraines implies that, shortly after the last maximum glaciation, the tidewater ice sheet began to retreat north from German Bank, forming De Geer moraines at the grounding line with at least one glacial re-advance during the general retreat. The results indicate that the Laurentide Ice Sheet extended onto the continental shelf.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Glacial landforms on German Bank, Scotian Shelf: evidence for Late Wisconsinan ice-sheet dynamics and implications for the formation of De Geer moraines
Series title Boreas
DOI 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2007.tb01189.x
Volume 36
Issue 2
Year Published 2007
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) Coastal and Marine Geology Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description 22 p.
First page 148
Last page 169
Country Canada
State Nova Scotia
Other Geospatial German Bank, Scotian Shelf
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