Glacial geomorphology of the east-central Canadian Arctic

Abstract

Please click here to download the map associated with this article. This article describes palaeoglaciological mapping of the portion of the Canadian Arctic formerly covered by the north-easternmost Laurentide Ice Sheet. The mapped area stretches between the meridians 106°W and 61°W, and the parallels 60°N and 75°N, embracing an area of 3.19 x 106 km2. The work was focused on determining the location of landforms that are required as input for a glaciological inversion model, i.e. glacial lineations, eskers, moraine ridges, ribbed moraine and De Geer moraines; and forms the basis of a reconstruction of the geometry and evolution of palaeo-ice streams in this portion of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Emerged areas were mapped through the geomorphological interpretation of Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite images. Information on striae and other minor indicators of glacial activity were extracted from maps and reports by the Geological Survey of Canada, published articles and, for a few locations, by the author's own observations. Information on landforms located on some submerged areas where extracted from publicly available sonar surveys. All data were digitally processed within a Geographical Information System and stored in a spatially enabled database. The results are presented as a printable map at 1:2,400,000 scale.