Hudson Strait Quaternary sediments and late glacial and deglaciation history: a discussion and summary

Abstract

Thick, multisequence deposits of ice-contact sediments in the deep floors of Eastern and Western basins and on the seaward side of the sill at the entrance to Hudson Strait attest to the magnitude of glacial ice streams in Hudson Strait. Some of these are thought to have extended to the shelf edge and to be a source of Heinrich events in the Labrador Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. Later south-to-north ice advances across Eastern basin onto southeastern Baffin Island were less far-reaching seaward. The sediment record in the floor of Eastern basin and on its northern and northwestern flanks show that the basin was occupied by a grounded and progressively thinning ice sheet during the time of the Noble Inlet advance recognized on southeastern Baffin Island. Chronological data and similarities in the marine-terrestrial ice-sheet behaviour patterns suggest that this was one and the same ice sheet. Three potential sources for this advance are examined: Baffin Island, a Hudson Strait ice stream, and Quebec