Post‐glacial loess deposition in a montane environment: South Thompson River valley, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

AbstractIn the late Wisconsinan, the South Thompson River valley, British Columbia, was occupied by an ice‐dammed lake. After the lake drained, the exposed lacustrine silt became the source material for a Holocene loess. The purpose of this paper is to establish the stratigraphic, depositional and geomorphic framework of loess occurring along the South Thompson River valley immediately east of Kamloops, British Columbia. This montane environment of loess deposition was characterised by active slope and fluvial processes depositing sediments contemporaneously with the accumulation of loess.The loess reaches an average of 4 m in thickness in the central part of the valley and thins towards the valley sides. Two tephras—Mount St Helens Y (3.4 ka) and Mount Mazama (6.8 ka)— occur in the loess and are invaluable stratigraphic markers. Most of the loess was probably deposited between 8.2 ka and 3.4 ka, a period coinciding with mid‐Holocene increased summer temperatures and decreased precipitation in south‐central British Columbia. Debris flows and small streams, originating on the valley sides, flowed out on to the loess depositing sand and gravel beds. These deposits form a definite proximal—distal relation across valley with the slope‐derived sediments decreasing and the loess increasing in thickness towards the centre of the valley.The lactustrine silt particles were mobilised by diurnal mountain and valley, gravity, and canalised winds flowing within the South Thompson valley. An analysis of contemporary wind‐flow data was undertaken to provide a possible analogue for valley wind flows in the mid‐Holocene.