Abstract
Many Arctic beaches are characterised by low energy wave conditions and a falling sea level. Raised coastal features in west Baffin Island include beach ridges of fairly well-rounded stones compared with the stones of the modern beach. Foley Island, off west Baffin Island in Foxe Basin, has two main series of beach ridges, covering height ranges from 93 m to 68 m and 65 m to 40 m, and time periods of 6,800 to 5,600 B.P. and 5,500 to 4,800 B.P. respectively. A hiatus between the two series, when sea level stood between 65 and 70 m, allowed a complex fan pattern of ridges to form. The modern sand beach was surveyed before and after the ice break-up to illustrate its character and the effect of weak wave action in modifying the influence of shore ice. Chevron beach ridges are discussed, mainly from the evidence of air photographs. Finally some of the beach features and sediment characteristics of the east coast of Baffin Island are compared with those of the west coast. The more vigorous wave environment on the east allows greater wave effectiveness in rounding and sorting beach material.
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