Summary of Quaternary Stratigraphy and history, Eastern Canada

Abstract

Deposits of three Wisconsinan substages, Sangamonian Stage, and older Quaternary stratigraphic units are recognized in Eastern Canada. The age assignment of these units is based on radiocarbon dating and correlation of events. Quaternary deposits older than Sangamonian are recognized locally in Eastern Canada. In southern Ontario glacial deposits directly underlie Sangamonian sediments and are referred to as Illinoian in age. In other areas the ages of older sediments are largely unknown. Offshore core stratigraphy suggests that a major glaciation took place about 436 ka and that the Illinoian (oxygen isotope stage 6) was also a time of extensive glaciation. In this report Sangamonian is used as the name for the chronostratigraphic stage that includes all of deep-sea oxygen isotope stage 5 and consequently, on a regional basis, it includes warm interglacial deposits, glacial deposits and cool interglacial deposits. In southern Ontario the warm interglacial deposits are represented by the Don Formation, the stadial deposits by the Scarborough Formation and the cool interglacial deposits by the Pottery Road Formation. Warm interglacial deposits have not been recognized in Quebec (unless they are part of the pre-Johnville Sediments); the Becancour Till is included as glacial Sangamonian sediments, and the St. Pierre Sediments are recognized as cool interglacial sediments. The Early Wisconsinan appears to have been the time of maximum Wisconsinan glaciation in Eastern Canada with ice moving south of the International Boundary and well out onto the continental shelf. The Middle Wisconsinan was primarily a nonglacial period in southern Ontario and a glacial stade elsewhere in Eastern Canada. In southern Ontario the Middle Wisconsinan record has been subdivided into two interstades (Port Talbot and Plum Point), separated by a stade (Cherrytree). The Port Talbot Interstade began before the limit of radiocarbon dating (before 48 ka) and ended about 40 ka; glacial or near glacial conditions of the Cherrytree Stage lasted from about 40 to 35 ka ago, and the Plum Point Interstade was from about 35 to 23 ka ago. Central St. Lawrence Lowland was occupied by ice throughout the Middle Wisconsinan, but southeastern Quebec and the Montreal area were briefly deglaciated. Scattered evidence in Atlantic Canada suggests local deglaciation of coastal areas during Middle Wisconsinan but extensive ice remained on the continental shelf and ice from centres located on the shelf flowed onto land in at least two areas. Glacial conditions predominated throughout Eastern Canada during the Late Wisconsinan. At the Late Wisconsinan maximum, through-moving ice deposited the Catfish Creek Drift in southern Ontario but ice lobes, which developed in the basins of the Great Lakes after 15.5 ka, controlled ice flow during a period of ice margin oscillation and retreat. A calving bay developed in lower St. Lawrence valley, after the Late Wisconsinan maximum, causing a reversal of flow on the south shore of the St. Lawrence and replacing ice in the valley with the Champlain Sea about 12 ka. Late Wisconsinan glaciers were largely limited to land areas in Atlantic Canada. Local ice caps dominated with complicated patterns of flow and retreat developing as centres of accumulation shifted and competing ice centres achieved dominance. The period of Late Wisconsinan retreat in Atlantic Canada appears to have lasted from about 14 to 10 ka.