Alaska Highway Research Articles

LATE QUATERNARY GEOLOGY AND FROST PHENOMENA ALONG ALASKA HIGHWAY, NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND SOUTHEASTERN YUKON

Research Article| September 01, 1952 LATE QUATERNARY GEOLOGY AND FROST PHENOMENA ALONG ALASKA HIGHWAY, NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND SOUTHEASTERN YUKON CHARLES S DENNY CHARLES S DENNY U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, WASHINGTON, D. C. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar GSA Bulletin (1952) 63 (9): 883–922. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1952)63[883:LQGAFP]2.0.CO;2 Article history received: 02 Feb 1951 first online: 02 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation CHARLES S DENNY; LATE QUATERNARY GEOLOGY AND FROST PHENOMENA ALONG ALASKA HIGHWAY, NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA AND SOUTHEASTERN YUKON. GSA Bulletin 1952;; 63 (9): 883–922. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1952)63[883:LQGAFP]2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract Reconnaissance field work along the Alaska Highway in northern British Columbia and southeastern Yukon furnishes preliminary data on the later Quaternary history of the region, and on the processes and results of intensive frost action. Extensive erosion surfaces were developed prior to glaciation, such as the Alberta Plateau of northeastern British Columbia and the Yukon Plateau in southern Yukon.In the region from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson, British Columbia, the drift is dominantly a slightly weathered bouldery clay till of Wisconsin age, deposited by ice that came from the east. In the northern Rocky Mountains, the last eastward advance of the Wisconsin glaciers to the mountain front preceded the maximum westward advance of the ice sheets. In the foothills belt west of the Highway, the tills of these two advances are separated by lake deposits. Much of the drift is probably pre-Altamont in age and was subjected to vigorous frost action during the Altamont substage. The climate ameliorated perhaps with the advent of the post-glacial optimum and possibly coincident with the development of prairies. A recent change from prairie to forest perhaps indicates a slight cooling in recent time. In the northern Rocky Mountains, four substages of Wisconsin glaciation are recognized tentatively on the basis of morainal deposits and outwash terraces. The upper Liard basin is characterized by extensive pitted outwash plains, probably of late Wisconsin age. From Teslin Lake to Whitehorse, the Highway is bordered by extensive terraces of gravel and sand deposited in ice-marginal streams and lakes.Intensive frost action has modified pre-existing land forms and has produced a wide variety of features, such as talus, blockfields, stone rings, stone stripes, and terraces. Long smooth slopes, chiefly due to mass movements such as solifluction, are characteristic of the landscapes. These slopes and ancient soil structures extend down into forested areas and probably developed prior to the advent of forests, doubtless prior to the post-glacial optimum. Phenomena resulting from intensive frost action at the present time are restricted largely to areas above timber line. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Flowers of the St. Elias Region: Alaska Highway, Y.T. Mile 1156 to 1206

Flowers of the St. Elias Region: Alaska Highway, Y.T. Mile 1156 to 1206

Some Birds Found on the Northern Canadian Endo f the Alaska Highway

Some Birds Found on the Northern Canadian Endo f the Alaska Highway

Stratigraphic Reconnaissance Along Upper South Nahanni River, Northwest Territories, Canada

The South Nahanni River flows southeast out of the Mackenzie Mountains of Northwest Territories, Canada. A total of eight weeks were spent in the valley of the South Nahanni and reconnaissance geology was undertaken along approximately 150 miles of the river. Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian rocks were recognized in the area. The Cambrian consisted of approximately 2,160 feet of shales and sandstones and appears to be correlative with similar rocks in the Mackenzie Mountains at the north. The name Sunblood is proposed for 2,800 feet of Ordovician limestones of approximate Black River age exposed in the area. Silurian rocks, 740 feet thick, appear to be correlative with the Ronning of the Alaska Highway and the Mackenzie Mountains. Devonian rocks, approximately 4,320 feet thick, were observed but the upper contact was not seen. They appear to be correlative with the Ramparts formation of the Alaska Highway and the Mackenzie Mountains. A large granitic intrusion was observed on the upper South Nahanni River. This intrusion forms high mountains and is associated with low-grade metamorphic rocks. The age of this intrusion is post-Devonian, probably Jurassic.

Alaska and the Alaska Highway

Alaska and the Alaska Highway

Paleozoic Stratigraphy Along Alaska Highway in Northeastern British Columbia

Excellent exposures of Paleozoic rocks are present along the Alaska Highway between Summit Lake (mile 392) and the Liard River (mile 497) in British Columbia. Silurian, Devonian, and Mississippian beds have been studied in detail in this area. The names McConnell and Muncho are proposed for two unnamed Devonian formations in the area, and the name Kindle is introduced for all of the Mississippian rocks along this part of the highway. Marine limestones and black shales make up most of the Paleozoic section although local sandstones are developed. The geologic record indicates that at least several hundred irregular but clearly cyclic sedimentary alternations occurred here during the Paleozoic era. In addition, several groups of cycles give evidence of megacyclic sedimentation. The area is divided into three physiographic provinces: the Stone Range and the Sentinel Range, each of which is composed of tightly folded, overthrust, Paleozoic limestones, and the Racing River Valley, a relatively low gently folded zone of soft Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic rocks which separates the two ranges. The Stone Range, on the east side of the area, is characterized by a thinner, more sandy, more variable sequence of Paleozoic rocks than the Sentinel Range, which seems to indicate closer proximity to the eastern shore of the Cordilleran geosyncline.

Discussion of “Precise levelling on the Alaska Highway”

This article presents valuable data on the methods and work done. Of particular interest to the writer was the description of the various types of bench marks used, as well as the difficulties encountered with certain specific installations.In connection with studies of permanently frozen ground conducted by the Corps of Engineers in Alaska, a rather detailed investigation was made to obtain a simple type of bench mark stable enough to be used for a permanent marker. This is a difficult problem in an area subject to freezing and thawing cycles. The presence of a layer of permanently frozen ground at depths of two to ten ft from the ground surface introduces another factor into the general problem of obtaining a stable bench mark. In the study made by the Corps of Engineers, pipe bench marks were placed in the ground at depths varying from two to 40 ft. Elevations of the bench marks were referred to a bench mark established on a well casing 240 ft deep which extended through the active zone of from five to seven ft from the ground surface and subject to the freezing and thawing cycles, a permafrost zone of approximately 150 ft, and thence into unfrozen sand and gravel.

Precise levelling on the Alaska Highway

This paper presents the history of precise vertical control in Alaska and the Yukon; discusses particular problems encountered in bench‐mark construction and description when working in the northern latitudes; and comments on the evidence indicating regional Earth movement.

Hitch-Hiking the Alaska Highway

Hitch-Hiking the Alaska Highway

An Archaeological Survey along the Alaska Highway, 1944

This is a brief, preliminary account of some of the discoveries made during the summer of 1944 when the author, in collaboration with botanists and a geologist conducted an archaeological survey of the region traversed by the Alaska Highway. The investigations were carried on in but a small section of an area, many thousands of square miles in extent, about which practically nothing was known. A similar survey had been made, in 1942, by Froelich Rainey, but unfortunately this was unsuccessful. However his previous excavations in the Yukon and Tanana River valleys in Alaska did give some indication of what might be discovered. Oscar Lewis had had better luck for he had found a few very interesting artifacts at a site on the Highway near Trutch.

Arctic Survey

My research interest in the settlement of the new North-West dates back to the summer of 1929 when I was asked to make a preliminary study of the Peace River Country which was one of the “Frontiers of Settlement” studies published during the first half of the nineteen-thirties. During the following summer the field study was completed and the Settlement of the Peace River Country was published in 1934. This study made familiar to the author the Alberta and British Columbia divisions of the Peace River region from Notikewin, seventy-five miles north of Grimshaw through the settlements of the Peace as far west as Fort St. John. Among many communities studied in this survey were Notikewin on the north-east fringe of settlement and Dawson Creek which forms the southern anchor of the Alaska Highway. The opening of the Alaska Highway, built between 1942 and 1944, together with the oil developments along the MacKenzie River and the mineral production of the Precambrian area just east of it, focused attention on this new North-West. The possibilities of settlement in this far north-western territory have received wide publicity. Among others, I spent the summer of 1944 in this great stretch of territory, which lies north of the Peace River and extends from a line drawn from Waterways to Coronation Gulf on the east, (approximately the western boundary of the Precambrian Shield), to the Alaska Highway on the west. The northern boundary of the territory studied is the Arctic Ocean. My own part of this survey included also that part of Alaska served by the Alaska railroad and the highway network which lies between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Arctic Survey

The second part of my journey in north-west Canada began when I left Tuktuk on July 25 for Aklavik and Norman Wells. I had hoped to fly from Aklavik to Norman Wells, and so save a week's delay, but the planes are very irregular to the north of Norman Wells and it did not seem advisable to leave the Distributor until I was back in the regular “flying area.” We left the flying field at Norman Wells at 4 p.m. on August 1, and flew across the river to Canol. Here, after a short stop to pick up passengers, the plane proceeded south to Fort Simpson, which we reached in about two hours. We flew at a height of about 10,000 feet at about three miles a minute, so that it was impossible to make detailed notes. There was, of course, no settlement, and the only variations in scenery were in the character of the streams and sloughs. Occasionally outcrops of rock were visible, reminding one of whitish rounded scales in a green hide.We waited only twenty minutes at Fort Simpson Airport, which is some distance from the settlement, and then flew south-west over unoccupied country to Fort Nelson on the Alaska Highway. We could make out the “winter road,” at times crossing from lake to lake, with one group of huts near Petitot River about sixty miles from Nelson. We landed at the huge airport of Muskwa (Fort Nelson) about 8 p.m. I stayed a day at Fort Nelson, and made a survey of the old fur-trading settlement, but it will be more convenient to consider this district after the Yukon area has been described. The distance from Nelson to Whitehorse is about five hundred miles, and we flew this between 8.30 p.m. and midnight.

Forests and Gardens along the Alaska Highway

Forests and Gardens along the Alaska Highway

The Southern Half of the Alaska Highway and Its Mammals

The Southern Half of the Alaska Highway and Its Mammals

SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY: Glacial Geology along Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory1

SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY: Glacial Geology along Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory¹

The Exploration of Mountains near the Alaska Highway

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Organization of the Medical and Sanitary Program, Alaska Highway Project

Organization of the Medical and Sanitary Program, Alaska Highway Project

Birds of the Alaska Highway in British Columbia

Birds of the Alaska Highway in British Columbia

Construction of the Alaska Highway

Construction of the Alaska Highway

Epic of Alaska Highway

Epic of Alaska Highway