John J. Clague

Recent climatic change and catastrophic geomorphic processes in mountain environments

Climatic warming during the last 100-150 years has resulted in a significant glacier ice loss from mountainous areas of the world. Certain natural processes which pose hazards to people and development in these areas have accelerated as a result of this recent deglaciation. These include glacier avalanches, landslides and slope instability caused by glacier debuttressing, and outburst floods from moraine- and glacier-dammed lakes. In addition, changes in sediment and water supply induced by climatic warming and glacier retreat have altered channel and floodplain patterns of rivers draining high mountain ranges. The perturbation of natural processes operating in mountain environments, caused by recent climatic warming, ranges from tens of decades for moraine-dam failures to hundreds of years or more for landslides. The recognition that climatic change as modest as that of the last century can perturb natural alpine processes has important implications for hazard assessment and future development in mountains. Even so, these effects are probably at least an order of magnitude smaller than those associated with late Pleistocene deglaciation ca. 15,000 to 10,000 years ago.

A review of catastrophic drainage of moraine-dammed lakes in British Columbia

Abstract Moraine-dammed lakes are common in the high mountains of British Columbia. Most of these lakes formed when valley and cirque glaciers retreated from advanced positions achieved during the Little Ice Age. Many moraine dams in British Columbia are susceptible to failure because they are steep-sided, have relatively low width-to-height ratios, comprise loose, poorly sorted sediment, and may contain ice cores or interstitial ice. In addition, the lakes commonly are bordered by steep slopes that are prone to snow and ice avalanches and rockfalls. Moraine dams generally fail by overtopping and incision. The triggering event may be a heavy rainstorm, or an avalanche or rockfall that generates waves that overtop the dam. The dam can also be overtopped by an influx of water caused by sudden drainage of an upstream ice-dammed lake (jokulhlaup). Melting of moraine ice cores and piping are other possible failure mechanisms. Failures of moraine dams in British Columbia produce destructive floods orders of magnitude larger than normal streamflows. Most outburst floods are characterized by an exponential increase in discharge, followed by an abrupt drop to background levels when the water supply is exhausted. Peak discharges are controlled by dam characteristics, the volume of water in the reservoir, failure mechanisms, and downstream topography and sediment availability. For the same potential energy at the dam site, floods from moraine-dammed lakes have higher peak discharges than floods from glacier-dammed lakes. The floodwaters may mobilize large amounts of sediment as they travel down steep valleys, producing highly mobile debris flows. Such flows have larger discharges and greater destructive impact than the floods from which they form. Moraine dam failures in British Columbia and elsewhere are most frequent following extended periods of cool climate when large lateral and end moraines are built. A period of protracted warming is required to trap lakes behind moraines and create conditions that lead to dam failure. This sequence of events occurred only a few times during the Holocene Epoch, most notably during the last several centuries. Glaciers built large moraines during the Little Ice Age, mainly during the 1700s and 1800s, and lakes formed behind these moraines when climate warmed in the 1900s. Twentieth-century climate warming is also responsible for recent moraine dam failures in mountains throughout the world. Warming from the late 1800s until about 1940 and again from 1965 to today destabilized moraine dams with interstitial or core ice. The warming also forced glaciers to retreat, prompting ice avalanches, landslides, and jokulhlaups that have destroyed some moraine dams.

Summary of Coastal Geologic Evidence for Past Great Earthquakes at the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Earthquakes in the past few thousand years have left signs of land-level change, tsunamis, and shaking along the Pacific coast at the Cascadia subduction zone. Sudden lowering of land accounts for many of the buried marsh and forest soils at estuaries between southern British Columbia and northern California. Sand layers on some of these soils imply that tsunamis were triggered by some of the events that lowered the land. Liquefaction features show that inland shaking accompanied sudden coastal subsidence at the Washington-Oregon border about 300 years ago. The combined evidence for subsidence, tsunamis, and shaking shows that earthquakes of magnitude 8 or larger have occurred on the boundary between the overriding North America plate and the downgoing Juan de Fuca and Gorda plates. Intervals between the earthquakes are poorly known because of uncertainties about the number and ages of the earthquakes. Current estimates for individual intervals at specific coastal sites range from a few centuries to about one thousand years.

Evidence for large earthquakes at the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Large, historically unprecedented earthquakes at the Cascadia subduction zone in western North America have left signs of sudden land level change, tsunamis, and strong shaking in coastal sediments. The coastal geological evidence suggests that many of the earthquakes occurred at the boundary between the overriding North American plate and the subducting Juan de Fuca plate. This hypothesis is consistent with geodetic measurements and the results of geophysical modeling, which indicate that part of the plate boundary is locked and accumulating elastic strain that will be released during a future large earthquake. Arguments based on potential amounts of seismic slip and likely rupture areas suggest that most or all of the plate boundary earthquakes were magnitude 8 or larger events. The last earthquake or series of earthquakes, about 300 years ago, ruptured the entire 1000-km length of the subduction zone; if it was a single quake, it probably exceeded magnitude 9. Other earthquakes may have ruptured one or more segments of the subduction zone or may have occurred on faults in the North American plate. Recurrence intervals are uncertain because of difficulties in identifying and dating earthquakes. In southwestern Washington state, intervals for the seven most recent earthquakes average about 500 years but range from less than 200 years to 700–1300 years. Future research on Cascadian plate boundary earthquakes will probably focus on (1) the relation between plate boundary and crustal earthquakes, (2) earthquake magnitude, (3) the areal extent and severity of seismic ground motions, (4) ages and number of past plate boundary earthquakes, and (5) land level changes preceding earthquakes.

Foraminiferal evidence for the amount of coseismic subsidence during a late holocene earthquake on Vancouver Island, West Coast of Canada

Abstract Foraminiferal data from two sites, 6 km apart, on the shores of an inlet near Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, allow estimates to be made of the amount of coseismic subsidence during a large earthquake 100–400 years ago. The sampled sediment succession at the two sites is similar; peat representing a former marsh surface is abruptly overlain by intertidal mud grading upward into peat of the present marsh. At one of the sites, a layer of sand, interpreted to be a tsunami deposit, locally separates the buried peat from the overlying intertidal mud. The abrupt peat-mud contact records sudden crustal subsidence during the earthquake. The paleoelevation of each fossil sample was estimated by comparing its foraminiferal assemblage with modern assemblages of known elevation. The modern assemblages were obtained from surface samples collected along transects across the marsh near the fossil sample sites. Comparisons were made statistically using transfer functions. Estimates of coseismic subsidence, based on differences in paleoelevations just above and below the top of the buried peat, range from 20 cm to 1 m, with the most likely value in the 55–70 cm range. Post-seismic crustal rebound began soon after the earthquake and may have been largely complete a few decades later.

Initiation and development of the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets following the last interglaciation

Abstract Fossil records from sites overridden by or adjacent to the Laurentide Ice Sheet indicate that the climate of the last interglaciation (Oxygen-Isotope Substage 5e, ca. 130-116 ka) was warmer than today. Following the last interglaciation, the Laurentide Ice Sheet first developed during Stage 5 over Keewatin, Quebec and Baffin Island. Along its northern margin, the ice sheet reached its maximum extent of the last glaciation during Stage 5. The ice sheet advanced across Baffin Island onto the continental shelf early during Stage 5 (5d?), whereas the advance into the western Canadian Arctic occurred late during Stage 5 (5b?). The ice sheet also may have advanced into the St Lawrence Lowland during Substage 5b, although this event may be younger (Stage 4). The Hudson Bay lowland became ice-free during Substage 5a. Retreat of the ice sheet on Baffin Island occurred during late Stage 5, probably Substage 5a. The exact timing of retreat from the western Canadian Arctic is unknown, but it occurred before 48 ka. The southern sector, including the St Lawrence Lowland, was ice-free during late Stage 5. The Hudson Bay lowland may have remained ice free through Stage 4 and much of Stage 3. Because of conflicting chronologies, however, it is more likely that this area was glaciated throughout Stage 3 and perhaps Stage 4. Nevertheless, the data demonstrate that the lowland was ice-free during part of the last glaciation. An independent ice cap developed over the Appalachian Uplands and advanced across Nova Scotia during Stage 4, perhaps as far as the edge of the continental shelf. The ice cap remained active over Nova Scotia as a setellite to the Laurentide Ice Sheet throughout the remainder of the last glaciation. The ice sheet advanced into the St Lawrence Lowland during Stage 4 and subsequently overwhelmed the local ice cap in the Appalachian Uplands, advancing perhaps into northern New England, but not farther south. The Lowland remained covered by the ice sheet until late Stage 2. The ice sheet may also have advanced into the Lake Ontario basin during Stage 4. The position of the northern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during Stage 4 is not known, but it remained an unknown distance behind its maximum position reached during Stage 5. Cores from Baffin Bay indicate a substantial decrease in high-latitude glaciation during Stage 4. Following retreat, the Keewatin sector of the ice sheet may have remained over much of northwestern Canada as a quasi-stable ice mass until it readvanced during Stage 2. Similarly, the Baffin Island sector of the ice sheet may have remained largely intact. The southern margin of the ice sheet may have advanced into the Lake Ontario basin and upper Mississippi Valley during the middle of Stage 3 (ca. 50 ka), reaching its maximum extent of the last glaciation during Stage 2 (ca. 18–21 ka). Advance of the northern margin was younger (ca. 8–13 ka) than that of the southern margin; this advance was less extensive than the penultimate advance (Stage 5). Paleoenvironmental records indicate that the last interglaciation in areas covered by and near the Cordilleran Ice Sheet was as warm as, or warmer than, present. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet appears to have developed during Stage 5 or 4. At that time, it advanced over southern British Columbia and into the northern Puget Lowland. There is no record of this event in northern areas that were later covered by the ice sheet. The ice sheet disappeared before 59 ka, at the beginning of a lengthy nonglacial interval. Paleoenvironmental records indicate that climate was similar to the present during part of this interval. The ice sheet was absent, and glaciers probably were confined to mountain areas, throughout Stage 3. Climatic deterioration marking the end of this nonglacial interval may have begun as early as 29 ka. By 14–15 ka, the ice sheet had achieved its maximum extent of the last glaciation. Because there are few suitable dating methods capable of resolving events beyond the radiocarbon limit and because sites that preserve a record of events from the last glaciation are spatially restricted, we consider this synthesis as tentative and subject to significant revision as dating methods improve. Nevertheless, this perspective of the North American ice sheets through the last glaciation demonstrates their complex and dynamic behavior and attendant rapid fluctuations in ice volume.

Time of maximum Late Wisconsin glaciation, West Coast of Canada

New data from a deep-sea core in the eastern North Pacific Ocean indicate that the western margin of the Late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet began to retreat from its maximum position after 15,600 yr B.P. Ice-rafted detritus is present in the core below the 15,600 yr B.P. level and was deposited while lobes of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet advanced across the continental shelf in Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait, and Dixon Entrance. The core data are complemented by stratigraphic evidence and radiocarbon ages from Quaternary exposures bordering Hecate Strait and Dixon Entrance. These indicate that piedmont lobes reached the east and north shores of Graham Island (part of the Queen Charlotte Islands) between about 23,000 and 21,000 yr B.P. Sometime thereafter, but before 15,000–16,000 yr B.P., these glaciers achieved their greatest Late Wisconsin extent. Radiocarbon ages of late-glacial and postglacial sediments from Queen Charlotte Sound, Hecate Strait, and adjacent land areas show that deglaciation began in these areas before 15,000 yr B.P. and that the shelf was completely free of ice by 13,000 yr B.P.

The Cordilleran Ice Sheet

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the advances in both global and regional understanding of Quaternary history, deposits, and geomorphic processes that have brought new information and new techniques for characterizing the growth, decay, and products of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the Pleistocene. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet, the smaller of two great continental ice sheets that covered North America during Quaternary glacial periods, extends from the mountains of coastal south and southeast Alaska, along the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and into northern Washington and northwestern Montana. Ice has advanced south into western Washington at least six times, but the marine-isotope record suggests that these are but a fraction of the total that entered the region in the past 2.5 million years. Reconstruction of the Puget lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum requires basal sliding at the rates of several hundred meters per year, with pore-water pressures nearly that of the ice overburden. Landforms produced during glaciation include an extensive low-gradient outwash plain in front of the advancing ice sheet, a prominent system of subparallel troughs deeply incised into that plain and carved mainly by subglacial meltwater, and widespread streamlined landforms.

Tsunami deposits beneath tidal marshes on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Thin sheets of sand occur within Holocene mud and peat deposits beneath tidal marshes at Tofino, Ucluelet, and Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The sand sheets are extensive and have sharp upper and lower contacts. In most cases they consist of moderately sorted, massive sand and silty sand with abundant wood and other plant detritus. At Port Alberni, the thickest sheet has gravel and is graded. The upper two sand sheets in the Tofino-Ucluelet area, and possibly the third, are also present at Port Alberni. Eyewitness accounts and 137 Cs analysis suggest that the uppermost, thinnest sand was deposited by the tsunami triggered by the great Alaska earthquake in 1964. The next oldest sand sheet has been radiocarbon dated at Our data suggest that large tsunamis have struck the southern British Columbia coast several times during the late Holocene and that some were much larger than the 1964 tsunami, which caused about

Advance of the late Wisconsin Cordilleran Ice Sheet in southern British Columbia since 22,000 Yr B.P.

10 million damage (1964 Canadian dollars) to communities on Vancouver Island. Because such tsunamis can be expected in the future, they pose a hazard to people and property in some coastal areas.