Glaciated landscapes along Smith Sound, Ellesmere Island, Canada and Greenland

Abstract

AbstractBoth the Ellesmere Island and Greenland coasts of Smith Sound, at 78°20' N to 78°50' N, exhibit exceptionally well-sculptured and heavily striated Precambrian bedrock. The glacial features were created by the southward flow of the “Smith Sound Ice Stream”, which overrode Pim Island (550 m), where Smith Sound is > 500 m deep and 40 km wide. The Smith Sound Ice Stream was the drainageway to Baffin Bay for ice derived from the coalescence of the Innuitian and Greenland ice sheets over Kane Basin, the shallowest part (much of it <200m) of the Nares Strait system, in late-Wisconsinan (Weichselian) time. The north-south oriented glacial features along the outermost coasts of Smith Sound contrast markedly with the present-day eastward flow of outlet glaciers from the Prince of Wales Icefield (Ellesmere Island) and the westward flow of outlet glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet (Inglefield Land). The oldest14C ages on marine shells and lake sediments show that glacier ice had receded from the Ellesmere Island coast of Smith Sound by 900014C yr BP. The heads of the three longest fiords, 120-140 km to the west and northwest, did not become ice-free until 450014C yr BP.