Late Wisconsin ice extent on Baffin Island has important global implications for ice sheet reconstruction, sea level change, and climate modeling of the late Pleistocene. The purpose of this project is to test two hypotheses that ice either: 1) flowed down Pangnirtung Fjord from a grounded position on the floor of Cumberland Sound, or 2) flowed up the Pangnirtung Fjord from a grounded position on the floor of the Cumberland Sound. In both scenarios, ice extended far beyond previously mapped late Wisconsin margins. Field work will focus on detailed mapping and accurate surveying of glacial abrasion limits and depositional features. In particular, the Duval moraines will be mapped in detail to determine the direction and age of the last ice flow in the area. Analytical work will involve analysis of soils, including hornblende etching, to determine relative ages. Sediment cores from strategically located lakes will be retrieved to provide minimum-limiting radiocarbon ages for glacial erosional limits and depositional features. Pollen analysis of lacustrine sediments will be used to support the above dating techniques. Finally, ice profiles will be reconstructed in an attempt to evaluate ice volume and dynamics in the Pangnirtung area during the late Wisconsin.
