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Derek Turner - Glaciology & Tephrochronology, SW Yukon
Middle to Late Pleistocene Glacial Stratigraphy and Tephrochronology of Southwest Yukon
Derek Turner (MSc. candidate), Dr. Brent Ward (Simon Fraser University), Dr. Duane Froese (University of Alberta)
Jeffrey Bond (YGS)
Yukon has been repeatedly affected by the northern Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS), resulting in three mapped glacial limits and a large unglaciated area. Recent work using new dating techniques suggest the glacial limits and timings are far more complicated than previously thought. The purpose of this study is to address these knowledge gaps by examining the exceptional stratigraphic record and interbedded tephras (volcanic ash) of the White River and Silver Creek region in southwest Yukon to constrain the northern CIS during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. This multidisciplinary research will reconstruct the paleo-environment and timing of glacial and non-glacial intervals in southwest Yukon Territory during the past 200 000 years. The knowledge of past climatic cycles and environmental conditions gained through this project will assist our understanding of the evolution of pre-last glacial placer deposits in Yukon and Alaska and give us knowledge of future climate cycles. Understanding the glacial history of these locations is also useful for exploration companies working in the large unglaciated areas of western Yukon.