Luminescence Chronology for the Formation of Glacial Lake Calgary, Southern Alberta, Canada: Age Constraints for the Initiation of the Late Pleistocene Retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet from its Western Margin

Abstract:

Glacial Lake Calgary in southern Alberta, Canada, was a Late Pleistocene proglacial lake that formed along the southwest margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), dammed by the retreating ice sheet margin. Attempts to constrain the age of the lake using radiocarbon methods have been hampered by the lack of datable organic material. In an effort to apply an alternative chronometer, this study uses two optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating approaches to date fine grained sand and silt that were deposited in the lake during its existence. OSL dating determines the depositional ages of sediments by measuring the energy from ionizing radiation that is stored in mineral grains such as quartz and feldspar. Dividing the stored energy, also referred to as the paleodose, by the rate at which the dose accumulated, allows an age to be ascertained. In one method applied in this study, the paleodose stored in the feldspar component of the sediment is determined using normalized infrared stimulated luminescence signals acquired using a portable OSL reader. In the second method, blue optically stimulated luminescence signals obtained from quartz separates from the sediment by employing a regular OSL reader and standard protocols are used to determine the paleodose. After correcting the feldspar data for anomalous fading, the age results from the two dating approaches are compared. The ages signify a time period by which the LIS had retreated from the study area and, hence, serve as constraints for the initiation of the retreat of the ice sheet from its western limit. Advantages and limitations of the dating methods are briefly discussed.

Constraining the chronology of the retreat of the LIS from western Canada allows for a better understanding of the driving forces behind ice sheet retreat. Secondly, assigning a temporal scale to the postglacial evolution of the environment of the region permits a better insight into the dynamics of the physical and biological environments of the time. Thirdly, the region is at the heart of the ice-free corridor that was ostensibly used by early humans to migrate southwards to populate the Americas ca. 16 ka ago. Hence, an improved deglaciation chronology would allow a more comprehensive evaluation of this concept.