| Title | Coastal products of marine transgression in cold-temperate and high-latitude coastal-plain settings: Gulf of St. Lawrence and Beaufort Sea |
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| Author | Forbes, D L ;
Manson, G K; Whalen, D J R; Couture, N J; Hill, P R |
| Source | Sedimentary coastal zones from high to low latitudes: similarities and differences; by Martini, I P (ed.); Wanless, H R (ed.); Geological Society, Special Publication issue 388, 2014, 34 pages, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP388.18 |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2014 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20130213 |
| Publisher | Geological Society of London |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Eastern offshore region; Northern offshore region; Prince Edward Island; Yukon; Northwest Territories |
| NTS | 11L; 107B; 107C; 107D; 117A; 117D |
| Area | Gulf of St. Lawrence; Beaufort Sea |
| Lat/Long WENS | -64.0000 -62.0000 47.0000 46.0000 |
| Lat/Long WENS | -141.0000 -128.0000 70.0000 68.0000 |
| Subjects | sedimentology; Nature and Environment; coastal studies; transgressions; marine environments; depositional environment; permafrost; unconformities; erosion; sedimentation |
| Illustrations | location maps; models |
| Program | Climate Change Geoscience |
| Released | 2014 05 13 |
| Abstract | Cold climate exerts a clear influence on the processes of marine transgression in mid- and high-latitude coastal-plain settings, but its signature in the depositional record is much clearer at high
latitude. Both cases selected for this study are influenced by the legacy of past glaciation and the pervasive effects of ongoing Holocene marine transgression. Both are affected by sea ice. The high-latitude site lies within the zone of continuous
permafrost and the abundance of excess ground ice along the Beaufort coast is the dominant factor distinguishing it from the cold-temperate Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL) setting and standard models of transgressive coasts elsewhere. In the southern GSL,
the transgressive unconformity (TU) is at the seabed across the inner shelf and shoreface sand moves landward, keeping pace with the transgressive front through deposition in dunes and estuaries. The pace of transgression in the Beaufort Sea is
influenced by a number of distinctive periglacial erosion processes, including thermal abrasion and thaw subsidence. Marine transgression across this landscape creates intricate breached-lake estuaries and low sandy barrier beaches with limited
dunes, leaving distinctive facies suites and geometry, while seaward sediment transport buries the TU on the inner shelf. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
Coasts in cold climates show a number of distinctive characteristics and are often influenced by a legacy of past glaciation. Marine transgression, the
advance of the sea over the land under rising sea level, leaves deposits that record the history of coastal erosion and marine inundation. However the sediments deposited in cold coast settings leave a variable record of climate, in which the imprint
of low temperatures is more recognizable in the deposits of high-latitude coasts. At higher latitudes with permafrost, the growth and decay of excess ground ice creates complex and distinctive coastal landforms and deposits. Cold-temperate coasts
lack permafrost but share cold-climate effects such as winter snow, freeze-thaw processes, and sea ice. Despite their influence on coastal geomorphology, these leave little evidence in the depositional record of transgression. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 293028 |
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