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TitleCoastal products of marine transgression in cold-temperate and high-latitude coastal-plain settings: Gulf of St. Lawrence and Beaufort Sea
 
AuthorForbes, D LORCID logo; Manson, G K; Whalen, D J RORCID logo; Couture, N JORCID logo; Hill, P RORCID logo
SourceSedimentary 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
Year2014
Alt SeriesEarth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20130213
PublisherGeological Society of London
Documentserial
Lang.English
Mediapaper; on-line; digital
File formatpdf
ProvinceEastern offshore region; Northern offshore region; Prince Edward Island; Yukon; Northwest Territories
NTS11L; 107B; 107C; 107D; 117A; 117D
AreaGulf 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
Subjectssedimentology; Nature and Environment; coastal studies; transgressions; marine environments; depositional environment; permafrost; unconformities; erosion; sedimentation
Illustrationslocation maps; models
ProgramClimate Change Geoscience
Released2014 05 13
AbstractCold 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 ID293028

 
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