Reconstructing the deglacial dynamics of the northwestern Laurentide Ice Sheet

The northwestern sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet drained ice from the Cordilleran-Laurentide ice saddle and the Keewatin ice dome towards the ice margin on the arctic continental shelf during its late local Last Glacial Maximum. The glacial geomorphological and geological record of the region documents several massive palaeo-ice streams. However, the deglacial dynamics of this sector has not yet been reconstructed in detail and questions remain about the nature of deglaciation in this region: Did ice streams operate far up-ice or were they limited to a rather narrow ice-margin zone? Was ice stagnation widespread?

We reconstruct the deglaciation of the northwestern sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet by glacial geomorphological inversion methods, based on our recent regional-scale mapping of the glacial geomorphological record. We find that the ice stream network evolved from large, marine-terminating ice streams to shorter, terrestrial ice streams. The ice drainage network experienced a reorganisation following the disappearance of the Cordilleran-Laurentide ice saddle, which previously feed ice in a northerly direction along the modern-day Mackenzie River, to more westerly ice flow sourced from the Keewatin ice dome. Deglaciation was dominated by dynamic ice retreat but we also find traces of localized ice stagnation in areas of higher ground fringing the major fast ice flow corridors. The ice flow pattern changed markedly once the ice front stepped back onto the Canadian Shield, where ice streaming largely ceased. This empirical reconstruction, fitted to the latest version of ice margin chronology, can serve as validation for numerical modelling efforts and provides information on broad-scale ice sheet dynamics during the last deglaciation.