STRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOECOLOGY OF A POSSIBLE INTERGLACIAL SITE, NORTHERNMOST ELLESMERE-ISLAND, CANADA

An extensive stratigraphic section at Cape Alfred Ernest on the Wootton Peninsula, northwest Ellesmere Island contains six lithofacies which appear to record two glacial phases separated by an organic layer. (1) A lower massive gravel records a pre-ice advance outwash phase; (2) massive fine-grained sediments record a period of non-glacial marine deposition when sea-level was higher than present; (3) a massive diamicton records the advance of ice across the site; (4) intermediate stratified beds record supraglacial and proglacial outwash, and include an organic layer; (5) massive diamicton grading down-valley to stratified diamicton and then massive, sheared diamicton, overlain by laminated fine-grained sediments with dropstones, recording the last (late Wisconsinan) glaciation; (6) upward-coarsening sands and gravels record proglacial outwash and grade to raised marine deltas. Radiocarbon dates of 39270 +/- 640 and > 51 000 yr BP were obtained on samples from the organic layer by accelerator mass spectrometry and conventional radiocarbon dating, respectively. Palaeoecological data suggest that the organics accumulated in a wet sedge meadow environment when the climate was warmer than present. Stratigraphic considerations suggest that the organic layer represents an interglacial interval which, if valid, indicates that the site constitutes the northernmost interglacial stratigraphy in the Canadian Arctic. Alternatively, the organic layer may date to Plio-Pleistocene times.