STRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOMAGNETISM OF BRUNHES AND MATUYAMA (GREATER-THAN 790 KA) QUATERNARY DEPOSITS AT MERRITT, BRITISH-COLUMBIA

A succession of Quaternary deposits in the Merritt basin of south-central British Columbia contains evidence for four glaciations and two interglaciations. Paleomagnetic signatures in these sediments are of three types: normal polarity, proposed to have been acquired during the Brunhes Normal Polarity Chron; reversed polarity, proposed to have been acquired during the Matuyama Reversed Polarity Chron; and reversed polarity (Matuyama age) all but obscured by a normally magnetized overprint (Brunhes age). Reversely magnetized deposits at the base of the succession include glacial lacustrine deposits, interpreted as representing two different glaciations, and a paleosol and a succession of nonglacial sediments, which are evidence of two interglaciations. As the reversed polarity of these deposits is proposed to have been acquired during the Matuyama Reversed Polarity Chron, they are older than 790 ka. Normally magnetized deposits, which make up the rest of the succession, contain evidence for only two glaciations, but traces of other glaciations may have been removed during the erosion interval encompassed by a major unconformity that underlies deposits of the last glaciation. All are referred to the Brunhes Normal Polarity Zone. In addition to these glacial and interglacial deposits, a series of normally magnetized Quaternary basalt flows forms a bench 90 m above the floor of the basin. These basalts were extruded after 790 ka but before the penultimate glaciation.