Quaternary Environments

Quaternary Environments Synopsis

First published in 1985, Quaternary Environments represents the culmination of Quaternary research in the region of Baffin Island, Baffin Bay and West Greenland over a period of twenty years and it will serve as a timely and complementary balance to the paleo- oceanographic studies in the NE North Atlantic. The region of Baffin Island, Baffin Bay and West Greenland is probably the best place in the world to examine the interactions between ice, land and oceans on timescales of a few hundred to many thousands of years.

Two introductory chapters outline the history of research and the physical background. In Part II the evidence for glacial erosion and deposition over the eastern Canadian Arctic is examined and the history of the Baffin Island continental shelf is described. Part III deals with the paleo- oceanography of Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea through an examination of deep-sea cores dated by several different methods. In Part IV there is a comprehensive account of the stratigraphy of Baffin Island, Bylot Island, and West Greenland, from the Pliocene to the late Wisconsin. Part V examines the climatic effects of the past 10,000 years, considering evidence from pollen analysis, glacier fluctuations, changes of sea level and the response of early (Eskimo) man.

This important volume will interest all quaternary scientists, especially those in glaciology, glacial geology, marine geology, and geomorphology.