Reconstruction of the Middle to Late Pleistocene glaciation history of the southern Cordilleran Ice Sheet (Fraser Lowland, British Columbia) – a geochemical approach.

• Applicant: Dr. Raphael Gromig
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438259922

A geochemical approach will be tested in order to reconstruct the Middle- and Late-Pleistocene glacial history of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in southern British Columbia (Canada). A sediment core from Port Moody (British Columbia) contains sediments, which document at least 4 regional ice sheet advances and forms the basis for this investigation. Sediment samples from this drill core will characterized by their major and trace element composition using X-ray fluorescence analyses and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. In order to improve the chronological framework of the core additional radiocarbon ages shall be measured and tephra deposits will be investigated as independent time markers. The core will serve as a reference archive to correlate regional glacial deposits and to put those in an improved temporal framework. Further it will be tested if the geochemical signature of glacial deposits allows tracing back their respective provenance. This information will be used to constrain the timing of freshwater release into the Pacific Ocean in the course of the respective deglaciations. Furthermore, microfossils (diatoms, foraminifera) from the sediment core will be studied in order to reconstruct the relative sea level during Mid- to Late Pleistocene. In addition the potential of tentative varves towards their paleoclimatically relevant information on annual to millennial time scales shall be tested using x-ray fluorescence analyses.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Canada
• Host: Professor Dr. Brent Ward