A Study of Late-Quaternary Plant-Bearing Beds in North-Central Baffin Island, Canada

Abstract

Plant-bearing beds, exposed by downcutting of the Isortoq River at the northern end of the Barnes Icecap, have been folded, apparently by east-west moving overriding ice, truncated and overlain by horizontal alluvial sediments. Radiocarbon dates for plant material from the Isortoq River (folded unit), Flitaway Lake, and Lewis Glacier localities are >30,000 to >40,000 yr BP, from the horizontal beds, 14,000 ± 400 yr BP. The vegetation was probably similar to that of southern Baffin Island today; the Isortoq beds are assigned to the Sangamon interglacial. Pollen diagrams and description of the present vegetation and climate are included.