Evidence of latest Pleistocene glacier advance in the southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada

Two cirque glaciers in the southern Coast Mountains, British Columbia deposited moraines 150 to 200 m downstream from Little Ice Age deposits. Bulk physical properties of the elastic basal section within a core recovered from a lake situated a short distance downstream from one of these moraines display characteristics consistent with glacial activity in an alpine catchment and are interpreted to record moraine formation. A minimum limiting age for these moraines (9680 +/- 40 14C years BP) was obtained from directly above the inorganic basal sediment within the core. The minimum limiting radiocarbon age, in addition to moraine weathering features, morphology, position, and extent suggest these deposits are Crowfoot Age equivalents. Consequently, the deposition of these moraines was coeval with the Younger Dryas cold event (11 000 to 10 000 14C years BP). This study supports the growing body of evidence that suggests a global distribution of the Younger Dryas signal.