LATE PLEISTOCENE HISTORY AND GEOMORPHOLOGY, SOUTHWESTERN VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH-COLUMBIA

Cordilleran glaciers formed in the Vancouver Island Mountains and in the Coast Mountains had advanced down Strait of Georgia to southeastern Vancouver Island after 19 000 years BP. The ice split into the Puget and Juan de Fuca lobes, the latter damming small lakes along the southwestern coastal slope of the island. During the maximum of the glaciation (Vashon Stade), southern Vancouver Island lay completely under the cover of an ice-sheet which flowed in a SSW direction across Juan de Fuca Strait, eventually terminating on the edge of the continental shelf. Deglaciation was by downwasting during which ice thinned into major valleys and the strait. Most upland areas were free of ice down to an elevation of 400m by before 13 000 yr BP. -from Authors Strait of Georgia Puget Juan de Fuca lobes Vashon Stade deglaciation downwasting