Regions: South Slave Region
Tags: physical sciences, limnology, bathymetry, glacial history
| Principal Investigator: | Christoffersen, Poul (2) |
| Licence Number: | 14013 |
| Organization: | University of Wales, Aberystwyth |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2006
2005
|
| Issued: | Jun 30, 2006 |
| Project Team: | Slawek Tulaczyk (Co-Principal Investigator, Univ. California Santa Cruz), Nigel Wattrus (Co-Principal Investigator, Univ. Minnesota Duluth) |
Project Description: This project aims to reconstruct the glacial history of Great Slave Lake, focusing on deep troughs located in the northeast arm of the lake. A large ice dome formed over the Great Slave region during the Last Glacial Maximum and meltwater possibly formed a large subglacial lake in the deep sector of Christie Bay during this period, when ice was about 4 km thick. Subglacial lakes are important because they influence the evolution of ice sheets such as the one over North America during the last glaciation. Reflection of signals can be used to make estimates of sedimentary properties from which a history of geological activity can be inferred. A series of surveys will be conducted with vertical resolution high enough to inform the distribution of different layers within the sedimentary sequences. The surveys are based on acoustic sounding with an underwater CHIRP seismic source and a compressed air surface source, and swath multi-beam bathymetry for detailed mapping of the lake floor topography. The survey location is the deep sector of Christie Bay approximately 20 km NNW of Lutsel K'e. The surveys will be conducted from a boat and cover an area of about 10 km x 80 km. Work will be conducted exclusively offshore, surveying from a boat. Research will be discussed with the local communities and there will be a visit to the boat, to display the surveying equipment. Results will be made available on a website with information relevant to communities in the research area. The Aurora Research Institute and the local communities will be consulted before any data is made public. The surveys will be conducted from July 17 to August 18, 2006 by boat in the deep sector of Christie Bay (approximately 20 km NNW of Lutsel K'e), covering an area of about 10 km x 80 km.
