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- Lab number
- GSC-2972
- Field number
- HES-1
- Material dated
- wood
- Taxa dated
- Abies<, identified by L.D. Farley-Gill (GSC Wood Report No. 79-62)
- Locality
- escarpment on Escalante River, 4.48 km due east of Escalante Point, Hesquiat Harbour, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
- Map sheet
- 092 E/10
- Date submitted
- October 1, 0095
- Date uploaded
- February 14, 2020
- Significance
- glaciolacustrine; anomalous
- Context
- glaciolacustrine silt overlain by Vashon till
- Comments
- GSC-2972 The silts are approximately 25 m thick and are overlain by Vashon till of Fraser Glaciation that, in turn, rests below ice contact sands and gravels. Pollen analysis of the dated wood bed suggests that the climate was cooler and/or moister than present, possibly subalpine (N.F. Alley, personal communication, 1980). Another piece of wood from the same site has been C-14 dated at 29 580 ± 895 BP (WSU-2017; unpublished). Comment (D.E. Howes): The silts are thought to represent sediments formed in a marginal ice-dammed lake. An ice dam origin is supported by the pollen analysis and the topographic location and distribution of the silts on the Estevan Coastal Plain. The most feasible mechanism for creating a lake in this topographic situation is by damming Escalante River to the west by ice. The precise age of the silts is not known; however, they are thought to represent sediments deposited during the advance of Fraser ice. Both dated pieces of wood are considered to represent old wood that has been reworked and redeposited during the period of lake infilling. Stratigraphic evidence from north-central Vancouver Island provides some support that both these dates are older than the age of sediments (Howes, 1981b). Parts of upper Nimpkish River valley were ice free at 25 200 ± 330 BP (GSC-2594, Blake, 1981, p. 9), even though the area is adjacent to the source area of Vancouver Island ice. Considering these facts, it is difficult to conceive that ice would be present on the central-west coast (Escalante River area), 50 km west of this ice source, 29 000 years ago. Thus, it is postulated that the silts were not deposited until some time after 25 000 years ago.