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Proposal for a joint QRA/CANQUA trip to the Canadian prairies

Leaders: David J.A. Evans ( Durham University) & Rene Barendregt (University of Lethbridge )

Co-leaders: Alwyn Beaudoin ( Edmonton Archaeological Museum) & Hester Jiskoot ( University of Leth bridge)

Location: Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan (accommodation in different towns between Wellsch Valley, Saskatchewan and Waterton, Alberta).

Date: September 1st - 12th 2009

Maximum participants: 50

Travel: Flight to Calgary to arrive by noon on September 1st and then transport in minibuses or coach. Pick up will be made at the airport but alternative pick up points in Calgary will be considered. Drop off at the airport or alternative points in Calgary will be made from 12.00 noon onwards on September 12th.

Itinerary and content: Overall theme: Late Tertiary - Quaternary stratigraphy, glacial geology/geomorphology, landscape development and archaeology of SW Canada.

This is a region rich in Quaternary legacies and has been under-utilized in many respects despite its critical location with respect to Tertiary-Quaternary landscape development, Laurentide Ice Sheet history and dynamics, glacial sedimentology, Quaternary geochronology and human migration routes. This trip provides an excellent opportunity for the QRA to enter into fruitful long term research collaboration with Canadian researchers in North America’s best kept secret, the Province of Alberta, where you can experience prairie, foothills, mountain, badlands and monadnock landscapes at a time of year when temperatures are comfortably warm and tourist traffic has dwindled to a trickle. Many participants may want to come to Canada earlier or stay a bit longer after the excursion to experience the wonders of the Icefields Parkway and the Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Rockies or visit Calgary or Edmonton (the latter being the city with the real hockey team!).

Sub themes:

1. Tertiary/early Quaternary river systems and the deposition of preglacial fluvial deposits.
2. Evidence for the earliest glaciations in westernmost North America based on biostratigraphy and palaeomagnetism.
3. The sedimentary and stratigraphic evidence for the coalescence of Cordilleran and Laurentide ice in Alberta and the status of the “ice-free corridor” (including chronology of events based on biostratigraphy and CN dating).
4. Till sedimentology and glacial geomorphology of the SW Laurentide Ice Sheet, focusing particularly on:
palaeo-ice streams and lobes; till deposition; the megaflood hypothesis for glacial landform development;
glacial landsystems; glacitectonic landforms and structures.
5. Postglacial evolution of the prairies focusing on: palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from lake sediment records; palaeo dunefields; spillway and early river incision and badlands development.
6. The archaeology and Holocene environmental history pertaining to the people of the first nations, including visits to the interpretive centres at Writing-on-Stone and Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo-Jump.
7. Paraglacial landslides and rock slope failures, including visits to Frank Slide in the Rockies and to the rotational failures developed in Quaternary valley fills on the prairies.

Day 1 - Dinosaur Provincial Park area (preglacial Empress Group sediments and multiple tills + geomorphology of deglacial spillways and scablands + a tour of the Dinosaur badlands). This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, famous for its palaeontology (dinosaur fossils), badlands and floodplain cottonwood trees.

Day 2 - Wellsch Valley Sections (preglacial and early Quaternary stratigraphy + first evidence of prairie glaciation and a wealth of Quaternary palaeontology related to inter-till stratified sediments)

Day 3 - Medicine Hat sections (preglacial sediments and glacial and glacilacustrine sediments, particularly multiple tills with interstadial deposits and a wealth of Quaternary palaeontology)

Day 4 - Cypress Hills (glacial geomorphology and sediments at the margins of Tertiary monadnock/Quaternary nunatak + Late Quaternary & Holocene landslides + Holocene lake sediments + archaeology of the Stampede Site)

Day 5 - Bow Island, Wolf Island, and Ta ber sections (glacial sediments, including multiple tills and spectacular glacitectonic structures in bedrock + archaeology of the Fletcher Site near Taber, a critical site for the postglacial human occupation of the prairies)

Day 6 - Milk River Canyon and Laurentide ice sheet meltwater channels; Pakowki Holocene sand dunes; Red Rock Coulee; push moraine sequences, flutings and glacitectonzed bedrock; Writing on Stone Park archaeological site

Day 7 - Del Bonita Tertiary monadnock and nunatak with periglacial structures; hummocky terrain and moraines of possi ble su bglacial squeeze origin; Leth bridge city sections (multiple tills, bedrock mega-rafts & preglacial sediments); Milk River Ridge Paleosol site

Day 8 – Brocket Section (multiple Laurentide & Cordilleran tills); Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump archaeological site; Frank Slide historical rock slope failure

Day 9 – Waterton National Park (glacial landforms and sediments) and Castle River sections (multiple Cordilleran tills)

Day 10 - Travers Dam/Lake McGregor glacial landforms and sediments including the esker system near Claresholm (central to the Shaw & Munro et al. su bglacial megaflood hypothesis + the spectacular Sundial Medicine Wheel archaeological site)

Potential interest : The meeting will be of interest to a wide range of Quaternary scientists including glacial geomorphologists, glacial sedimentologists, Quaternary stratigraphers, Quaternary fluvial specialists, archaeologists, geochronology specialists (particularly those interested in palaeomagnetism, CN, radioicarbon and OSL), biostratigraphers, palaeoecologists and slope instability specialists. Our visit to the Dinosaur Provincial Park badlands also adds some material on drylands geomorphology in addition to some longer timescale palaeontology!

Provisional budget:

Cost for 15 seat (or a single large bus with driver) = $20/day per person. 

Accommodation (sharing 2 to a room) and food = $50-60 per day per person. 

Maximum total with contingency = $100/day/person = $1,000.00 (£443.00)

plus flights (estimated at an average of £625 based on summer 2008 prices) .

Although we will try our utmost to keep to these provisional costings, the rapidly rising costs of fuel will likely force us to make some re-calculations nearer the time. So please regard this budget as a first estimate.

For further information please contact:

Dr David J.A. Evans
Department of Geography
Durham University
South Road
Durham DH1 3LE
UK

d.j.a.evans@durham.ac.uk