FIELD EVIDENCE FOR WET-BASED ICE-SHEET EROSION FROM THE SOUTH-CENTRALQUEEN-ELIZABETH-ISLANDS, NORTHWEST-TERRITORIES, CANADA

Glacial erosional features were studied in detail at three locations i n the southcentral Queen Elizabeth Islands, Canada. Numerous striated bedrock outcrops, indicating ice flowing from the sea onto the coast, were discovered on Baillie-Hamilton Island, off the west coast of nort hern Devon Island. The consistency of obtained ice-flow directions ind icates that thick, wet-based ice overrode the >200-m-high island from northwest, west-northwest, and northeast, without topographic deflecti on. We conclude that this ice also flowed across the >300 m deep Queen s and Wellington channels bordering Baillie-Hamilton Island. A similar conclusion was derived from striated bedrock outcrops on the northeas t coast of North Kent Island, positioned between Devon and Ellesmere i slands. Ice flowing from the northwest obliquely across Baillie-Hamilt on and North Kent Islands, and from the northeast across Baillie-Hamil ton Island, could not have emanated from local ice domes. Instead, the se results are consistent with a large ice sheet covering the central and southern Queen Elizabeth Islands with an ice spreading center in t he Norwegian Bay region. The timing of these events remains uncertain, but the degree of weathering of the striated outcrops indicates that both northwest and northeast ice-flow directions could be of late Wisc onsinan age.