EPISODIC ICE STREAMS AND ICE SHELVES DURING RETREAT OF THE NORTHWESTERNMOST SECTOR OF THE LATE WISCONSINAN LAURENTIDE ICE-SHEET OVER THE CENTRAL CANADIAN ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO

A complex of glacial landforms on northeastern Victoria island records diverse flows within the waning late Wisconsinan Laurentide Ice Sheet over an area now divided by marine straits. Resolution of this ice fl ow pattern shows that dominant streamlined landforms were built by thr ee radically different ice flows between 11,000 and 9000 BP. Subsequen t to the glacial maximum, the marine-based ice front retreated at leas t 300 km to reach northeast Victoria Island by 10,400 BP. Disequilibra tion at the rapidly retreating margin induced minor surges on western Storkerson Peninsula (Flow 1). Next, a readvance into Hadley Bay trans ported 10,300 BP shells, while a major ice stream over eastern Storker son Peninsula (Flow 2) remoulded till into a drumlin field several hun dred kilometres long and at least 80 km wide until flow ceased prior t o 9600 BP. The ice stream surged into Parry Channel, covering 20,000 k m2 with the Viscount Melville Sound Ice Shelf. Finally, Flow 2 drumlin s on the northwest shore of M'Clintock Channel were cross-cut c. 9300 BP by advance of the grounded margin of a buoyant glacier (Flow 3), po ssibly an analogue of Flow 2 displaced farther south.