Quaternary geology of western Meta Incognita Peninsula and Iqaluit area, Baffin Island, Nunavut

Surficial materials mapping has enlarged on previous Quaternary topical and areal studies in an area that includes the largest community in Nunavut. Till, which is uniformly sandy and clast-supported, covers a minority of the varied metamorphic and igneous bedrock. A strongly developed end-moraine belt, the Frobisher Bay Moraine System and associated outwash valley trains are the only extensive depositional landforms. Till geochemistry shows no significant anomalies. There is no terrestrial record of the pre-Late Wisconsin Glaciation other than cirques. Last glacial ice flowing from local, Foxe Ice Dome, down Hudson Strait, and cross-strait sources is recorded by scarce striations. The chronology of the flows is partially known: by 8.9 ka, local ice retreated onshore in Frobisher Bay; and by 8.4 ka local and Labrador (Noble Inlet) ice left the Hudson Strait shore. The physical relationships of local and offshore (Hudson Strait) ice remain poorly understood. The latter peripheral ice flows had minor impact on the landscape. Local and Amadjuak ice divides underwent phases of warm and cold-based flow reflected in, respectively, thick till and till veneer–bedrock. The peninsula topographic and ice divides corresponded in the south, but diverged in the north, where the Foxe Ice Dome topography became dominant. The asymmetric cross-peninsula ice profile was buttressed by the marine-based Frobisher Bay glacier. In a climatecontrolled readvance phase, this glacier fluctuated while depositing a belt of terminal moraines between 9–7 ka. Meanwhile, the land-based belt of the Frobisher Bay Moraine System remained more stable. In the final phase of deglaciation, the ice divide entirely corresponded with the terrestrial divide. Local ice centres explain much of the emergence pattern.