Introduction

The Laurentide Ice Sheet in the late Wisconsinian had a major influence on the present pattern of landforms observed in Alberta, Canada. Although the full extent of these glaciations in Alberta is poorly understood (Fulton et al, 1986), the ice sheet is thought to have reached as far south as Northern Montana, approximately 18,000 years b.p. The ice reworked the land producing landforms characteristic of a glacial setting, with much geomorphological work carried out by the large meltwater and sediment released from the retreating ice. These landforms and sediments left by glaciation are the clues from which the ice sheets can be reconstructed and their behavior studied. They include glacial lacustrine deposits and sediments, fluvial meltwater channels, flutes, eskers, glaciotectonic ridges, and numerous other features.

In the southern Alberta area, there is a drainage divide of high topographic relief that trends approximately west to east. Streams north of the divide drain northeast toward the Canadian Shield while the streams to the south drain southward into the Mississippi-Missouri drainage system. Within this region, glacial lacustrine and fluvial sediments can be found indicating that large lakes had once been present on the divide. This observation has led to the hypothesis that the continental ice sheet must have flowed up and over this area of higher elevation (Beaney and Shaw, 2000). Lakes were then formed upon the glacier’s recession as meltwater drained downwards along the northern end of the divide to be dammed by the receding ice sheet walls. A northwest to southeast zone of scoured bedrock with an average width of 80 km also crosses this pre-glacial, adding further evidence to the direction and path of ice-sheet movement (Beaney and Shaw, 2000).

For this project, it is hoped that a GIS may be used as a visualization and analysis tool to aid in landscape interpretation and for finding and determining new paleohydrology patterns and relationships regarding glacial landscape reconstruction and research.

Past and Current Studies of the Area