A 5 m thick unlithified sequence consisting of sands, silts and minor peats crop out in a coastal cliff within continuous permafrost. A well-exposed 70 m long section displayed a range of epigenetic ice wedges. These could be classified into three generations, each at a different stratigraphic level. The oldest was truncated by a major thaw unconformity which was overlain by a bed of highly involuted silts with peat clasts, interpreted as evidence of a deep palaeoactive layer and associated thermokarst. This bed forms part of a regionally extensive thermokarst phase, correlated with an early-Holocene Climatic Optimum. The other two ice-wedge horizons postdate the thermokarst event with the youngest approximating to the base of the modern active layer.
Allen, J.R.A.1985: Principles of physical sedimentology. London: Chapman & Hall .
2.
Britton, M.E.1967: Vegetation of the Arctic tundra. In Hansen, H.P. , editor, Arctic Biology, Corvallis: Oregon State University Press , 67–130.
3.
Burn, C.R.1997: Cryostratigraphy, paleogeography and climate change during the early Holocene warm interval, western Arctic coast, Canada . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences34, 912–925 .
4.
Burn, C.R. , Michel, F.A. and Smith, M.W.1986: Stratigraphic, isotopic and mineralogical evidence for an early Holocene thawunconformity at Mayo, Yukon Territory . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences23, 794–803 .
5.
Butrym, J. , Cegla, J. , Dzulynski, S. and Nakonieczny, S.1964: New interpretation of ‘periglacial structures’ . Folia Quaternaria17, 34-34 pp.
6.
Delorme, L.D. , Zoltai, S.C. and Kalas, L.L.1977: Freshwater shelled invertebrate indicators of paleoclimate in northwestern Canada during late glacial times . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences14, 2029–2246 .
7.
Evans, S.G.1989: Geomorphic response to endogenic processes. In Quaternary geology of Canada and Greenland, Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada , 612–616.
8.
French, H.M. and Harry, D.G.1983: Ground conditions and thaw lakes, Sachs River lowlands, Banks Island, Canada. In Poser, H. and Schunke, E. , editors, Mesoformen des Reliefs im heutigen Periglazialraum, Abhandlungen der Akademie des Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse, 3rd series 35, 70–81.
9.
French, H.M. , Harry, D.G. and Clark, M.J. 1982: Ground ice stratigraphy and Late Quaternary events, south west Banks Island, Canadian Arctic . Proceedings 4th Canadian Permafrost Conference, Ottawa: National Research Council, 81–90 .
10.
Harry, D.G. and French, H.M. 1988: Cryostratigraphic studies of permafrost, northwestern Canada . Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Permafrost1, Tapir: Trondheim, 784–789 .
11.
Harry, D.G. , French, H.M. and Clark, M.J.1983: Coastal conditions and processes, Sachs Harbour, southwest Banks Island, western Canadian Arctic . Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, Supplement 47, 1–26 .
12.
Harry, D.G. , French, H.M. and Pollard, W.H.1985: Ice wedges and permafrost conditions near King Point, Beaufort Sea Coast, Yukon Territory. Geological Survey of Canada, Current Research, Part A, Paper 85– 1A, 111–116.
13.
Heginbottom, J.A.1995: Permafrost (MCR 4177). National atlas of Canada (fifth edition), Ottawa: Natural Resources Canada .
14.
Hill, P.R. , Héquette, A. and Ruz, M.H.1993: Holocene sea level history of the Canadian Beaufort shelf . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences30, 103–108 .
15.
Lewkowicz, A.G.1993: Periglacial systems. In Briggs, D. , Smithson, P. , Ball, T. , Johnson, P. , Kershaw, P. and Lewkowicz, A. , Fundamentals of physical geography (second Canadian edition), Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman , 417–443.
16.
Lewkowicz, A.G.1994: Ice-wedge rejuvenation, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Canada . Permafrost and Periglacial Processes5, 251–268 .
17.
Mackay, J.R.1975: Relict ice wedges, Pelly Island, N.W.T. Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 75–1, Part A, 469–470.
18.
Mackay, J.R.1978: Freshwater shelled invertebrate indicators of paleoclimate in north western Canada during late glacial times: discussion . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences15, 461–462 .
19.
Mackay, J.R.1990: Some observations on the growth and deformation of epigenetic, syngenetic and anti-syngenetic ice wedges . Permafrost and Periglacial Processes1, 15–29 .
20.
Mackay, J.R.1992: The frequency of ice-wedge cracking (1967–1987) at Garry Island, western Arctic coast, Canada . Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences29, 236–248 .
21.
Moorman, B.J. , Michel, F.A. and Wilson, A.1996: 14C dating of trapped gases in massive ground ice, western Canadian Arctic . Permafrost and Periglacial Processes7, 257–266 .
22.
Murton, J.B. and French, H.M.1993: Thermokarst involutions, Summer Island, Pleistocene Mackenzie Delta, western Canadian Arctic . Permafrost and Periglacial Processes4, 217–227 .
23.
Murton, J.B. , Whiteman, C.A. and Allen, P.1995: Involutions in the Middle Pleistocene (Anglian) Barham Soil, eastern England: a comparison with thermokarst involutions from Arctic Canada . Boreas24, 269–280 .
24.
Ritchie, J.C.1984: Past and present vegetation of the far north west of Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press , 251-251 pp.
25.
Ruz, M.H. , Héquette, A. and Hill, P.R.1992: A model of coastal evolution in a transgressed thermokarst topography . Marine Geology106, 251–278 .
26.
Vincent, J.-S.1983: La géologie du Quaternaire et la géomorphologie de l'Ile Banks, Arctique Canadian . Geological Survey of Canada Memoir405, 118-118 pp.
Worsley, P.1994: Effects of short and long term climatic changes on permafrost – sedimentological data. In Duplessy, J.-C. and Spyradakis, M.-T. , editors, The effects of short term and long term climatic changes – data and modelling, Berlin: NATO ASI Springer-Verlag , 379–387.
