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Pleistocene Landscapes of Western Canada

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Landscapes and Landforms of Western Canada

Part of the book series: World Geomorphological Landscapes ((WGLC))

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Abstract

A brief summary of western Canada’s late Quaternary history emphasizes the period from the Last Glacial Maximum to the start of the Holocene Epoch. Almost all of Canada was covered by ice at the Last Glacial Maximum. Canada’s contemporary landscapes are deeply imprinted with the Quaternary legacy. The general concept of a glacial landsystem is the prism through which western Canadian landscapes are seen. The concept recognizes three glacial landsystems: the Shield terrain, the sedimentary lowlands and the glacial valley terrain. Within the glacial landsystems, individual landscapes and landform assemblages subject to supraglacial, englacial and subglacial processes are described. Glacivolcanic landscapes are exceptionally important in western Canada and are discussed separately. The 5 % of western Canada that was not glaciated in the Quaternary has distinctive landscapes. The increasing importance of fluvial and proglacial lake processes towards the end of the Pleistocene requires separate treatment.

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Acknowledgments

Cartography by D. Kovanen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada

    Olav Slaymaker & Dori J. Kovanen

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  1. Olav Slaymaker
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  2. Dori J. Kovanen
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Correspondence to Olav Slaymaker .

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  1. Department of Geography, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Olav Slaymaker

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Slaymaker, O., Kovanen, D.J. (2017). Pleistocene Landscapes of Western Canada. In: Slaymaker, O. (eds) Landscapes and Landforms of Western Canada . World Geomorphological Landscapes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44595-3_2

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