Comparison of the late quaternary sedimentary sequence and paleomagnetic record of the North Bay outlet and a Baffin Island fiord

Abstract

The lithology of the Late Quaternary lacustrine sequences of five lakes in the North Bay area differs from one lake to another. However, chronostratigraphically equivalent sections of cores taken from the same lake do show similarities in mean grain size, sand percentage and organic and carbonate carbons.The lithology of the Late Quaternary fiord sedimentary sequence of McBeth Fiord,Baffin Island exhibits a slightly higher sand content and lower organic carbon content than the North Bay lacustrine sediments. The magnetic mineral grains deposited on the bottom of lakes and fiords tend to align in the direction of the earth's magnetic field at the time of deposition creating a remanent magnetic field in the sediments.The sedimentary sequences of lakes in the North Bay and McBeth Fiord, Baffin Island areas provides a record of the direction and intensity of the earth's magnetic field for these regions during the Late Quaternary-The declination and inclination values of oriented samples taken from soft-sediment cores of the Late Quaternary lacustrine sequences of the North Bay area and the fiord sequences of McBeth Fiord can be compiled into paleodeclination and paleoinclination logs.The oscillations of the relative paleodeclination logs show a similar character for cores taken from the five lakes and the fiord as do the paleoinclination logs.Marker horizons picked on the character of either the paleodeclination or paleoinclination logs provide a method for chronostratigraphic correlation from one core to another within the North Bay area and also for the McBeth Fiord area.