Home > Events > Honorary Address

Honorary Address

Fire & Ice: The 2011 Honorary Address

Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium – Calgary, Alberta
Doors open at 6:00pm | Talk starts at 7:00pm

All ages welcome
Adults $15 advance, $20 at the door
Students $5 advance, $10 at the door
Children 12 & under free

To buy tickets please click here.

 

---

Guest Speakers:

Yukon's Pleistocene Landscapes – Exploring Ice Ages on Beringia's Doorstep
Jeffrey D. Bond, MSc.
Surficial Geologist, Yukon Geological Survey

Yukon's landscape reveals a fascinating history of the northern Cordilleran Pleistocene ice sheets. These ice sheets have grown numerous times over the last 2.6 million years; however, none of the advances ever completely glaciated Yukon's central plateaus and northern regions. The result is a landscape of contrasting terrain. Within the limits of glaciation is a record of dramatic modifications caused by former ice sheets and meltwater. Rugged mountains and extensive plateaus were inundated by ice, causing massive volumes of sediment to be mobilized into the valley bottoms, and major disruptions to drainage patterns. Beyond the limit of glaciation is a landscape that has changed very little since the beginning of the Pleistocene. Narrow, v-shaped valleys give way to rolling uplands, modified slowly by millennia of periglacial weathering, which produced a smooth topography dotted by giant tors. The unglaciated regions formed the eastern limit of Beringia, the land bridge that extended into Asia during periods of lower sea-level. In modern times, the frozen Beringian valleys have become famous for their placer gold discoveries and diverse Ice Age fossils preserved in the permafrost.

Join Jeffrey Bond on a tour of the Yukon and take a look at its incredible landscapes and history through the eyes of a geomorphologist.

 

Volcanoes? In Canada you say? Where?
Catherine Jean Hickson, Ph.D., P. Geo.
Vice President Exploration & Chief Geologist, Magma Energy Corp.
Adjunct Professor, University of British Columbia School of Earth and Ocean Sciences

Well – Canada's western regions are home to a wide variety of geologically recent volcanoes. The geological forces that drove the building of the Rocky Mountains (creating the great inland seas that would eventually host the oil and gas riches of the prairies), also had a darker side. Tectonics, the process whereby mountain ranges and continents are formed, is also responsible for volcanoes and earthquakes. Stretching from the western margins of the Rocky Mountains to the coast, and the US border to Yukon, volcanoes dot the landscape and eruptions have punctuated Canada's history for millions of years. Comprising the full range of volcano types and tectonic environments, it is a gold mine for scientists interested in studying volcanoes.

Stretching from the US border northward, the Garibaldi volcanic belt hosts volcanoes similar to Mt. St. Helens and are related to the plunging of the Juan de Fuca plate below North American (subduction). Where the GVB leaves off (at the northern tip of Vancouver Island), another chain of volcanoes crosses the grain of the mountain ranges. The Anahim belt, is the result of a “hot spot' similar to that which formed the Hawaiian islands. Farther north, stretching and buckling of the continental crust has formed volcanoes like those seen in Africa's east rift zone. And yet farther north, subduction of the Pacific plate below Alaska, generates still more volcanoes.

Canada's volcanoes have left an indelible mark on the landscape. Many of them are the centre pieces of parks, providing spectacular scenery and recreational opportunities. Ash drifting eastward has enriched prairie soils and still cooling magma drives geothermal systems ripe for the picking. These hot water systems are capable of producing green, renewable electrical power. It is these amazing volcanic riches and the diversity of landscapes they have generated that will be explored in the lecture.