Abstract South of Dolphin and Union Strait, N.W.T., massive ridges of bouldery till, up to 100 m high, delimit an ice frontal position to the east and north of Bluenose Lake.
Major ridges are either massive or composite with linear longitudinal pattern on their crest.
In a well exposed section, sediment-rich ice is overlain by a bouldery till, more than 3 m thick, with a sandy to sandy silt matrix, columnar jointing and prismatic fissility. The icy sediments exhibit banding, folding and complex deformations, and include numerous boulders, cobbles, and pebbles. The upper contact of the icy sediments and the bouldery diamicton is sharp, subhorizontal and unconformable. These massive icy sediments are interpreted as basal glacier ice buried by the stacking of glacigenic debris, mostly till, carried at the base of a thrust-sheet in an area of compressive flow. This occurred in the ice frontal zone of an active Late Wisconsinan ice mass.