History:
A study by Leonard and Reasoner (1999) on glaciolacustrine sediment from Crowfoot Glacier Lake has provided a historical record of the Crowfoot Glacier.
Clastic deposits are indicative of glacial deposits during time or glacial advance. A transition from these dolomite dominated clasic basal lacustrine sediments to an organic rich sediment layer indecates a Altithermal event. This event lasted from approximatly 10,100 14C yr B.P to to 5550 6 90 14C yr B.P. During this time, warmer lake water also resulted in photosynthetically induced calcite deposition (Leonard and Reasoner, 1999).
The maximum organic deposition, and therefore the peak of the Altithermal event occurred at approximately 9060 14C yr B.P. This time also marked the maximum recession of the glacier. It was at this time that the glacier may have become temporarily none existent (or almost).
Fluctualtions in the the organic content during the Altithermal event may have been a result of short-lived glacial advances.
The transition back to clastic sediment deposition between 5550 14C yr B.P. and 3950 14C yr B.P marks the end of this warming period and the beginning of a neoglacial interval. This occurred in two stages. A small peak in clastic sedimentation was followed by a larger peak in glacigenic sedimentation, and presumably of ice extent, late in the Neoglacial interval (Leonard and Reasoner, 1999).