SFU professor emeritus and Order of Canada recipient John Clague will describe new research about the formation of the Fraser River delta.
Briefly, as the Cordilleran ice sheet melted, huge glacial lakes were formed that were dammed, but not well-dammed. John and other geologists on the research team have recently published a paper that presents evidence for a sudden and catastrophic mega-flood when a dam gave way 11.5K years ago, sending a massive volume of water down the Fraser canyon from around present-day Prince George. John’s presentation takes the form of a detective story, as he outlines the weight of evidence in favour of this event based on present-day landforms.