Bottom Topography 



Knowledge of the bottom topography of Kane 

 Basin is based on scattered soundings from H.O. 

 Chart 6606 and the Edo tracklines taken by 

 USCGC Evergreen in the area during late July 

 and early August, 1963. The area has been con- 

 toured at a 200-meter interval (figs. 49 and 51) 

 Depths are based on a sound velocity of 1,463 

 meters (800 fathoms) per second, the calibration 

 of the instrument, as no velocity correction has 

 been applied to the soundings. 



Humboldt Glacier is bordered on its seaward 

 side by a broad platform or shelf that dips gently 

 in a seaward direction (figs. 51 and 52) . At a depth 

 of about 200 meters is a slight increase in gradient 

 and the bottom deepens gradually to about 300 

 meters in the vicinity of Ellesmere Island. Near 

 the island the bottom shoals to less than 10 meters 

 in just a few kilometers. This broad platform 

 which, fills most of Kane Basin may represent a 

 sedimentary prism deposited by Humboldt Glacier. 

 A broad flat-bottomed channel which appears to 

 extend into Smith Sound cuts the southwest mar- 

 gin of this platform. The southern entrance to 

 Kane Basin is extremely irregular, but Smith 

 Sound farther south is an almost featureless plain 

 whose surface is broken by a small seamount and 

 a narrow depression having a maximum depth of 

 1,080 meters. A number of small channels, sea- 

 ward extensions of the fjords along the coast, in- 

 cise the side slopes of Smith Sound and debouch 

 onto the smooth plain in the middle of the sound. 



Bottom Deposits 



Textural analyses of eight samples collected by 

 USCGC Evergreen were made using standard pi- 

 pette techniques for silt and clay, a settling tube 

 for the sand fraction and sieving for the gravel 

 fraction (Krumbein and Petti John, 1938, and 

 Emery, 1938). Calcium carbonate was measured 

 by the gasometric technique (Bien, 1952). The 

 sand fractions were examined under a binocular 

 microscope and percentages of the major constitu- 

 ents' were estimated. Clasts in the gravel were 

 identified with the aid of a hand lens. 



All the samples contain angular to subrounded 

 clasts which range in size from 2 mm to 10 cm. 

 These fragments, which are believed to have been 

 rafted by ice to their present position, are mainly 

 black to tan coarse to fine grained limestones, fol- 

 lowed by granite, sandstone, and quartz diorite 

 (figs. 53 and 54). 



Sediments vary in color from gray to reddish- 

 brown and have median diameters ranging from 

 10 to 54 microns (table III). Standard deviation 

 values lie between 2.06 and 4.05, meaning that 68 

 percent of the weight of the samples consist of 

 grains within a range of 2.06 to 4.05 Wentworth 

 size grades. With the exception of sample 8773 

 which is probably a normal hemipelagic deposit, 

 the cumulative curves of the sediments from this 

 area bear a strong resemblance to a curve of 

 Pleistocene till from Wisconsin (fig. 55). Al- 

 though the curves are similar, the sediments from 

 Kane Basin are probably mainly ice-rafted rather 

 than deposited by the ice as was the till. 



Table III. Sediment parameters 



Sample 

 No. 



Percent 

 CaCQ 3 



8752 

 8758 

 8761 

 8762 

 8765 

 8766 

 8770 

 8773 

 8777 



Gray 



Gray 



Reddish-brown 



Gray 



Gray 



Gray 



Reddish-brown 

 Reddish-brown 

 Gray 



11.7 

 17.3 

 13.2 

 30. 2 

 13.6 

 18.6 

 21.3 



1.6 



1 Computed from moment measures (Krumbein and Pettijohn, 1938, p. 249). 



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