Quaternary sedimentation in Shelikof Strait, Alaska

Shelikof Strait, a nearly parallel-sided marine channel between the Kodiak island group and the Alaska Penninsula, has experienced a succession of distinct sedimentary environments during Quaternary time. Pleistocene glaciers carved a deep basin into bedrock in the southwest part of the strait and a shallower platform surface with incised channels in the northeast. The basin and channels were filled with glacial and glacialmarine sediment before and during the time that ice retreated and oceanic conditions returned. Restricted marine conditions prevailed in early Holocene time and sediment prograded transversely into the strait from the adjacent landmasses, with some localized dispersal to the deep, central strait. Onset of modern open-marine conditions commenced when regional currents breached the sill across Kennedy and Stevenson Entrances to combine with sediment-laden outflow from Cook Inlet and deposit a blanket of well-stratified sediment throughout the strait. ?? 1985.