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At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
USGS2017

Sea level history in Beringia during the past 250,000 years

This paper attempts to relate current knowledge of sea-level history in Beringia to the Broecker-van Donk “Termination” concept of climatic and sea-level history. The Einahnuhtan transgression is thought to represent Termination III, which according to Broecker and van Donk, took place about 225,000 y.a. The Kotzebuan transgression is thought to represent a positive fluctuation that modulated the generally falling sea level during the ensuing 100,000 yr. Sea level probably fell to about −135 m in the Bering Sea area during the maximum phase of the penultimate glaciation. The two Pelukian shorelines probably represent Termination II (about 125,000 yr BP in the Broecker-van Donk chronology) and one of the two positive fluctuations that modulated the generally falling sea level of early Wisconsinan time, about 105,000 and 80,000 y.a. according to Broecker and van Donk. Another positive modulation brought sea level to at least −20 m, about 30,000 y.a. Sea level evidently fell to between −90 and −100 m during the late Wisconsinan regression, but a substantial part of the outer Bering shelf remained submerged. Submerged shoreline features at −38m, −30 m, −24 to −20 m, and −12 to −10 m represent stillstands or slight regressions that modulated Termination I, the late Wisconsinan, and early Holocene recovery of sea level.

Alaska↗
USGS2017

Pleistocene succession of the central interior United States

The Quaternary of the continental interior of the United States is characterized by deposits from glacial ice, with associated outwash and eolian deposits, and by alluvial deposits produced by the same climatic pulses. Erosional incision of valleys occurred early in the glacial pulse, outwash deposition during the waning phase of the pulse, and soil formation during times of relative stability between the glacial pulses. These features of deposition, erosion, and soil formation are presented in a series of curves. One way the marine record could be correlated with that of the continental interior is to compare and match the physical records of both environments.

central interior↗
USGS2017

An Anvilian (early pleistocene) marine fauna from western Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Cover sediments of the York Terrace exposed near the California River, western Seward Peninsula, Alaska, yield mollusks, ostracodes, and foraminifera that lived during the Anvilian transgression of early Pleistocene age. The fossiliferous sediments lie at the inner edge of the York Terrace, a deformed wave-cut platform that extends eastward from Bering Strait along much of the southern coast of Seward Peninsula. The seaward margin is truncated by the little-deformed Lost River Terrace, carved during the Pelukian (Sangamonian) transgression. The early Pleistocene sediments seem to have been deposited between the first and second of four glaciations for which evidence can be found in the California River area. The California River fauna includes several extinct species and several species now confined to areas as remote as the northwestern Pacific and north Atlantic. The fauna probably lived in water temperatures much like those of the present time but deeper water on the Bering Shelf is suggested. The presence of an early Pleistocene fauna at the inner edge of the York Terrace at California River shows that the terrace was largely carved before and during early Pleistocene time. However, a marine fauna apparently of middle Pleistocene age is found on the York Terrace near Cassiterite Peak, and this seems to indicate that the terrace remained low until middle Pleistocene time. Uplift of the York Terrace probably was accompanied by uplift of Bering Strait. The strait may have been deeper, and there may have been no land bridge between the Seward Peninsula of Alaksa and the Chukotka Peninsula of Siberia during most of early and middle Pleistocene time.

Alaska↗
USGS2017

Quaternary deposits in southwestern Afghanistan

Geologic evidence in the closed Seistan Basin of southwestern Afghanistan and adjacent parts of Iran and Pakistan indicates that a lake as much as 65,000 sq km in size occupied this closed depression during Pleistocene time. The deposits consist mostly of lacustrine silt and clay and have a maximum observed thickness of about 250 m. A layer of alluvial gravels overlies the sequence. The deposits are probably early or middle Pleistocene in age; they are old enough to have sustained nearly 300 m of erosion over large areas but are not faulted or detectably folded in the central part of the basin although they are upwarped along the west edge of the basin. Sand dunes cover extensive areas of the basin. Dune orientation shows that the strong surface winds enter the basin blowing toward the south-southeast and then are deflected to the east, apparently as a response to mountains bordering the basin on its south side. The Gawdezereh, a large deflation depression, may be a result of an augmented excavation ability of winds that oc urs where turbulence is created along a zone of deflection.

Quaternary Research↗
USGS2017

Ice ages and the thermal equilibrium of the earth, II

The energy required to sustain midlatitude continental glaciations comes from solar radiation absorbed by the oceans. It is made available through changes in relative amounts of energy lost from the sea surface as net outgoing infrared radiation, sensible heat loss, and latent heat loss. Ice sheets form in response to the initial occurrence of a large perennial snowfield in the subarctic. When such a snowfield forms, it undergoes a drastic reduction in absorbed solar energy because of its high albedo. When the absorbed solar energy cannot supply local infrared radiation losses, the snowfield cools, thus increasing the energy gradient between itself and external, warmer areas that can act as energy sources. Cooling of the snowfield progresses until the energy gradients between the snowfield and external heat sources are sufficient to bring in enough (latent plus sensible) energy to balance the energy budget over the snowfield. Much of the energy is imported as latent heat. The snow that falls and nourishes the ice sheet is a by-product of the process used to satisfy the energy balance requirements of the snowfield. The oceans are the primary energy source for the ice sheet because only the ocean can supply large amounts of latent heat. At first, some of the energy extracted by the ice sheet from the ocean is stored heat, so the ocean cools. As it cools, less energy is lost as net outgoing infrared radiation, and the energy thus saved is then available to augment evaporation. The ratio between sensible and latent heat lost by the ocean is the Bowen ratio; it depends in part on the sea surface temperature. As the sea surface temperature falls during a glaciation, the Bowen ratio increases, until most of the available energy leaves the oceans as sensible, rather than latent heat. The ice sheet starves, and an interglacial period begins. The oscillations between stadial and interstadial intervals within a glaciation are caused by the effects of varying amounts of glacial meltwater entering the oceans as a surface layer that acts to reduce the amount of energy available for glacial nourishment. This causes the ice sheet to melt back, which continues the supply of meltwater until the ice sheet diminishes to a size consistent with the reduced rate of nourishment. The meltwater supply then decreases, the rate of nourishment increases, and a new stadial begins.

Quaternary Research↗
USGS2017

Late-Pleistocene and Holocene remains of Hysterocarpus traski (Tule Perch) from Clear Lake, California, and inferred Holocene temperature fluctuations

The remains of scales of Hysterocarpus traski Gibbons (Tule perch) were found throughout a 27.44-m core from Clear Lake. Most scales occurred between the mud surface and deposits approximately 11,000 years old. Changes in growth rates of the animals were examined by measuring scale annuli and applying an empirically established regression of fish length on scale radius. The data indicate a pattern of accelerating growth rates, reaching a peak between ⋍4000 and 2800 BP. After ⋍2800 BP, growth rates decline markedly. Because the growth rates of these animals are essentially dependent on temperature, the changes observed in the patterns of growth probably reflect changes in climate in the northern Coast Range. The general pattern of inferred temperature increase during the early and middle Holocene, ending between ⋍4000 and 2800 BP, is consistent with evidence from tree-line studies and palynology indicating higher temperatures in parts of the western United States during this period.

California↗
USGS2017

Geology of the dry creek site; a stratified early man site in Interior Alaska

The Dry Creek archeologic site contains a stratified record of late Pleistocene human occupation in central Alaska. Four archeologic components occur within a sequence of multiple loess and sand layers which together form a 2-m cap above weathered glacial outwash. The two oldest components appear to be of late Pleistocene age and occur with the bones of extinct game animals. Geologic mapping, stratigraphic correlations, radiocarbon dating, and sediment analyses indicate that the basal loess units formed part of a widespread blanket that was associated with an arctic steppe environment and with stream aggradation during waning phases of the last major glaciation of the Alaska Range. These basal loess beds contain artifacts for which radiocarbon dates and typologic correlations suggest a time range of perhaps 12,000–9000 yr ago. A long subsequent episode of cultural sterility was associated with waning loess deposition and development of a cryoturbated tundra soil above shallow permafrost. Sand deposition from local source areas predominated during the middle and late Holocene, and buried Subarctic Brown Soils indicate that a forest fringe developed on bluff-edge sand sheets along Dry Creek. The youngest archeologic component, which is associated with the deepest forest soil, indicates intermittent human occupation of the site between about 4700 and 3400 14 C yr BP.

Alaska↗
USGS2017

Radiocarbon dates and late-Quaternary stratigraphy from Mamontova Gora, unglaciated central Yakutia, Siberia, U.S.S.R.

A fine exposure of perennially frozen ice-rich silt and associated flora and vertebrate fauna of late-Quaternary age exists at Mamontova Gora along the Aldan River in central Yakutia, Siberia, U.S.S.R. The silt deposit caps a 50-m-high terrace and consists of three units. An upper layer 1–2 m thick overlies a 10–15-m-thick brownish to black silt layer. The lower silt layer is greenish to gray and about 15 m thick. All the silt is well sorted with 60% of the particles falling between 0.005 and 0.5 mm in diameter and is generally chemically and mineralogically homogeneous. The middle unit contains may extinct vertebrate mammal remains and ice wedges. The lower unit contains little vegetation and no ice wedges. The silt is widespread and exists as a loamy blanket on terraces at various elevations on both sides of the lower Aldan River. The origin of the silt blanket of late-Quaternary age in central Yakutia has long been controversial. Various hypotheses have been suggested, including lacustrine and alluvial, as well as frost-action origins. It is sometimes referred to as loess-like loam. Péwé believes the silt at Mamontova Gora is loess, some of which has been retransported very short distances by water. The silt probably was blown from wide, braided, unvegetated flood plains of rivers draining nearby glaciers. The silt deposits are late Quaternary in age and probably associated with the Maximum glaciation (Samarov) and Sartan and Syryan glaciations of Wisconsinan age. On the basis of biostratigraphy, 10 radiocarbon dates, and their relation to the nearby glacial record, it is felt that the upper unit at Mamontova Gora is Holocene and the middle unit is Wisconsinan. The youngest date available from the middle unit at this particular location is 26,000 years. Dates greater than 56,000 years were obtained in the lower part of the middle unit. The lower unit is definitely beyond the range of radiocarbon dating and probably is older than the last interglacial. The sediment, fauna, ice wedges, stratigraphy, and age of perennially frozen slit deposits in central Alaska are remarkably similar to those of the deposits exposed in central Yakutia. Both areas consist of unglaciated rolling lowlands and river terraces surrounded by high mountains that were extensively glaciated in Pleistocene time. The glaciers extended from the high mountains to the edges of the ranges. In both regions, extensively braided, silt-charged rivers drained the mountains and flowed through the lowlands on their way to the sea. It follows that there should be a similar late-Quaternary history.

Siberia↗
USGS2017

A Holocene vegetation record from the Mississippi River Valley, southeastern Missouri

Pollen preserved in a peat deposit from a large swamp, the Old Field in the Mississippi River Valley near Advance, Missouri, records radiocarbon-dated vegetation changes between 9000 and about 3000 years ago. The principal feature of both the percentage and influx pollen diagrams is the replacement of arboreal pollen, primarily Quercus, Fraxinus , and Cephalanthus , with Gramineae and NAP between 8700 and 5000 years BP. This vegetation shift is interpreted as reflecting a decrease in the extent of the Old Field swamp and its associated bottomland forest species along with the expansion of a grass-dominated herb community, as a result of a reduction in available ground water. The desiccation of the swamp during this period indicates a reduction in precipitation within the ground-water source area and a shift to a drier climate in the southern Midwest. The pollen suggests that the lowest water levels and driest climate in southeastern Missouri lasted from 8700 to 6500 years BP, at which time there is a partial reappearance of swamp species. Relatively dry conditions, however, continued until at least 5000 years BP. Although pollen influx data are lacking from the upper part of the profile, the relative pollen frequencies suggest an increase in trees after 5000 BP. The replacement of the arboreal vegetation by grasses and herbs between 8700 and 5000 years BP reflects the period of maximum expansion of the Prairie Peninsula in southeastern Missouri. The Old Field swamp provides the first pollen evidence that the vegetational changes along the southern border of the Prairie Peninsula were chronologically similar to those on the northern and northeastern margins.

Missouri↗
USGS2017

Age of the last major scabland flood of the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington

Pumice layers of set S from Mount St. Helens can be correlated with certain ash beds associated with young flood deposits of the channeled scabland. The correlation points to an age of about 13,000 14 C yr B.P. for the last major flood to have crossed the scabland. Until recently, the last major episode of flooding was thought to be closer to 20,000 yr B.P., an age inferred chiefly from the relation of the flood to glacial events of the northern Rocky Mountains. Several investigations within the last few years have suggested that the last major flood occurred well after 20,000 yr B.P. Tentative correlations of ash beds of the scabland with set S pumice layers, the relations of flood and glacial events along the northwestern margin of the Columbia Plateau, and a radiocarbon date from the Snake River drainage southeast of the plateau all indicate an age much younger than 20,000 yr. The postulated age of about 13,000 yr B.P. is further supported by a radiocarbon date in the Columbia River valley downstream from the scabland tract. Basal peat from a bog on the Portland delta of Bretz, which is a downvalley deposit of the last major scabland flood, has been dated as 13,080 ± 300 yr B.P. (W-3404).

Washington↗
USGS2017

Geology, palynology, and climatic significance of two pre-Pinedale Lake sediment sequences in and near Yellowstone National Park

Pollen analysis of a section of lake sediments at Grassy Lake Reservoir indicates a vegetational sequence changing from tundra, to spruce-fir-pine forest, to pine forest, to tundra at the top. Pollen analysis of a section of lake sediments on Beaverdam Creek indicates a tundra vegetation at the base, followed by a brief episode of spruce-fir forest and a return to a tundra vegetation at the top. The analyses of both sections suggest a cold to cool to cold climatic sequence, interpreted as interstadial in character. However, differences suggest that they represent separate interstadials. Pinedale Till disconformably overlies the lake deposits at Grassy Lake Reservoir. The upper sediments contain wood 14 C dated at >42,000 yr; the lowermost interfinger with till shown to be more than about 70,000 yr old. The deposits at Beaverdam Creek grade upward into proglacial Pinedale deposits, contain an ash that is probably about 70,000 yr old near their base, and rest comformably on gravel that grades down into lake sediments containing wood debris suggestive of an older climatic amelioration. We conclude that the warmest part of the interstadial at Grassy Lake Reservoir is probably more than 70,000 yr old, and that the warmest part of the interstadial analyzed at Beaverdam Creek is slightly younger than 70,000 yr old.

Wyoming↗
USGS2017

Paleolimnology of two lakes in the Klutlan Glacier region, Yukon Territory, Canada

Lakes developed on progressively younger end moraines of the Klutlan Glacier were initially assumed to have originated shortly after moraine emplacement and to have persisted to the present. Limnological differences between lakes on old vs young moraines were thought to result from limnological maturation within the lakes and ponds themselves and in response to the development of soils and vegetation on moraine surfaces. This study represents a paleolimnological test of this hypothesis. If true, the first-formed sediments of lakes on old moraines should be comparable to sediments presently forming in lakes on young moraines. Geochemical and paleontological studies of surface sediment to a series of lakes on progressively older moraines provide baseline information for comparing successive levels of lake sediment cores from older moraines. Results indicate that the time of lake initiation seldom reflects moraine age. Even on the oldest moraine (Harris Creek), lake basins are presently forming. Their sediment character more closely relates to the rapidity of basin formation due to melting of buried ice than to age of the lake itself or of the moraine on which it is situated. Vegetation and soil development play an important but secondary role in determining the character of lake sediments; rapid subsidence can convert humic-water lakes surrounded by second-generation spruce forests into turbid-water lakes with unstable, slumping margins. A detailed paleolimnological study of two lakes, one on the unglaciated upland and another in an outwash channel penetrating the oldest moraine, revealed progressive limnologic changes through time, suggesting that their basins were stable for 1200 and 400 yr, respectively. The changes in diatom stratigraphy of these lakes appear to relate to natural limnological changes associated with lake maturation and accumulation of nutrients as well as to changes in the surrounding vegetation and soils.

Alaska↗
USGS2017

Biostratigraphic correlation of Pleistocene marine deposits and sea levels, Atlantic coastal plain of the southeastern United States

Marine ostracodes from 50 localities were studied to determine the age and elevation of Pleistocene sea levels in the Atlantic coastal plain from Maryland to northern Florida. Using ostracode taxon and concurrent ranges, published planktic biostratigraphic, paleomagnetic, and radiometric data, ostracode assemblage zones representing early (1.8-1.0 my), middle (0.7-0.4 my), and late (0.3-0.01 my) Pleistocene deposition were recognized and used as a basis for correlation. Ostracode biofacies signifying lagoonal, oyster bank, estuarine, open sound, and inner sublittoral environments provided estimated ranges of paleodepths for each locality. From these data the following minimum and maximum Pleistocene sea-level estimates were determined for the southeastern coastal plain: late Pleistocene, 2–10 m from Maryland to northern Florida; middle Pleistocene, 6–15 m in northern South Carolina; early Pleistocene, 4–22 m in central North Carolina, 13–35 m in southern North Carolina, and 6–27 m in South Carolina. Climatically induced glacio-eustatic sea-level fluctuations adequately account for the late Pleistocene sea-level data, but other factors, possibly differential crustal uplift, may have complicated the early Pleistocene record.

Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South ↗
USGS2017

The origin and distribution of subbottom sediments in southern Lake Champlain

Three units, correlatable with recent Lake Champlain, late-glacial marine Champlain Sea, and proglacial Lake Vermont sediments, have been identified from about 200 km of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles and eight piston cores collected in southern Lake Champlain. Lake Vermont deposits are nonfossiliferous and range from thin to absent nearshore and on bedrock highs to more than 126 m thick near Split Rock Point. Champlain Sea sediments contain marine foraminifers and ostracodes and are fairly uniform in thickness (20–30 m). Recent Lake Champlain sediments range in thickness from 0 to 25 m. Average sedimentation rates for Lake Vermont are considerably higher (4–8 cm/yr) than those for the Champlain Sea (0.8–1.2 cm/yr) and Lake Champlain (0.14–0.15 cm/yr). Bedrock, till, and deltaic and alluvial deposits were also identified on the acoustic records but were not sampled. An unconformity separating Champlain Sea deposits from Lake Champlain deposits is associated with numerous benches at water depths of 20–30 m. These benches, the alluvial deposits, and the onset of deltaic deposition are probably associated with a low water level stillstand at the close of the Champlain Sea episode.

New York, Vermont↗
USGS2017

Ice-sheet glaciation of the Puget lowland, Washington, during the Vashon Stade (late Pleistocene)

During the Vashon Stade of the Fraser Glaciation, about 15,000–13,000 yr B.P., a lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet occupied the Puget lowland of western Washington. At its maximum extent about 14,000 yr ago, the ice sheet extended across the Puget lowland between the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains and terminated about 80 km south of Seattle. Meltwater streams drained southwest to the Pacific Ocean and built broad outwash trains south of the ice margin. Reconstructed longitudinal profiles for the Puget lobe at its maximum extent are similar to the modern profile of Malaspina Glacier, Alaska, suggesting that the ice sheet may have been in a near-equilibrium state at the glacial maximum. Progressive northward retreat from the terminal zone was accompanied by the development of ice-marginal streams and proglacial lakes that drained southward during initial retreat, but northward during late Vashon time. Relatively rapid retreat of the Juan de Fuca lobe may have contributed to partial stagnation of the northwestern part of the Puget lobe. Final destruction of the Puget lobe occurred when the ice retreated north of Admiralty Inlet. The sea entered the Puget lowland at this time, allowing the deposition of glacial-marine sediments which now occur as high as 50 m altitude. These deposits, together with ice-marginal meltwater channels presumed to have formed above sea level during deglaciation, suggest that a significant amount of postglacial isostatic and(or) tectonic deformation has occurred in the Puget lowland since deglaciation.

Washington↗
USGS2017

Dated wood from Alaska and the Yukon: Implications for forest refugia in Beringia

Postulations on the existence of forest refugia in parts of Beringia during the last glacial have been, in large part, based on ambiguous evidence. Existing data on radiocarbon-dated and identified fossil wood and macrofossils from Alaska and northwest Canada are synthesized here and are augmented by results of palynological studies in an effort to show the persistence of some, and total extinction of other, tree and large shrub species. Possible dispersal routes taken by species that reinvaded Beringia in postglacial times are also reconstructed from the fossil record. Macrofossil and pollen evidence, when combined with climatic factors, makes cottonwood a good candidate for survival during the last glacial. Larch and aspen are also candidates, though the evidence for them is less positive. Pollen and macrofossils of alder are very scarce in deposits of the last glacial age, and if it survived at all, it was probably in very isolated vegetatively reproducing clones. Shrub birch may have been present in Beringia, but tree birch probably was reintroduced during the Holocene. Spruce also appears to have been absent in Alaska from about 30,000 to 11,500 yr ago and probably reinvaded Beringia from a refugium south of the Laurentide ice sheet.

Alaska↗
USGS2017

Rock-weathering rates as functions of time

The scarcity of documented numerical relations between rock weathering and time has led to a common assumption that rates of weathering are linear. This assumption has been strengthened by studies that have calculated long-term average rates. However, little theoretical or empirical evidence exists to support linear rates for most chemical-weathering processes, with the exception of congruent dissolution processes. The few previous studies of rock-weathering rates that contain quantitative documentation of the relation between chemical weathering and time suggest that the rates of most weathering processes decrease with time. Recent studies of weathering rinds on basaltic and andesitic stones in glacial deposits in the western United States also clearly demonstrate that rock-weathering processes slow with time. Some weathering processes appear to conform to exponential functions of time, such as the square-root time function for hydration of volcanic glass, which conforms to the theoretical predictions of diffusion kinetics. However, weathering of mineralogically heterogeneous rocks involves complex physical and chemical processes that generally can be expressed only empirically, commonly by way of logarithmic time functions. Incongruent dissolution and other weathering processes produce residues, which are commonly used as measures of weathering. These residues appear to slow movement of water to unaltered material and impede chemical transport away from it. If weathering residues impede weathering processes then rates of weathering and rates of residue production are inversely proportional to some function of the residue thickness. This results in simple mathematical analogs for weathering that imply nonlinear time functions. The rate of weathering becomes constant only when an equilibrium thickness of the residue is reached. Because weathering residues are relatively stable chemically, and because physical removal of residues below the ground surface is slight, many weathering features require considerable time to reach constant rates of change. For weathering rinds on volcanic stones in the western United States, this time is at least 0.5 my.

Quaternary Research↗