A loess–paleosol record of climate and glacial history over the past two glacial–interglacial cycles (~ 150 ka), southern Jackson Hole, Wyoming

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Pierce ◽  
Daniel R. Muhs ◽  
Maynard A. Fosberg ◽  
Shannon A. Mahan ◽  
Joseph G. Rosenbaum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Climatic Oscillations ◽  
Jackson Hole ◽  
Glacial Flour ◽  
Loess Deposition ◽  
Mineral Magnetic ◽  
Mis 5E ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractLoess accumulated on a Bull Lake outwash terrace of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6 (MIS 6) age in southern Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The 9 m section displays eight intervals of loess deposition (Loess 1 to Loess 8, oldest), each followed by soil development. Our age-depth model is constrained by thermoluminescence, meteoric 10Be accumulation in soils, and cosmogenic 10Be surface exposure ages. We use particle size, geochemical, mineral-magnetic, and clay mineralogical data to interpret loess sources and pedogenesis. Deposition of MIS 6 loess was followed by a tripartite soil/thin loess complex (Soils 8, 7, and 6) apparently reflecting the large climatic oscillations of MIS 5. Soil 8 (MIS 5e) shows the strongest development. Loess 5 accumulated during a glacial interval (~ 76–69 ka; MIS 4) followed by soil development under conditions wetter and probably colder than present. Deposition of thick Loess 3 (~ 43–51 ka, MIS 3) was followed by soil development comparable with that observed in Soil 1. Loess 1 (MIS 2) accumulated during the Pinedale glaciation and was followed by development of Soil 1 under a semiarid climate. This record of alternating loess deposition and soil development is compatible with the history of Yellowstone vegetation and the glacial flour record from the Sierra Nevada.

A quantitative midge-based reconstruction of mean July air temperature from a high-elevation site in central Colorado, USA, for MIS 6 and 5

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle R. Haskett ◽  
David F. Porinchu
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Subfossil Chironomids ◽  
Air Temperatures ◽  
Fossil Site ◽  
Colorado Rockies ◽  
Mis 5E ◽  
Mis 5

AbstractSediments recovered from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site (ZRFS) in Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) were analyzed for subfossil chironomids (or midges). The midge stratigraphy spans ~140–77 ka, which includes the end of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 and all of MIS 5. Notable shifts in midge assemblages occurred during two discrete intervals: the transition from MIS 6 to MIS 5e and midway through MIS 5a. A regional calibration set, incorporating lakes from the Colorado Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and Uinta Mountains, was used to develop a midge-based mean July air temperature (MJAT) inference model (r2jack = 0.61, RMSEP = 0.97°C). Model results indicate that the transition from MIS 6 to MIS 5e at the ZRFS was characterized by an increase in MJAT from ~9.0 to 10.5°C. The results also indicate that temperatures gradually increased through MIS 5 before reaching a maximum of 13.3°C during MIS 5a. This study represents the first set of quantitative, midge-based MJAT estimates in the continental U.S. that spans the entirety of MIS 5. Overall, our results suggest that conditions in the Colorado Rockies throughout MIS 5 were cooler than today, as the upper limit of the reconstructed temperatures is ~2°C below modern July air temperatures.

Soil Development Parameters in the Absence of a Chronosequence in a Glaciated Basin of the White Mountains, California-Nevada

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry W. Swanson ◽  
Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk ◽  
Randel J. Southard
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Selection Strategy ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Surface Erosion ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
White Mountains ◽  
Soil Age ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractDetailed mapping and provisional numerical age determinations of glacial deposits in the South Chiatovich Creek Basin of the White Mountains provide an opportunity to evaluate the ability of conventional soil parameters to discriminate first- and second-order glacial events. Sampling and analytical procedures were designed to minimize variation in climate and lithology. When lithology and climate are similar among sites, age trends are more pronounced in both field and chemical soil properties. Profile development indices (PDIs), adjusted by removing melanization and pH, systematically increase with greater soil age, and discriminate first-order, but not second-order, glacial events. The best-fit curve for adjusted PDI data assumes an exponential form and suggests that the rate of soil formation in this region decreases over time, similar to the rate of weathering-rind development. Variation in eolian influx and surface erosion, which are dominant processes affecting soils of the basin, cause major uncertainties in establishing soil age and, hence, soil-development rates. Even on the youngest glacial deposits, soil age is probably significantly less than deposit age due to these geomorphic processes. Soil and weathering parameters imply that these field techniques can be inexpensively employed to define relative chronologies and to assess surface degradation and its impact on surface exposure ages. Results from this study indicate that site-selection strategy for establishing glacial chronologies should be reevaluated. Working with stable residual bedrock surfaces and associated low-relief outwash fans and terraces may prove more productive than focusing on relatively unstable moraine surfaces in tectonically active mountain systems.

scholarly journals Climatic implications of the Quaternary fluvial tufa record in the NE Iberian Peninsula over the last 500 ka

2015 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Sancho ◽  
Concha Arenas ◽  
Marta Vázquez-Urbez ◽  
Gonzalo Pardo ◽  
María Victoria Lozano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Orbital Forcing ◽  
Precipitation Regime ◽  
Fluvial Systems ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Amino Acid Racemization ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
Mis 5E ◽  
Ne Iberian Peninsula

The drainage area of the Iberian Ranges (NE Spain) houses one of the most extensive Quaternary fluvial tufaceous records in Europe. In this study, tufa deposits in the Añamaza, Mesa, Piedra and Ebrón river valleys were mapped, stratigraphically described and chronologically referenced from U/Th disequilibrium series, amino acid racemization and radiocarbon methods. Tufa deposits accumulated in cascades, barrage-cascades and related damming areas developed in stepped fluvial systems. The maximum frequency of tufa deposition was identified at 120 ka (Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage [MIS] 5e), 102 ka (MIS 5c), 85 ka (~ MIS 5a) and 7 ka (MIS 1), probably under warmer and wetter conditions than today. Additional phases of tufa deposition appear at ~ 353 ka (~ end of MIS 11), 258–180 ka (MIS 7) and 171–154 ka (MIS 6). Although most tufa deposition episodes are clearly correlated with interstadial periods, the occurrence of tufa deposits during the penultimate glaciation (MIS 6) is remarkable, indicating that the onset of this stage was climatically favourable in the Iberian Peninsula. Biostatic conditions and the dynamics of karstic systems regulating tufa deposition seem to be sensitive to the precipitation regime, controlled by shifts in the position of North Atlantic atmospheric belts, and summer insolation, regulated by orbital forcing.

Stratigraphy and timing of eolianite deposition on Rottnest Island, Western Australia

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Hearty
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
The West ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Amino Acid Racemization ◽  
Marine Deposits ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Radiometric Ages ◽  
Mis 5E

AbstractOver 100 whole-rock amino acid racemization (AAR) ratios from outcrops around Rottnest Island (32.0° S Latitude near Perth) indicate distinct pulses of eolian deposition during the late Quaternary. Whole-rock d-alloisoleucine/l-isoleucine (A/I) ratios from bioclastic carbonate deposits fall into three distinct modal classes or “aminozones.” The oldest, Aminozone E, averages 0.33 ± 0.04 (n = 21). Red palaeosol and thick calcrete generally cap the Aminozone E deposits. A younger Aminozone C averages 0.22 ± 0.03 (n = 63); comprising two submodes at 0.26 ± 0.01 (n = 14) and 0.21 ± 0.02 (n = 49). Multiple dune sets of this interval are interrupted by relatively weak, brown to tan “protosols.” A dense, dark brown rendzina palaeosol caps the Aminozone C succession. Ratios from Holocene dune and marine deposits (“Aminozone A”) center on 0.11 ± 0.02 (n = 15), comprising submodes of 0.13 ± 0.01 (9) and 0.09 ± 0.01 (6). Calibration of A/I averages from Aminozones E and A are provided by U/Th and 14C radiometric ages of 125,000 yr (marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 5e and 2000–6000 14C yr B.P. (MIS 1), respectively. The whole-rock A/I results support periodic deposition initiated during MIS 5e, continuing through MIS 5c, and then peaking at the end of MIS 5a, about 70,000–80,000 yr ago. Oceanographic evidence indicates the area was subjected to much colder conditions during MIS 2–4 (10,000 to 70,000 yr ago), greatly slowing the epimerization rate. Eolianite deposition resumed in the mid Holocene (∼6000 yr ago) up to the present. The A/I epimerization pathway constructed from Rottnest Island shows remarkable similarity to that of Bermuda in the North Atlantic (32° N Latitude). These findings suggest that, like Bermuda, the eolian activity on Rottnest occurred primarily during or shortly after interglacial highstands when the shoreline was near the present datum, rather than during glacial lowstands when the coastline was positioned 10–20 km to the west.

Evidence for a 55–50 ka (early Wisconsin) glaciation of the Cordilleran ice sheet, Yukon Territory, Canada

2007 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent C. Ward ◽  
Jeffrey D. Bond ◽  
John C. Gosse
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Canadian Cordillera ◽  
Aleutian Low ◽  
Climatic Forcing ◽  
Apparent Contrast ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Source Areas ◽  
Cordilleran Ice Sheet ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractCosmogenic 10Be ages on boulders of 54–51 ka (n=4) on a penultimate Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS) drift confirm that Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 (early Wisconsin) glaciation was extensive in parts of Yukon Territory, the first confirmed evidence in the Canadian Cordillera. We name the glaciation inferred from the mapped and dated drift the Gladstone. These results are in apparent contrast to the MIS 6 (Illinoian) age of the penultimate Reid glaciation to the east in central Yukon but are equivalent to exposure ages on MIS 4 drift in Alaska. Contrasting penultimate ice extents in Yukon requires that different source areas of the northern CIS in Yukon responded differently to climatic forcing during glaciations. The variation in glacier extent for different source areas likely relates to variation in precipitation during glaciation, as the northern CIS was a precipitation-limited system. Causes for a variation in precipitation remain unclear but likely involve the style of precipitation delivery over the St. Elias Mountains possibly related to variations in the Aleutian low.

Soils of the Plio-Pleistocene: do they distinguish types of interglacial?

1988 ◽  
Vol 318 (1191) ◽  
pp. 539-557 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Soil Features ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Climatic Characteristics ◽  
Mathematical Relations ◽  
Approximate Rate

Soils form on land surfaces by the actions of physical, chemical and biological processes on the lithosphere, and are influenced by climate, parent material, relief, organisms and duration of formation. Remnants of Plio-Pleistocene soils may be buried beneath younger deposits or persist on present land surfaces. Their potential for rigorously differentiating interglacials by climatic characteristics is limited by problems of: (i) precise dating of the beginning and end of soil-forming periods; (ii) distinguishing characteristics attributable to climatic factors from those related to parent material, relief, etc; (iii) calculating mathematical relations between measurable soil features and climatic variables; (iv) diagenetic changes in buried soils; (v) recognition and dating of relict features in unburied soils; (vi) loss of many soils by erosion. Some of these problems may be overcome if sequences of buried soils in periglacial loess deposits are used to compare the climates of successive interglacials in Europe and Asia. With the use of the length of interglacials derived from the oceanic record, the interglacials of the past million years are ranked according to approximate rate of soil development in loess. Two provisional equations relating soil development to time and climate are used; a linear relation probably overestimates the effect of time, and a logarithmic one seems to underestimate it. I tentatively suggest that oceanic oxygen-isotope stage 5e was warmer and wetter than the Holocene, stages 7 and 9 were cooler and drier than 5e, and 13-23 were generally warmer and wetter than 1-11.

Radiocarbon and Cation-Radio Ages for Rock Varnish on Tioga and Tahoe Marainal Boulders of Pine Creek, Eastern Sierra Nevada, California, and their Paleoclimatic Implications

1987 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald I. Dorn ◽  
Brent D. Turrin ◽  
A. J. Timothy Jull ◽  
Timothy W. Linick ◽  
Douglas J. Donahue
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Effective Period ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
Rock Varnish ◽  
Pine Creek ◽  
Cation Ratio ◽  
Eastern Sierra Nevada

AbstractAccelerator mass spectrometry 14C analyses of organic matter extracted from rock varnishes on morainal boulders yield limiting minimum ages for three crests of the Tioga glaciation. At Pine Creek in the eastern Sierra Nevada, varnish started to form on boulders of the outermost Tioga moraine before 19,000 yr B.P., and varnish originated on the innermost Tioga moraine before 13,200 yr B.P. Comparisons with lake-level, paleohydrological, paleoecological, colluvial, and rock varnish micromorphological data indicate that central-eastern California and western Nevada experienced a moisture-effective period during the late Pleistocene but after the Tioga maximum, and perhaps as Tioga glaciers receded from the mouth of Pine Creek canyon. Varnishes on Tahoeage morainal boulders at Pine Creek have cation-ratio ages of about 143,000–156,000 yr B.P., suggesting that the Tahoe glaciation should not be correlated with oxygen-isotope stage 4 in the early Wisconsin, but rather with stage 6. Varnishes on morainal boulders of an older glaciation at Pine Creek are dated by cation ratio at about 182,000–187,000 yr B.P.

scholarly journals Palaeosols within Loess: Dating Palaeoclimatic Events in Kashmir

Radiocarbon ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (2A) ◽  
pp. 561-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheela Kusumgar ◽  
D P Agrawal ◽  
Navin Juyal ◽  
Prabhakar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Pollen Data ◽  
Climatic Oscillations ◽  
Stable Isotopic ◽  
Mineral Magnetic

The 14C dates of Kashmir loess-palaeosols form five clusters. The dates, mineral magnetic, stable isotopic, and pollen data help decipher major climatic oscillations as distinct from the minor ones.

scholarly journals Eemian estuarine record forced by glacio-isostasy (southern Iceland)—link with Greenland and deep sea records

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Van Vliet-Lanoë ◽  
Jean-Luc Schneider ◽  
Águst Guðmundsson ◽  
Hervé Guillou ◽  
Sébastien Nomade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Core ◽  
Sedimentary Facies ◽  
Last Deglaciation ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Glacial Retreat ◽  
Cold Events ◽  
Loess Deposition ◽  
The Last Deglaciation ◽  
Mis 5E ◽  
Glacial Advance

Central southern Iceland is one of the main outlets of the Icelandic Ice Sheet where a MIS 5e sedimentary complex, the Rangá Formation, is extensively observed below the last deglaciation terminal moraines. Sedimentary facies demonstrate that the Rangá Formation is mostly tidal, up to 215 m (transgression I) and 168 m (transgression II) in altitude. The first highstand reworks a thick tephra from the Grimsvötn volcano, known in marine cores as 5e low/Bas-IV and positioned at ca. 127 Ka BP, the Eemian thermal optimum. This formation is related to a rapid deglaciation followed by two marine transgressions marked by the development of extended mud flats, which were separated by a complex regression phase, associated with loess deposition, ca. 9 Ka in duration. Palaeo jökulhlaups, basaltic flows, and tephra fallouts from the Hekla and Grimsvötn volcanoes affected the sedimentation. The Rangá Formation yields one of the first continuous and complete estuarine records of the Eemian interglacial in Iceland and probably for most of the northern terrestrial Atlantic. This estuarine infill records the distal signature of a complex glacial advance within the last interglacial, already well identified in northern and central Iceland. The glacial advance is attributed to the intra-Eemian cooling events (Greenland GS 26 or marine cold events M-C25-C26). It is followed by a warming and a glacial retreat corresponding to the Greenland GI 25 event. This formation allows, in connection with the timing of recognized volcanic periods, a better insight of the interconnections between sea-level, regional glacial extent, and Northern Hemisphere marine and ice core climatic records.

Three soil chronosequences in recessional glacial deposits near the polar plateau, in the Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua W. Scarrow ◽  
Megan R. Balks ◽  
Peter C. Almond
Keyword(s):  
Soil Chemistry ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Soil Thickness ◽  
Glacial Retreat ◽  
Soil Material ◽  
Transantarctic Mountains ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Landscape Units ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractSoil chronosequences in till deposits emplaced during glacial retreat in the Central Transantarctic Mountains are described. Discrepancies between the degree of soil development and reported cosmogenic surface exposure ages suggest slower, weaker soil development in this region than encountered in other areas of Antarctica. The study sites (Dominion Range, Mount Achernar and Ong Valley) were located between 83° and 85°S, at altitudes of 1600–2200 m, on the edge of the polar plateau. Soil landscape maps show a gradation of soil properties across landscape units that were designated as homogenous/single-event drifts in previous smaller-scale studies. Along transects away from the current ice edge, the depth to underlying ice thickened (from 2 cm to > 80 cm), soil became more weathered, saltier and less alkaline, and horizonation became more pronounced. Soil thickness, clast abundance and soil chemistry are all consistent with a two-layer mode of soil formation. We suggest that a thin, clast-rich surface horizon, originating from weathering of supraglacial debris, overlies a thick, clast-poor sublimation till. The supraglacial debris has a finite contribution to soil volume, whereas sublimation offers an ongoing source of soil material that thickens the soil from its base.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document