POST-LGM WIND INTENSITIES FROM GRAIN SIZE PARTITIONING OF LATE QUATERNARY LOESS AT THE DRY CREEK ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE, NENANA VALLEY, ALASKA

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyndsay DiPietro ◽  
◽  
Steven G. Driese ◽  
Jane Harvill ◽  
Tyler Nelson
2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyndsay M. DiPietro ◽  
Steven G. Driese ◽  
Tyler W. Nelson ◽  
Jane L. Harvill

AbstractA high-resolution column of 57 loess samples was collected from the Dry Creek archaeological site in the Nenana River Valley in central Alaska. Numerical grain-size partitioning using a mixed Weibull function was performed on grain-size distributions to obtain a reconstructed record of wind intensity over the last ~15,000 yr. Two grain-size components were identified, one with a mode in the coarse silt range (C1) and the other ranging from medium to very coarse sand (C2). C1 dominates most samples and records regional northerly winds carrying sediment from the Nenana River. These winds were strong during cold intervals, namely, the Carlo Creek glacial readvance (14.2–14 ka), a late Holocene Neoglacial period (4.2–2.7 ka), and recent glacier expansion; weak during the Allerød (14–13.3 ka) and Younger Dryas (12.9–11.7 ka); and variable during the Holocene thermal maximum (11.4–9.4 ka). Deposition of C2 was episodic and represents locally derived sand deposited by southerly katabatic winds from the Alaska Range. These katabatic winds occurred mainly prior to 12 ka and after 4 ka. This study shows that numerical grain-size partitioning is a powerful tool for reconstructing paleoclimate and that it can be successfully applied to Alaskan loess.


Radiocarbon ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (2A) ◽  
pp. 473-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Haas ◽  
Vance Holliday ◽  
Robert Stuckenrath

The Lubbock Lake site, on the Southern High Plains of Texas, contains one of the most complete and best-dated late Quaternary records in North America. A total of 11714C dates arc available from the site, determined by the Smithsonian and SMU Laboratories. Of these dates, 84 have been derived from residues (humin) and humates (humic acids) of organic-rich marsh sediments and A horizons of buried soils. Most of the ages are consistent with dates determined on charcoal and wood, and with the archaeologic and stratigraphic record. The dates on the marsh sediments are approximate points in time. Dates from the top of buried A-horizons are a maximum for burial and in many cases are close to the actual age of burial. Dates from the base of the A-horizons are a minimum for the beginning of soil formation, in some cases as much as several thousand years younger than the initiation of pedogenesis. A few pairs of dates were obtained from humin and humic acid derived from split samples; there are no consistencies in similarities or differences in these age pairs. It also became apparent that dates determined on samples from scraped trench walls or excavations that were left open for several years are younger than dates from samples taken from exactly the same locations when the sampling surfaces were freshly excavated.


Author(s):  
Christopher R. Moore ◽  
Mark J. Brooks ◽  
I. Randolph Daniel ◽  
Andrew H. Ivester ◽  
James K. Feathers ◽  
...  

Archaeological site investigations on the South Atlantic Coastal Plain have revealed stratified cultural remains in sand deposits of mixed aeolian and fluvial origins, aeolian sand sheets and dunes, alluvial terraces, and Carolina Bay rims. These sites are typically shallow but have yielded discernible archaeostratigraphy within sand dominated deposits by using luminescence dating (OSL), AMS radiocarbon dating, and close interval sediment sampling. Periods of site burial are linked to regional and global paleoclimate records, including Bond events, and provide broader reconstructions for human ecology and periods of site burial.


1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Waters ◽  
Steven L. Forman ◽  
James M. Pierson

AbstractDiring Yuriakh, an archaeological site on the highest terrace of the Lena River in subarctic eastern Siberia, provides evidence for the oldest and northern-most Early Paleolithic occupation in Asia. Stratigraphic and sedimentological studies at the site show that artifacts occur on a single eolian deflation surface that is underlain by fluvial sediments with inset cryogenic sand wedges and overlain by eolian deposits. Thermoluminescence ages on the fine-grained extracts from the eolian sediments and sand wedges that bound the artifact level indicate that the occupation occurred >260,000 yr B.P. and may possibly date between 270,000 and 370,000 yr B.P. This study documents that the artifacts from Diring Yuriakh are an order of magnitude older than artifacts from any previously reported site from Siberia. The antiquity and subarctic location of Diring Yuriakh indicates that people developed a subsistence strategy capable of surviving rigorous conditions in Siberia by ≥260,000 yr B.P.


2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 23672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt O'Regan ◽  
Emma Sellén ◽  
Martin Jakobsson

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (7) ◽  
pp. 763-775
Author(s):  
John T. Andrews ◽  
Kimberley A. Jenner ◽  
Calvin Campbell

ABSTRACT We evaluate the linkages between lithofacies and mineral composition of late Quaternary sediments along the Baffin Slope for cores 2013029 64, 74, and 77. Four major lithofacies were identified: diamicton (L1), laminated red-brown mud (L2), tan carbonate mud (L3), and brown bioturbated mud (L4). In addition, gold-brown mud (L2a) beds were identified within red-brown mud throughout the Baffin margin and a thin, locally distributed light gray mud (L2b), also identified within red-brown mud, was localized to the Home Bay region. A classification decision tree (CDT) correctly predicted ∼ 87% of the lithofacies based on five binary choices based on the estimated weight %s of (in order): quartz, kaolinite, plagioclase, iron oxides, and smectites. The detrital tan carbonate (DC) minerals, calcite and dolomite, did not appear in the chosen CDT solution although this lithofacies is easily recognized in cores because of its tan color and the facies is well predicted in the CDT. The addition of grain size did not substantially improve the prediction of the lithofacies although it did change the % importance of the minerals in the CDT.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tengfei Song ◽  
Claude Hillaire-Marcel ◽  
Yanguang Liu

<p>In addition to <sup>14</sup>C-data, sedimentary excesses in <sup>230</sup>Th  (<sup>230</sup>Th<sub>xs</sub>) in central Arctic Ocean cored sequences yielded critical time constrains and sedimentation rates estimates, at least, at sites characterized by very low sedimentation rates (<< 1cm/ka). Closer to the Russian margin, where higher accumulation rates are recorded based on <sup>14</sup>C-ages, the setting of a reliable stratigraphy based on <sup>230</sup>Th<sub>xs</sub> reveals more challenging, as illustrated here, based on the analysis of  a gravity core raised from the southern Mendeleev Ridge (core ARC7-E25; -179.4°E, 79.0°N; 1200 m water depth; 320 cm long). Subsamples were collected at a 4 to 8 cm interval. Measurements included: AMS <sup>14</sup>C in foraminifera, grain size, bulk Xray mineralogy, clay mineralogy, geochemistry (C<sub>org</sub>, C<sub>inorg</sub>,<sup>13</sup>C<sub>org</sub>, <sup>238</sup>U, <sup>234</sup>U, <sup>230</sup>Th, <sup>226</sup>Ra, <sup>210</sup>Pb). Data indicate that some sediment were lost at core top. Nevertheless, <sup>14</sup>C and <sup>230</sup>Th<sub>xs  </sub>data allow estimating a mean sedimentation rate of about 6 to 7 mm/ka during the last two climatic cycles. A comparison of the <sup>230</sup>Th<sub>xs </sub>inventory and distribution pattern with those from other cores allows identifying important parameters involved in the cycling of the water column-produced <sup>230</sup>Th in this basin and its sporadic sedimentary accumulation, in particular linkages with sea-ice production over shelves, thus sea-levels, sea-ice rafting routes, grain-size and mineralogy, potential winnowing of fine fractions, role of brines and relative duration of intervals with reduced or nil sedimentation preceding <sup>230</sup>Th<sub>xs</sub>-accumulation intervals.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 230-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten A. Prins ◽  
Mirjam Vriend ◽  
Govert Nugteren ◽  
Jef Vandenberghe ◽  
Huayu Lu ◽  
...  

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