Stratigraphy and paleomagnetism of Brunhes and Matuyama (>790 ka) Quaternary deposits at Merritt, British Columbia

1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Fulton ◽  
E. Irving ◽  
P. M. Wheadon

A succession of Quaternary deposits in the Merritt basin of south-central British Columbia contains evidence for four glaciations and two interglaciations. Paleomagnetic signatures in these sediments are of three types: normal polarity, proposed to have been acquired during the Brunhes Normal Polarity Chron; reversed polarity, proposed to have been acquired during the Matuyama Reversed Polarity Chron; and reversed polarity (Matuyama age) all but obscured by a normally magnetized overprint (Brunhes age).Reversely magnetized deposits at the base of the succession include glacial lacustrine deposits, interpreted as representing two different glaciations, and a paleosol and a succession of nonglacial sediments, which are evidence of two interglaciations. As the reversed polarity of these deposits is proposed to have been acquired during the Matuyama Reversed Polarity Chron, they are older than 790 ka.Normally magnetized deposits, which make up the rest of the succession, contain evidence for only two glaciations, but traces of other glaciations may have been removed during the erosion interval encompassed by a major unconformity that underlies deposits of the last glaciation. All are referred to the Brunhes Normal Polarity Zone. In addition to these glacial and interglacial deposits, a series of normally magnetized Quaternary basalt flows forms a bench 90 m above the floor of the basin. These basalts were extruded after 790 ka but before the penultimate glaciation.


2002 ◽  
Vol 80 (10) ◽  
pp. 1078-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E Mustoe

Middle Eocene lacustrine deposits in south-central British Columbia and north-central Washington state preserve two types of Ginkgo leaves. A morphotype characterized by deeply divided multiple lobes is herein described as Ginkgo dissecta sp.nov. Leaves that are either undivided or shallowly divided into bilobate symmetry are indistinguishable from foliage of extant Ginkgo biloba Linnaeus. These fossils contradict the widely held belief that only a single Ginkgo species, Ginkgo adiantoides (Unger) Heer, inhabited Cenozoic forests.Key words: British Columbia, Eocene, fossil, Ginkgo adiantoides, Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo dissecta, McAbee, Republic, Tertiary, Washington.



1999 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1357-1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olav B Lian ◽  
R W Barendregt ◽  
R J Enkin

Lithostratigraphic records spanning considerable parts of the Pleistocene were studied at three sites in south-central British Columbia. A sedimentary succession near Pavilion includes three distinctly different till units. While the surface till can be associated with the last glaciation (the Fraser Glaciation δ18O stage 2), the ages of the two older till units are presently unknown. However, optical dating of outwash silt resting on the oldest till indicates that this outwash unit and all the overlying units are younger than ~160 ka. In Big Bar Creek valley, about 50 km north of Pavilion, an aggradational sequence of indurated glaciofluvial sand, gravel, and till is exposed. A silt unit and a sand lens within an overlying till bed near the top of the section have reversed magnetization, indicating deposition prior to 780 ka, probably during the Matuyama chron. The Big Bar Creek sequence also includes glacio(?)fluvial sediments near the base that are normally magnetized, suggesting that they were deposited, at the latest, during the Jaramillo subchron (~1.0 Ma), but probably during the Gauss chron, before 2.6 Ma. Reversely magnetized glacio(?)fluvial gravel and sand also occur along Jesmond Road between the Marble Range and Edge Hills. These units give support for the development of at least one Cordilleran ice sheet in the Early Pleistocene or Late Pliocene.



1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 829-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Bardoux ◽  
E. Irving

The middle Eocene Marron volcanics (mean age 52 ± 2 Ma) of the Kelowna outlier form the upper part of the hanging wall of the westerly dipping Okanagan Valley fault (OVF) in south-central British Columbia. They overlie Quesnellia. The OVF is currently interpreted as the westernmost member of a network of low-angle extension faults in the southern Omenica belt. The OVF was active in the middle Eocene at much the same time that the Marron volcanics were cooling. Relative to present horizontal, the magnetizations are widely scattered (Fisher's precision parameter k = 8) and after correction for bedding attitudes, there is no significant improvement (k = 9). Evidently, some magnetizations were acquired before (referred to as category 1) and others after (category 2) tilting; that is, the horizontal plane at the time of magnetization sometimes did and sometimes did not coincide with the bedding plane. Partial unfolding experiments, carried out on the two categories separately, yield a precision comparable to that expected for paleosecular variation, and a mean direction (D, I) of 352°, 70° (24 sites spanning 2000 m, 275 specimens, k = 23, α95 = 6°, paleopole 86°N, 230°E, A95 = 10°). The Marron is predominantly normally magnetized. Rock units slightly older and others slightly younger are reversely magnetized. The transition from reversed to normal polarity occurs in basal beds of the Marron Formation. The overall mean direction of the Marron and stratigraphically adjacent units is 352°, 69 °(28 sites, 300 specimens, spaning 4000 m, k = 21, α95 = 6°), yielding a paleopole at 85°N, 197°E (A95 = 10°), which is in excellent agreement with that for middle Eocene rocks of cratonic North America. Hence this part of Quesnellia had reached its present position relative to North America by middle Eocene time, and there has been no significant rotation of it. In contrast, the mean direction (020°, 72°, k = 9, α95 = 11°) after correction for bedding (calculated assuming the magnetization to be entirely pretilting) implies a clockwise rotation of 28°. We believe that this is incorrect; the apparent rotation, we argue, is caused by wrongly assuming that the bedding plane always coincides with the paleohorizontal at the time magnetism is acquired.Further tests have been carried out on intrusive and metamorphic core-complex rocks in the region of Eocene crustal extension 100 km to the east of Kelowna. These rocks are coeval with the Marron, and are located in both the hanging walls and footwalls of the Slocan Lake normal extension fault, which dips 30° eastward. Paleodirections are very different from those at Kelowna (four bodies, mean direction (D, I) 60°, 52°, k = 66, α95 = 6°), and we argue that this divergence is caused by tilting 37 ± 10° to the west antithetical to the Slocan Lake fault. We suggest that paleomagnetism provides a means by which tilts in such plutonic and metamorphic terrains can be determined. We suggest further that such tilts may have been responsible for some of the aberrant magnetizations observed in plutonic rocks of the Coast Plutonic Complex being much more widespread in the cordillera than previously envisioned.



2004 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 164
Author(s):  
George W. Douglas

In Canada, Lemmon's Holly Fern, Polystichum lemmonii, is restricted to the Baldy Mountain area on the eastern side of the Okanagan River valley in south-central British Columbia. This population represents the northern limits of the species which ranges south through northern Idaho, Washington and Oregon to northern California. In British Columbia, P. lemmonii is associated with ultramafic rocky ridges within a montane forest at an elevation of 1900 m. The population in the Baldy Mountain area is relatively small, unprotected and potentially imperilled by mining exploration, forest road construction or wildfires.



2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
George W. Douglas ◽  
Jenifer L. Penny ◽  
Ksenia Barton

In Canada, Dwarf Woolly-heads, Psilocarphus brevissimus var. brevissimus, is restricted to the Similkameen River valley, south of Princeton in southwestern British Columbia and the extreme southeast and southwest corners of Alberta and Saskatchewan, respectively. This paper deals with the three British Columbia populations which represent the northwestern limit of the species which ranges from south-central British Columbia, southward in the western United States to Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, California and Baja California, Mexico. In British Columbia, P. brevissimus is associated with calcareous vernal pools and ephemeral pond edges in large forest openings. This habitat is rare in the area the few existing populations could easily be extirpated or degraded through slight changes in groundwater levels, coalbed methane gas drilling, housing development or recreational vehicles.



2010 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Landolt ◽  
D. Thomas Lowery ◽  
Lawrence C. Wright ◽  
Constance Smithhisler ◽  
Christelle Gúedot ◽  
...  

AbstractLarvae of Abagrotis orbis (Grote) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are climbing cutworms and can damage grapevines, Vitis vinifera L. (Vitaceae), in early spring by consuming expanding buds. A sex attractant would be useful for monitoring this insect in commercial vineyards. (Z)-7-Tetradecenyl acetate and (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate were found in extracts of female abdominal tips. In multiple field experiments, male A. orbis were captured in traps baited with a combination of these two chemicals but not in traps baited with either chemical alone. Males were trapped from mid-September to early October in south-central Washington and south-central British Columbia. Other noctuid moths (Mamestra configurata Walker, Xestia c-nigrum (L.), and Feltia jaculifera (Guenée)) were also captured in traps baited with the A. orbis pheromone and may complicate the use of this lure to monitor A. orbis. Abagrotis discoidalis (Grote) was captured in traps baited with (Z)-7-tetradecenyl acetate but not in traps baited with the two chemicals together.



2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Teresa A. Newsome ◽  
Jean L. Heineman ◽  
Amanda F. Linnell Nemec

Critical height ratios for predicting competition between trembling aspen and lodgepole pine were identified in six juvenile stands in three south-central British Columbia ecosystems. We used a series of regression analyses predicting pine stem diameter from the density of neighbouring aspen in successively shorter relative height classes to identify the aspen-pine height ratio that maximizedR2. Critical height ratios varied widely among sites when stands were 8–12 years old but, by age 14–19, had converged at 1.25–1.5. MaximumR2values at age 14–19 ranged from 13.4% to 69.8%, demonstrating that the importance of aspen competition varied widely across a relatively small geographic range. Logistic regression also indicated that the risk of poor pine vigour in the presence of aspen varied between sites. Generally, the degree of competition, risk to pine vigour, and size of individual aspen contributing to the models declined along a gradient of decreasing ecosystem productivity.



1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 1669-1672 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.N. Church

New localities of shackanite and related analcite-bearing lavas have been discovered in a broad field of early Tertiary phonolite and mafic phonolite in south-central British Columbia. The development of primary and secondary analcite in these rocks is probably the result of cooling lava during and shortly after extrusion.The possibility of leucite to analcite transformation in Daly's shackanite is unlikely because of lack of petrographic evidence and a preponderance of Na2O over K2O in bulk rock composition. It is also unlikely that analcite, and particularly groundmass analcite, crystallized at great depth and was transported to surface during eruption.



1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 2578-2592 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Hillhouse

Paleomagnetic evidence indicates that the extensive early Mesozoic basalt field near McCarthy, south-central Alaska, originated far south of its present position relative to North America. Results obtained from the Middle and (or) Upper Triassic Nikolai Greenstone suggest that those basalts originated within 15° of the paleoequator. This position is at least 27° (3000 km) south of the Upper Triassic latitude predicted for McCarthy on the basis of paleomagnetic data from continental North America. The Nikolai pole, as determined from 50 flows sampled at 5 sites, is at 2.2° N, 146.1° E (α95 = 4.8°). The polarity of the pole is ambiguous, because the corresponding magnetic direction has a low inclination and a westerly declination. Therefore, the Nikolai may have originated near 15° N latitude or, alternatively, as far south as 15° S latitude. In addition to being displaced northward, the Nikolai block has been rotated roughly 90° about the vertical axis. A measure of the reliability of this pole is provided by favorable results from the following tests: (1) Within one stratigraphic section, normal and reversed directions from consecutive flows are antipolar. (2) Consistent directions were obtained from sites 30 km apart. (3) Application of the fold test indicated the magnetization was acquired before the rocks were folded. (4) The magnetizations of several pilot specimens are thermally stable up to 550 °C. The stable component is probably carried by magnetite with lamellar texture, a primary feature commonly acquired by a basalt at high temperature during initial cooling of the magma. Geologic and paleomagnetic evidence indicates that the Nikolai is allochthonous to Alaska and that, together with associated formations in southern Alaska and British Columbia, it is part of a now disrupted equatorial terrane.



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