Soil Development as an Indication of Relative Age of Quaternary Deposits, Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter W. Birkeland
Keyword(s):  
Soil Development ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Quaternary Deposits ◽  
Relative Age

Hornblende etching and quartz/feldspar ratios as weathering and soil development indicators in some Michigan soils

2004 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie R. Mikesell ◽  
Randall J. Schaetzl ◽  
Michael A. Velbel
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Surficial Sediments ◽  
Time Duration ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Weathered Soils ◽  
Outwash Plain

Weathering can be used as a highly effective relative age indicator. One such application involves etching of hornblende grains in soils. Etching increases with time (duration) and decreases with depth in soils and surficial sediments. Other variables, related to intensity of weathering and soil formation, are generally held as constant as possible so as to only minimally influence the time–etching relationship. Our study focuses on one of the variables usually held constant–climate–by examining hornblende etching and quartz/feldspar ratios in soils of similar age but varying degrees of development due to climatic factors. We examined the assumption that the degree of etching varies as a function of soil development, even in soils of similar age. The Spodosols we studied form a climate-mediated development sequence on a 13,000-yr-old outwash plain in Michigan. Their pedogenic development was compared to weathering-related data from the same soils. In general, soils data paralleled weathering data. Hornblende etching was most pronounced in the A and E horizons, and decreased rapidly with depth. Quartz/feldspar ratios showed similar but more variable trends. In the two most weakly developed soils, the Q/F ratio was nearly constant with depth, implying that this ratio may not be as effective a measure as are etching data for minimally weathered soils. Our data indicate that hornblende etching should not be used as a stand-alone relative age indicator, especially in young soils and in contexts where the degree of pedogenic variability on the geomorphic surface is large.

Etching of Hornblende Grains in Arctic Soils: An Indicator of Relative Age and Paleoclimate

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Locke
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Unfrozen Water ◽  
Soil Profiles ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Climatic Parameter ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Arctic Soils ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Eastern Canadian Arctic

The degree of etching of hornblende grains in soils is defined as the mean depth of maximum etching on 100 grains per sample and is a function of: (1) the depth in the profile; (2) the age of the deposit on which the soil is formed; and (3) the climate since deposition. In soils formed on moraines in the eastern Canadian Arctic, etching decreases logarithmically with increasing depth in the profile, and the rate of etching at a given depth decreases logarithmically with increasing age. The most important climatic parameter with respect to etching appears to be the effective precipitation. Equally important in terms of soil moisture regimen is the presence of unfrozen water. Both affect the rate of etching as a function of depth and age. The inferred climate of northern Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, N.W.T., Canada, preceding, during, and following the last (Foxe) glaciation, is indicated by the degree of etching of hornblende grains in soil profiles of various ages as follows: pre-Foxe—warm/wet; early to middle Foxe—mild/moist; middle to late Foxe—cold/arid; Hypsithermal—mild/moist; Neoglacial—cool/dry.

scholarly journals Palaeo-ice streams in the northern Keewatin sector of the Laurentide ice sheet

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 135-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hernán De Angelis ◽  
Johan Kleman
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Ice Streams ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Ice Stream ◽  
Deep Interior ◽  
Ice Sheet Dynamics ◽  
Streaming Flow

AbstractEvidence for ice streams in the Laurentide ice sheet is widespread. In the region of northern Keewatin and the Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut, Canada, palaeo-ice streams have been recognized, but their location, size and potential role in ice-sheet dynamics are poorly constrained. Based on the interpretation of satellite imagery, we produce a palaeo-ice-stream map of this region. Glacial directional landforms, eskers and moraines were mapped and integrated into landform assemblages using a glacial geological inversion model. Palaeo-frozen bed areas were also identified. Relative age of the geomorphic swarms was assessed by cross-cutting relationships and radiocarbon ages where available. Using this information we obtained a glaciologically plausible picture of ice-stream evolution within the northernmost Laurentide ice sheet. On the M’Clintock Channel corridor, three generations of pure ice streams are found. On Baffin Island and the Gulf of Boothia, glaciation was dominated by frozen-bed zones located on high plateaus and ice streams running along the troughs, i.e. topographic ice streams. A massive convergent pattern at the head of Committee Bay drained ice from both the Keewatin and Foxe sectors and was probably one of the main deglaciation channels of the Laurentide ice sheet. Finally, our results indicate that streaming flow was present in the deep interior of the Laurentide ice sheet, as recently shown for the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

Mid-Holocene Erosion of Soil Catenas on Moraines near the Type Pinedale Till, Wind River Range, Wyoming

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis E. Dahms
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Type Locality ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Wind River Range ◽  
Age Studies

AbstractBuried soils are described from the floors of four kettles on Pinedale piedmont moraines of the southwestern Wind River Range, Wyoming, near the type locality of the Pinedale Till. The buried soils indicate that a previously unreported episode of slope erosion has occurred along adjacent catenas on some of the moraines in this region. Radiocarbon ages of the buried soils indicate that slope erosion occurred during the middle Holocene from 8540 ± 190 to 4800 ± 60 14C yr B.P. The presence of buried soils in moraine kettles indicates that profiles on the crests and backslopes of some of the moraines in this region are not the products of continuous post-Pinedale soil formation. Rather, the crest and backslope soils on Pinedale moraines result from two periods of soil development separated by an interval of erosion. Thus, soils on crests and backslopes are considered to be welded profiles. Relative-age studies that use soil data to estimate the age of moraines in this region must take into account the possibility that a mid-Holocene erosion episode affected the genesis and morphology of soils on the moraines. This study corroborates results of previous work that suggests that data from complete catenas are more useful for estimating the characteristic soil development on Quaternary moraines than are data derived from crests alone.

The late Quaternary geomorphic and paleoclimatic history of the Cape Dyer area, easternmost Baffin Island, N.W.T.

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1185-1198 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Locke
Keyword(s):  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Baffin Island ◽  
Dry Valleys ◽  
High Accumulation ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Ice Caps ◽  
Winter Insolation

The Cape Dyer area of easternmost Baffin Island was isolated from the Laurentide Ice Sheet by the fiords of Cumberland Peninsula. Accordingly, the glacial chronology at Cape Dyer is that of local ice only and is indicative of the local climate throughout the late Quaternary. Six drift units, representing three periods of restricted glaciation and three of expanded glaciation, are present. Beyond the most distal drift is an area that has not been modified by glaciation.The expanded glaciations were dated through correlation on the bases of moraine morphology, soil development, and amino-acid racemization in marine mollusc shells incorporated in the drifts. No maximum age can be assigned to the earliest glaciation in the Cape Dyer area, but the last major glacial advance occurred about 70 000 years BP. The presence of extensive glaciofluvial features, faunal indicators of warm ocean water, and rapid soil development indicate that major glaciations of the Cape Dyer area accompanied winters warmer than at present but summers sufficiently cool to allow ice advance.The restricted ice advances were dated through correlation on the bases of moraine morphology, soil development, and lichen cover to the period between 9000 years BP and the present. They indicate ice extent similar to or less than at present throughout the past 60 000 years, in response to climatic conditions that were colder and dryer than the present until 9000 years BP, then slightly warmer than the present.Correlation with indicators of hemispheric and global climate indicates both in-phase and out-of-phase relationships. Glaciations at Cape Dyer are in phase with periods of high accumulation on Arctic ice caps, ice rafting of sediment in the Labrador Sea, and computed summer-insolation minima – winter-insolation maxima at 65°N latitude. This is as would be expected given the climatic interpretations of the drifts. Glaciation of the Cape Dyer area is out of phase with global ice volume as indicated by oxygen isotopes, suggesting the Antarctic dry valleys as a modem climatic analog for the Pleistocene eastern Canadian Arctic. The record of ice extent, climatic interpretations, and proposed model for climatic change are in agreement with most previously published reconstructions.

Soil-Geomorphic Analysis of Late-Pleistocene Glacial Sequences in the McGee, Pine, and Bishop Creek Drainages, East-Central Sierra Nevada, California

1994 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Soil Properties ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Atmospheric Dust ◽  
East Central ◽  
Relative Age

AbstractLate-Pleistocene glacial sequences at McGee, Pine, and Bishop creeks, in the east-central Sierra Nevada, are resolvable into distinct relative-age groups on the basis of soil development, the weathering of surface and subsurface clasts, and geomorphic criteria. The data differentiate moraines from Tioga and Tahoe glaciations at McGee Creek, and Tioga, Tahoe, and pre-Tahoe/post-Sherwin glaciations at Pine and Bishop creeks; no moraines from a Tenaya glaciation are differentiated by the data, perhaps because the soil-geomorphic methods are not sensitive enough to resolve small age differences between moraines. The lack of fine age resolution is probably due to a combination of factors, including (1) slow rates of soil development, (2) low amounts of atmospheric dust added to the soils, (3) the susceptibility of crest soils to erosion, and (4) the susceptibility of footslope soils to burial by colluvium. Age resolution is improved by evaluating soils at both the moraine crests and the relatively wetter footslope sites, and by basing age assignments on a combination of macro- and micromorphologic soil properties, the disintegration of subsurface clasts, and parameters of surface-clast weathering.

Peculiar features of soil development in parna deposits in the Eastern Riverina, N.S.W

Soil Research ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 145 ◽  
Author(s):  
JA Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Soil Development ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Magnesian Calcite ◽  
Red Earth

Attention is drawn to unusual features of red earth and red-brown earth soils associated with layered parna deposits in the Eastern Riverina, N.S.W., which facilitate identification and tracing of individual layers, modern soils, and paleosols in different landscapes, and subsequent elucidation of distribution, stratigraphic relations, and relative age of these and associated deposits and soils. These features include mechanical composition, subplasticity, and the occurrence of secondary calcite, magnesian calcite, barytes, dolomite, and palygorskite.

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