scholarly journals Topographic Thresholds and Soil Preservation along the Southern High Plains Eastern Escarpment, Northwest Texas, USA

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 476
Author(s):  
Travis Conley ◽  
Stance Hurst ◽  
Eileen Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Lateral Migration ◽  
South Fork ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Semi Arid

The eastern escarpment of the Southern High Plains (USA) is today a semi-arid erosional landscape delineated by canyon breaks and topographic relief. A series of buried soils were identified, described, and sampled at 19 soil profile localities exposed along terraces of the South Fork of the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River (South Fork) and two associated tributaries (Spring Creek and Macy 285 drainage). Radiocarbon dating revealed late-Pleistocene to early Holocene (~12,580–9100 14C B.P.), middle-Holocene (~6025–4600 14C B.P.), and late-Holocene (~2000–800 14C B.P.) buried soils. The late-Pleistocene to middle-Holocene soils were preserved only at higher elevations within the upper section of the South Fork and Spring Creek. A topographic position analysis was conducted using GIS to identify and examine the impacts of a soil topographic threshold on the preservation and distribution of buried soils within this geomorphic system. Above the identified ~810 m threshold, lateral migration of channels was constrained. Extensive channel migration below the threshold removed older terraces that were replaced with late-Holocene terraces and associated buried soils. Landscape topography constraints on geomorphic processes and soil formation impacted the preservation of archaeological sites in this semi-arid region.

scholarly journals Late Quaternary Stratigraphy and Geochronology of the Spring Creek Drainage along the Southern High Plains Eastern Escarpment, Northwest Texas

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Eileen Johnson ◽  
Stance Hurst ◽  
John A. Moretti
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Quaternary Deposits ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Depositional Sequence ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Quaternary Stratigraphy ◽  
Local Topography ◽  
Large Sections

The eastern escarpment breaks of the Southern High Plains of Texas are both a geomorphic and ecotonal transition zone from the high plains surface to the Rolling Plains below. The geoarchaeological record on the Southern High Plains surface is well documented, but few studies have investigated the sediments, soils, and geochronology of the eastern escarpment. The current investigation has targeted the discontinuous remnants of Late Quaternary deposits within Spring Creek, a tributary within the upper Brazos River basin. A total of 19 profiles, core, and isolated exposure locations placed along a transect from Macy Fork through upper Spring Creek and 40 radiocarbon ages provide a composite sequence and geochronology that also documents the Late Pleistocene to Late Holocene paleoenvironments of this drainage. The resulting record illustrates a series of major changes in sediments and local habitats over the past ~11,550 radiocarbon years (13,469–13,390 calendar years), characterized primarily by reductions in available water and increasing aridity that peaked during the middle Holocene. This sequence provides significant context to an expanding record of Late Pleistocene to middle Holocene biota and cultures. Subsequent downcutting of the drainage post-6000 14C yr B.P. (6988–6744 calendar years) removed large sections of the depositional sequence. Local topography within Spring Creek drainage greatly impacted the preservation of these deposits. The remaining record provides some different insights than those available from the Southern High Plains record.

Postglacial Response of a Stream in Central Iowa to Changes in Climate and Drainage Basin Factors

1990 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julieann Van Nest ◽  
E. Arthur Bettis
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Vegetative Cover ◽  
The South ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Water Tables ◽  
Local Water ◽  
Small Tributary

AbstractPostglacial geomorphic development of the Buchanan Drainage, a small tributary to the South Skunk River, is reconstructed by documenting relationships among four allostratigraphic units and 17 radiocarbon dates. Formation and headward expansion of the valley was both episodic and time-transgressive. Response to downstream conditions in the South Skunk River largely controlled the early formation of the basin. Downcutting through Pleistocene deposits produced a gravelly lag deposit that was buried by alluvium in the downstream portion of the valley during the early Holocene (10,500–7700 yr B.P.). Lag deposits formed in a similar manner continued to develop in the upper portion of the drainageway into the late Holocene (3000-2000 yr B.P.). Episodes of aggradation during the middle Holocene (7700-6300 yr B.P.) and late Holocene (3000-2000 yr B.P.) were separated by a period of soil formation. Holocene geomorphic events in the drainageway coincide with some vegetational and climatic changes as documented in upland pollen sequences from central Iowa. Analysis of plant macrofossil assemblages recovered from alluvium indicates that during the middle Holocene forest contracted and prairie expanded into the uplands within the basin. Vegetational changes within the basin apparently had only minor influence on rates of hillslope erosion, and the widely accepted relationship between prairie (versus forest) vegetative cover and increased rates of hillslope erosion did not hold. Instead, greater amounts of erosion occurred under forested conditions when local water tables were higher and seepage erosion was more effective.

scholarly journals Growth and Yield of Guar (<i>Cyamopsis tetragonoloba</i> L.) Genotypes under Different Planting Dates in the Semi-Arid Southern High Plains

2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (08) ◽  
pp. 1246-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudhir Singla ◽  
Kulbhushan Grover ◽  
Sangamesh V. Angadi ◽  
Sultan H. Begna ◽  
Brian Schutte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth And Yield ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Cyamopsis Tetragonoloba ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Planting Dates ◽  
Semi Arid

A Reexamination of Late-Pleistocene Boreal Forest Reconstructions for the Southern High Plains

1987 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vance T. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Pollen Data ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Paleontological Data ◽  
Pollen Preservation

AbstractPrevious paleoecological research on the Southern High Plains resulted in development of a late Quaternary chronology of “pollen-analytical episodes” and the proposal that boreal forest existed in the region in the late Pleistocene. These interpretations are now considered untenable because (1) a number of the radiocarbon ages are questionable, (2) there are serious problems of differential pollen preservation and reproducibility of the pollen data, (3) there is an absence of supporting geological or paleontological data, and (4) the soils of the area contain none of the distinctive pedological characteristics produced by a boreal forest. Available data suggest that the region was primarily an open grassland or grassland with some nonconiferous trees through most of the Quaternary.

Plant-available zinc fixation kinetics in semi-arid alkaline soils of the Southern High Plains

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-564
Author(s):  
Theophilus K. Udeigwe ◽  
Madeleine Eichmann ◽  
Peter N. Eze ◽  
Jasper M. Teboh ◽  
Gondah M. Zolue ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Plains ◽  
Alkaline Soils ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Available Zinc ◽  
Semi Arid

scholarly journals Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Vertebrates and Paleoenvironments on the Southern High Plains, U.S.A.

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Temperature Fluctuation ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Moisture Regime ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Southern High Plains

ABSTRACT Only a few vertebrate faunas are known for the Southern High Plains from the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. This review focuses on vertebrate local faunas from two major localities on opposite sides of the region but in the same drainage system that provide proxy data for paleoenvironmental reconstructions from ca. 11,600 to 8600 yr BP. Both localities are archaeological sites within deeply stratified, radiocarbon-dated deposits. Four distinct, successive vertebrate local faunas are known for Lubbock Lake covering the period 11,100 to 8600 yr BP. Two distinct, successive vertebrate local faunas come from Blackwater Draw Locality # 1 for the period 11,600 to 10,500 yr BP. All of the local faunas are disharmonious but the extent of disharmony and diversity varies. Faunal elements from the Northern Plains and Southeast are the most notable. The late Pleistocene local faunas indicate mild winters which did not maintain freezing conditions and cool summers with a more effective moisture regime, reduced annual temperature fluctuation, and less seasonality. The beginnings of a warming trend, greater seasonality, and increased annual temperature fluctuation denote the early Holocene. The latest local fauna marks the last of the pluvial-related ones and heralds the end of pluvial conditions beginning around 8500 yr BP. The successive local faunas illustrate the complexity of disharmony occurring in unglaciated regimes during déglaciation of North America.

Origin and Evolution of Lunettes on the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico

1997 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vance T. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Sandy Loam ◽  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Loamy Sand ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Carbonate Sediments ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Carbonate Sand ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Lacustrine Carbonate

AbstractLunettes—isolated dunes on the lee side of playa basins—are common landforms on the Southern High Plains of northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico. The dunes contain calcareous (15–40% CaCO3) sandy loam or loamy sand, with minor amounts of sepiolite, deposited 25,000–800014C yr B.P. and derived by deflation of lacustrine carbonate in the basins. The dunes also contain low carbonate (0–15% CaCO3) sand or loamy sand that was deposited 25,000–15,000 yr B.P. and 8000–5000 yr B.P. and was derived by deflation that created the basins or deflated from sand deposited in the basins. Buried soils are common in the lunettes: A-Bk profiles characterize soils formed in the calcareous sandy loam; the sandy low-carbonate sediments contain A-Bt profiles in the oldest sand of some dunes, and A-Bw, A-Bt, or A-Btk in the early and middle Holocene sand. The dune stratigraphy, combined with carbon isotope data (derived from dated A-horizons in lunettes), suggests the following scenario for the Southern High Plains. The lunettes began forming as low-carbonate sand dunes in the late Pleistocene as playa basins were formed or deepened by wind erosion. The erosion repeatedly alternated with stability. The environment probably was cool and dry, but one or more cool and wet intervals 25,000–15,000 yr B.P. resulted in a rise in the water table and deposition of lacustrine carbonate in the deepest basins. There may have been short departures toward warmer (and probably toward drier) conditions throughout this time. Episodically dry conditions 15,000–8,000 yr B.P. resulted in deflation of the carbonate and further dune construction by repeated accretion of calcareous sandy loam or loamy sand. The low carbonate sand was deposited during widespread drought and deflation 8000–5000 yr B.P. The dunes have been largely stable in the late Holocene.

Altithermal Archaeology and Paleoecology at Mustang Springs, on the Southern High Plains of Texas

1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Meltzer
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Water Wells ◽  
Age Estimates

Excavations at Mustang Springs on the southern High Plains of Texas have yielded a relatively fine-grained record of late Pleistocene to middle Holocene environments and climate. The site contains over 60 Altithermal age water wells, direct evidence of the human adaptive response to this locally severe drought and of a drop in the water table of nearly 3 m. New radiocarbon dates from the wellfield are substantially earlier than previously published age estimates, putting the age of well digging in a brief period at the onset of the Altithermal. Human adaptive strategies during this period are yet undetermined, but the evidence points to generalized and highly mobile strategies and to the conclusion that this wellfield is surely not unique. The geology of Mustang Springs helps explain the scarcity of other Altithermal age sites on the southern High Plains.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document