Notes on late-glacial palynology and geochronology at St. Hilaire, Quebec

1968 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Terasmae ◽  
P. Lasalle

A palynological study supported by radiocarbon dates of late-glacial sediments at St. Hilaire, Quebec, indicates that the southern part of the St. Lawrence Lowland was deglaciated prior to 12 500 years B.P. The late-glacial episode comprises several climatic fluctuations: a probable early cool interval (northern boreal) more than 12 500 years B.P.; a relatively colder interval (tundra) about 12 500 years B.P., followed by another cool interval from about 12 000 years B.P. to about 10 000 years ago. Another relatively cold episode may have occurred about 11 000 years ago. The new studies extend the previously available palynological record in the St. Lawrence Lowland back in time by about 2000 years and include the Champlain Sea episode.

1964 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C. Porter

AbstractGeologic evidence from Anaktuvuk Pass indicates that the latest ice advance during the Itkillik glaciation reached its maximum stand between 8000 and 9000 years ago. Archaeological sites at the pass lie behind a terminal moraine built during this advance and therefore must postdate it. In view of the probable time involved for deglaciation, habitable ice-free areas near the axis of the valley could not have been available for campsites until an advanced stage of ice wastage. Radiocarbon dates indicate that deglaciated areas existed near the present drainage divide as early as 7200 years ago, but prior to that time the valley floor was largely buried under stagnant ice. Although certain archaeological complexes have been interpreted on the basis of typology as evidencing considerable antiquity, the geologic relationships between the sites and radiocarbon-dated, late-glacial sediments places a maximum limiting age of about 7000 years on the oldest cultural materials.


2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall F. Miller

Abstract Walrus fossils are occasionally recovered during scallop dragging in the Bay of Fundy and from sand and gravel deposits along the coastline of New Brunswick in eastern Canada. Six new fossils and four new AMS radiocarbon dates significantly increase the information concerning late-glacial to postglacial walrus in New Brunswick. Dates range from about 12 800 BP to 2 900 BP, almost half falling between 9 000 and 10 000 BP. Temporal distribution of walrus, compared to estimates of past summer sea surface temperature, suggest that in the Bay of Fundy walrus occurred in waters ranging from 12 to 15° C.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (11) ◽  
pp. 1499-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. Manley

New georaorphic, sedimentologic, and chronologic data are used to reconstruct late Quaternary ice-sheet flow patterns, deglaciation, and isostatic uplift along the largest marine trough connecting the Laurentide Ice Sheet with the North Atlantic Ocean. The Lake Harbour region was targeted for study given its potential to record flow from several ice-dispersal centers. Striations and sediment provenance indicators define flow patterns. Thirty-four radiocarbon dates constrain a chronology of events. Centuries or millennia(?) before deglaciation, a southeast-flowing ice stream impinged on southernmost Big Island, as recorded by a single striation site and delimited in extent by geomorphic evidence of cold-based ice. During the Cockburn Substagc (9000–8000 BP), the region was scoured by southward to southwestward flow from an ice cap on Meta Incognita Peninsula, as recorded by 60 striation sites along 200 km of coastline. Carbonate erratics are uncommon in till above the marine limit. Where present, they suggest that southward flow reworked older drift. At about 8200 BP, the area was dcglaciated, and the marine limit was established at elevations of 67–141 m above high tide. Iceberg calving and sediment discharge from an ice margin in Ungava Bay, Hudson Bay, or Foxe Basin then blanketed the area with limestone-rich glaciomarinc sediment. Afterward, the region experienced slow but sustained emergence. The data revise the maximum lateral extent of a Late Wisconsinan ice stream in Hudson Strait and emphasize the extent of a late-glacial ice cap on western Meta Incognita Peninsula.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artin Ali ◽  
Andrea Biedermann ◽  
Jasmine Berg ◽  
Mark Lever ◽  
Hendrik Vogel

<p>Climate affects the mineralogy and grain size of sediments deposited in lakes. These properties are reflected in the sediment magnetic properties and can be characterized using magnetic methods. As part of the Cadagno-Project, which recovered several gravity and piston cores spanning the entire lake history from the deglacial to the present from the deepest part of permanently stratified Lake Cadagno, which is due to its peculiar water column chemistry considered an early Earth ocean analogue, our study aims to define changes in climate conditions during sedimentation. Here, we present a rock magnetic dataset (low-field magnetic susceptibility and its temperature dependence, anhysteretic and isothermal remanent magnetization (ARM, IRM), acquired in various fields, AF demagnetization, and hysteresis loops) that helps characterize the concentration, mineralogy, and grain size of magnetic carriers, and their variability with depth. Susceptibility, ARM, and IRM were measured on core sediments down to a depth of 886 cm below the lake bottom, providing a high-resolution record of the sedimentary environment of Lake Cadagno over the last 11,000 years. In addition to these depth profiles, detailed rock magnetic experiments were conducted at specific depths. The cores consist of pelagic sediments, flood turbidites, and late glacial sediments. In order to determine the characteristics of the background sedimentation, only turbidite-free intervals were included in this study. The depth profiles of susceptibility, ARM and IRM have approximately similar variations with depth. They show distinct peaks at the upper parts of the pelagic sediments (156-158 cm below the lake bottom,   ̴1280-1320 cal. Yr Bp) and of the late glacial sediments (826-844 cm below the lake bottom), which can be interpreted as increased concentration of ferromagnetic minerals or as a change in the magnetic mineralogy, in addition to decreasing trend in the background. Several intervals within the pelagic sediments are dominated by low-coercivity minerals (<10 mT), while higher coercivity grains (10–100 mT) contribute significantly at (150-170, 418-448 and 719-735 cm below the lake bottom). Magnetic grain size was analyzed using a Day plot, and shows that single domain magnetite dominates at (844 cm) below the lake bottom, indicating the presence of magnetotactic bacteria, which are believed to dwell mainly in the oxic–anoxic interface where chemical gradients are high. These results provide important constraints on the environmental conditions and climate change recorded by the magnetic minerals in Lake Cadagno.</p>


Radiocarbon ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 933-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina P Panyushkina ◽  
Steven W Leavitt ◽  
Alex Wiedenhoeft ◽  
Sarah Noggle ◽  
Brandon Curry ◽  
...  

The abrupt millennial-scale changes associated with the Younger Dryas (YD) event (“chronozone”) near the dawn of the Holocene are at least hemispheric, if not global, in extent. Evidence for the YD cold excursion is abundant in Europe but fairly meager in central North America. We are engaged in an investigation of high-resolution environmental changes in mid-North America over several millennia (about 10,000 to 14,000 BP) during the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition, including the YD interval. Several sites containing logs or stumps have been identified and we are in the process of initial sampling or re-sampling them for this project. Here, we report on a site in central Illinois containing a deposit of logs initially thought to be of YD age preserved in alluvial sands. The assemblage of wood represents hardwood (angiosperm) trees, and the ring-width characteristics are favorable to developing formal tree-ring chronologies. However, 4 new radiocarbon dates indicate deposition of wood may have taken place over at least 8000 14C yr (6000–14,000 BP). This complicates the effort to develop a single floating chronology of several hundred years at this site, but it may provide wood from a restricted region over a long period of time from which to develop a sequence of floating chronologies, the timing of deposition and preservation of which could be related to paleoclimatic events and conditions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre-Henri Blard ◽  
Jérôme Lave ◽  
Kenneth A. Farley ◽  
Victor Ramirez ◽  
Nestor Jimenez ◽  
...  

AbstractThis work presents the first reconstruction of late Pleistocene glacier fluctuations on Uturuncu volcano, in the Southern Tropical Andes. Cosmogenic 3He dating of glacial landforms provides constraints on ancient glacier position between 65 and 14 ka. Despite important scatter in the exposure ages on the oldest moraines, probably resulting from pre-exposure, these 3He data constrain the timing of the moraine deposits and subsequent glacier recessions: the Uturuncu glacier may have reached its maximum extent much before the global LGM, maybe as early as 65 ka, with an equilibrium line altitude (ELA) at 5280 m. Then, the glacier remained close to its maximum position, with a main stillstand identified around 40 ka, and another one between 35 and 17 ka, followed by a limited recession at 17 ka. Then, another glacial stillstand is identified upstream during the late glacial period, probably between 16 and 14 ka, with an ELA standing at 5350 m. This stillstand is synchronous with the paleolake Tauca highstand. This result indicates that this regionally wet and cold episode, during the Heinrich 1 event, also impacted the Southern Altiplano. The ELA rose above 5450 m after 14 ka, synchronously with the Bolling–Allerod.


1955 ◽  
Vol 2 (17) ◽  
pp. 469-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Bergström

Glaciological studies during the British Ruwenzori Expedition, 1052, included assessment of the extent of Pleistocene glaciation and detailed study of the late-glacial and post-glacial fluctuations of two of the glaciers originating in the Stanley Plateau. Correlation between photographs taken by earlier expeditions, the stratigraphy of lake site excavations and lichen re-colonization provide a good preliminary basis for assessing the climatic fluctuations. Stratification in existing glaciers appears to link up satisfactorily with meteorological observations to indicate two ablation phases annually.


Nature ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 227 (5257) ◽  
pp. 480-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. BISHOP ◽  
J. H. DICKSON

1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin J. Heusser

AbstractVegetation and climate over approximately the past 13,000 yr are reconstructed from fossil pollen in a 9.4-m mire section at Caleta Róbalo on Beagle Channel, Isla Navarino (54°56′S, 67°38′W), southern Tierra del Fuego. Fifty surface samples reflecting modern pollen dispersal serve to interpret the record. Chronologically controlled by nine radiocarbon dates, fossil pollen assemblages are: Empetrum-Gramineae-Gunnera-Tubuliflorae (zone 3b, 13,000–11,850 yr B.P.), Gramineae-Empetrum-assorted minor taxa (zone 3a, 11,850-10,000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Gramineae-Tubuliflorae-Polypodiaceae (zone 2, 10,000–5000 yr B.P.), Nothofagus-Empetrum (zone 1b, 5000-3000 yr B.P.), and Empetrum-Nothofagus (zone 1a, 3000-0 yr B.P.). Assemblages show tundra under a cold, dry climate (zone 3), followed by open woodland (zone 2), as conditions became warmer and less dry, and later, with greater humidity and lower temperatures, by closed forest and the spread of mires (zone 1). Comparisons drawn with records from Antarctica, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the subantarctic islands demonstrate broadly uniform conditions in the circumpolar Southern Hemisphere. The influences of continental and maritime antarctic air masses were apparently considerable in Tierra del Fuego during cold late-glacial time, whereas Holocene climate was largely regulated by interplay between maritime polar and maritime tropical air.


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