Late Holocene aeolian activity in the Cimarron River valley of west–central Oklahoma

Modern and late Holocene wind regimes over the Great Plains (central U.S.A.)

“…The dunes were last active in the late Holocene, about 770-880 years ago (Lepper and Scott, 2005). Transverse ridges with some barchanoid characteristics are common in the dune fields.…”

“…Widespread dune mobilization has been recognized following this transition, from about 9000 to 4500 years ago (Arbogast and Johnson, 1998;Forman et al, 2001;Miao et al, 2007). Since approxi- mately 5000 years ago, dune movement has been highly variable, with a number of discrete dry events throughout the region (Madole, 1994;Arbogast and Johnson, 1998;Muhs and Wolfe, 1999;Forman et al, 2001;Lepper and Scott, 2005;Miao et al, 2007).…”

“…First, organic material gathered from paleosols found within the dunes has been dated using the radiocarbon method Forman and Maat, 1990;Arbogast and Johnson, 1998;Lepper and Scott, 2005). These dates provide limiting ages for sand layers present above or below the organic material.…”

“…These dates provide limiting ages for sand layers present above or below the organic material. More recently, luminescence geochronology, typically optically stimulated luminescence, has been used to date the eolian sands themselves (Forman and Maat, 1990;Goble et al, 2004;Lepper and Scott, 2005;Miao et al, 2007;Forman et al, 2008), providing specific information about periods of dune movement.…”

Late Holocene dune migration on the south Texas sand sheet

“…Recent studies of mostly stabilized dune systems on the Great Plains such as in the Canadian Prairies (Wolfe et al, 2000(Wolfe et al, , 2002(Wolfe et al, , 2006, the Nebraska Sandhills (Muhs et al, 1997;Stokes and Swinehart, 1997;Goble et al, 2004;Forman et al, 2005;Miao et al, 2007), adjacent to the Republican River in southwestern Nebraska , near the Cimarron River in western Oklahoma (Lepper and Scott, 2005) and southwestern Kansas (Forman et al, 2008) register multiple eolian sand deposition events in the late Holocene. The latest eolian depositional events in the Nebraska Sand Hills Mason et al, 2004;Forman et al, 2005;Miao et al, 2007) and dune fields in western Oklahoma (Lepper and Scott, 2005) and southwestern Kansas (Forman et al, 2008) are associated with historic and prehistoric droughts in the past 1000 years.…”