Quaternary history of some southern and central Rocky Mountain basins

Reheis, Marith C.; Palmquist, Robert C.; Agard, S.S.; Jaworowski, Cheryl; Mears, Brainerd; Madole, Richard F.; Nelson, Alan R.; Osborn, Gerald

doi:10.1130/dnag-gna-k2.407

Cited by 12 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Major advances of ice sheets and montane glaciers in North America occurred just prior to deposition of the Lava Creek ash and just after deposition of the Bishop ash and (or) the beginning of the Brunhes Normal Chron (Richmond and Fullerton, 1986;Reheis et al, 1991), an interval that includes both oxygen-isotope stage 18 and stage 16 (Fig. 3).…”

Section: Estimated Ages Of High Shorelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highest Pluvial-Lake Shorelines and Pleistocene Climate of the Western Great Basin

Reheis

1999

Quat. res.

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Shoreline altitudes of several pluvial lakes in the western Great Basin of North America record successively smaller lakes from the early to the late Pleistocene. This decrease in lake size indicates a long-term drying trend in the regional climate that is not seen in global marine oxygen-isotope records. At ؉70 m above its late Pleistocene shoreline, Lake Lahontan in the early middle Pleistocene submerged some basins previously thought to have been isolated. Other basins known to contain records of older pluvial lakes that exceeded late Pleistocene levels include Columbus-Fish Lake (Lake Columbus-Rennie), Kobeh-Diamond (Lakes Jonathan and Diamond), Newark, Long (Lake Hubbs), and Clover. Very high stands of some of these lakes probably triggered overflows of previously internally drained basins, adding to the size of Lake Lahontan. Simple calculations based on differences in lake area suggest that the highest levels of these pluvial lakes required a regional increase in effective moisture by a factor of 1.2 to 3 relative to late Pleistocene pluvial amounts (assuming that effective moisture is directly proportional to the hydrologic index, or lake area/tributary basin area). These previously unknown lake levels reflect significant changes in climate, tectonics, and (or) drainage-basin configurations, and could have facilitated migration of aquatic species in the Great Basin.

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Section: Estimated Ages Of High Shorelinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highest Pluvial-Lake Shorelines and Pleistocene Climate of the Western Great Basin

Reheis

1999

Quat. res.

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“…The oldest, highest, and most extensive is the Kersey terrace which has a gradient of 1.28 m/km. A fill terrace, the Kersey is the downstream equivalent of the Broadway terrace in the Denver area, the Pleasant Valley terrace of the Cache la Poudre River, and the Stock Farm terrace in the Laramie River drainage (Bryan and Ray, 1940;Scott, 1963;Holliday, 1987 : 312; Mears in Reheis et al, 1991). The Kersey terrace is approximately 10-12 m above the South Platte floodplain in the study area.…”

Section: Physiographymentioning

confidence: 98%

Geoarchaeologic analysis of South Platte River terraces: Kersey, Colorado

McFaul¹,

Traugh²,

Smith³

et al. 1994

Geoarchaeology

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Soil‐sediment records and radiometric dating allow the development of environmental histories of three South Platte River alluvial terraces in the vicinity of Kersey, Colorado. These advocate a correlation with Holocene glacial records for the Colorado Front Range (Benedict, 1981, 1985). The archaeological potential of the Kersey fill, the Kuner strath, and the Hardin fill depends upon their age and sediment context. The oldest and most extensive terrace is the Kersey fill. The position of cultural components on the Kersey terrace implies an association of older Paleoindian sites (11,500–10,000 B.P.) with channel banks and bars on the terrace, younger Paleoindian sites (<10,000 B.P.) with terrace margins near the river, and Archaic and younger sites with eolian deposits on the terrace. An association of Clovis components with both Kersey alluvium and adjacent eolian dune fields indicates that eolian deposition began prior to 11,000 B.P. and that sediment availability influenced early Holocene eolian deposition. Examination of 150 cores and 75 backhoe test units along an 8‐km study corridor demonstrates that Paleoindian sites are not as abundant on the Kersey terrace as previous researchers have proposed. Although the incision of the Kuner strath began earlier than 9600 B.P., we propose that its greatest potential is to yield cultural components that postdate ca. 7250 B.P. In turn, the Hardin fill may yield cultural components dating to the Kuner abandonment (ca. 6380 B.P.). However, Hardin sediment and soil records recommend that this fill terrace's highest potential is to yield in situ cultural components dating from ca. 1900 to 120 B.P. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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“…Because of the dynamic interplay among glaciofluvial sediment flux, erodable lithologies, and epiorogenic uplift of the Rocky Mountain region, extensive sequences of river terrace remnants are preserved in the basins of Wyoming (Reheis et al 1991). In the Wind River basin, fifteen terrace levels are mapped whose ages span the past 1,740 ky and were obtained from three methods, radiometric dating, tephrochronology, and incision rate modelling.…”

Section: Physiography Of Study Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon dioxide consumption during soil development

et al. 1994

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Abstract. Carbon is sequestered in soils by accumulation of recalcitrant organic matter and by bicarbonate weathering of silicate minerals. Carbon fixation by ecosystems helps drive weathering processes in soils and that in turn diverts carbon from annual photosynthesis-soil respiration cycling into the long-term geological carbon cycle. To quantify rates of carbon transfer during soil development in moist temperate grassland and desert scrubland ecosystems, we measured organic and inorganic residues derived from the interaction of soil biota and silicate mineral weathering for twenty-two soil profiles in arkosic sediments of differing ages. In moist temperate grasslands, net annual removal of carbon from the atmosphere by organic carbon accumulation and silicate weathering ranges from about 8.5 g me2 yi' for young soils to 0.7 g m-* yr-' for old soils. In desert scrublands, net annual carbon removal is about 0.2 g mm2 yr-' for young soils and 0.01 g mm2 yr-' for old soils. In soils of both ecosystems, organic carbon accumulation exceeds CO, removal by weathering, however, as soils age, rates of CO, consumption by weathering accounts for greater amounts of carbon sequestration, increasing from 2% to 8% in the grassland soils and from 2% to 40% in the scrubland soils. In soils of desert scrublands, carbonate accumulation far outstrips organic carbon accumulation, but about 90% of this mass is derived from aerosolic sources that do not contribute to long-term sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

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Quaternary history of some southern and central Rocky Mountain basins

Cited by 12 publications

References 37 publications

Highest Pluvial-Lake Shorelines and Pleistocene Climate of the Western Great Basin

Highest Pluvial-Lake Shorelines and Pleistocene Climate of the Western Great Basin

Geoarchaeologic analysis of South Platte River terraces: Kersey, Colorado

Carbon dioxide consumption during soil development

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