ALBERT

Description: Radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from six lakes in the Ahklun Mountains, south-western Alaska, were used to interpolate the ages of late Quaternary tephra beds ranging in age from 25.4 to 0.4 ka. The lakes are located downwind of the Aleutian Arc and Alaska Peninsula volcanoes in the northern Bristol Bay area between 159° and 161°W at around 60°N. Sedimentation-rate age models for each lake were based on a published spline-fit procedure that uses Monte Carlo simulation to determine age model uncertainty. In all, 62 14 C ages were used to construct the six age models, including 23 ages presented here for the first time. The age model from Lone Spruce Pond is based on 18 ages, and is currently the best-resolved Holocene age model available from the region, with an average 2σ age uncertainty of about ± 109 years over the past 14.5 ka. The sedimentary sequence from Lone Spruce Pond contains seven tephra beds, more than previously found in any other lake in the area. Of the 26 radiocarbon-dated tephra beds at the six lakes and from a soil pit, seven are correlated between two or more sites based on their ages. The major-element geochemistry of glass shards from most of these tephra beds supports the age-based correlations. The remaining tephra beds appear to be present at only one site based on their unique geochemistry or age. The 5.8 ka tephra is similar to the widespread Aniakchak tephra [3.7 ± 0.2 (1σ) ka], but can be distinguished conclusively based on its trace-element geochemistry. The 3.1 and 0.4 ka tephras have glass major- and trace-element geochemical compositions indistinguishable from prominent Aniakchak tephra, and might represent redeposited beds. Only two tephra beds are found in all lakes: the Aniakchak tephra (3.7 ± 0.2 ka) and Tephra B (6.1 ± 0.3 ka). The tephra beds can be used as chronostratigraphic markers for other sedimentary sequences in the region, including cores from Cascade and Sunday lakes, which were previously undated and were analyzed in this study to correlate with the new regional tephrostratigraphy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Description: As part of a broader geological study of loess/palaesol sequences in Alaska, the paleomagnetism of a section at Gold Hill near Fairbanks has been investigated. Samples were collected at 5 cm intervals through a 5 m loess-paleosol-loess sequence. Detailed alternating field demagnetization of the natural remanent magnetization yields excellent results (average MAD = 2°). The Brunhes-Matuyama (B-M) polarity transition is present at the level of the paleosol, which was formed during Oxygen Isotope Stage 19. A systematic perturbation in both declination and inclination occurs ∼1.0–1.5 m below the B-M boundary. The corresponding virtual geomagnetic poles define a track centred on the 60°W meridian from high southerly to equatorial latitudes and back again. This is in very good agreement with results from a sequence of lava flows on the island of Maui that are regarded as a record of the Kamikatsura event. The Alaskan results thus confirm the reality of this geomagnetic feature, and simultaneously provide a firm chronological control point for ongoing geological investigations. Mineral magnetic experiments indicate that the remanence of the Gold Hill loess is dominated by magnetite and/or maghemite, with no subsequent chemical overprinting by hematite and/or goethite.

Description: Radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from six lakes in the Ahklun Mountains, south-western Alaska, were used to interpolate the ages of late Quaternary tephra beds ranging in age from 25.4 to 0.4 ka. The lakes are located downwind of the Aleutian Arc and Alaska Peninsula volcanoes in the northern Bristol Bay area between 159° and 161°W at around 60°N. Sedimentation-rate age models for each lake were based on a published spline-fit procedure that uses Monte Carlo simulation to determine age model uncertainty. In all, 62 14 C ages were used to construct the six age models, including 23 ages presented here for the first time. The age model from Lone Spruce Pond is based on 18 ages, and is currently the best-resolved Holocene age model available from the region, with an average 2σ age uncertainty of about ± 109 years over the past 14.5 ka. The sedimentary sequence from Lone Spruce Pond contains seven tephra beds, more than previously found in any other lake in the area. Of the 26 radiocarbon-dated tephra beds at the six lakes and from a soil pit, seven are correlated between two or more sites based on their ages. The major-element geochemistry of glass shards from most of these tephra beds supports the age-based correlations. The remaining tephra beds appear to be present at only one site based on their unique geochemistry or age. The 5.8 ka tephra is similar to the widespread Aniakchak tephra [3.7 ± 0.2 (1σ) ka], but can be distinguished conclusively based on its trace-element geochemistry. The 3.1 and 0.4 ka tephras have glass major- and trace-element geochemical compositions indistinguishable from prominent Aniakchak tephra, and might represent redeposited beds. Only two tephra beds are found in all lakes: the Aniakchak tephra (3.7 ± 0.2 ka) and Tephra B (6.1 ± 0.3 ka). The tephra beds can be used as chronostratigraphic markers for other sedimentary sequences in the region, including cores from Cascade and Sunday lakes, which were previously undated and were analyzed in this study to correlate with the new regional tephrostratigraphy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Description: ABSTRACT Using contiguous high resolution sampling methods, we report the detection of a Glacier Peak volcanic ash from North America in Lateglacial Interstadial lake sediments in western Scotland. It occurs in close proximity to the Icelandic Borrobol and Penifiler tephras, but is distinguishable by its rhyolitic major‐element composition that is consistent with the earliest set G layer, one of a number of mid‐Interstadial Glacier Peak eruptions dated between 13.71 and 13.41 cal ka bp. Another cryptotephra layer present in these same Interstadial sediments has a rhyolitic composition consistent with the Icelandic Katla source. However, it is in a stratigraphic position below the widespread mid‐Lateglacial Stadial Vedde Ash from Katla, which is also present in these cores. The Katla layer is stratigraphically well defined, suggesting primary airfall, and is compositionally similar to a mid‐Interstadial rhyolitic tephra reported from a North Atlantic marine sequence south of Iceland dated to ~13.6 ka. The detection of Glacier Peak G in the European tephrostratigraphy will permit direct high‐precision correlation of mid‐Interstadial palaeoenvironments between North American and European terrestrial sequences. Any correlation between the new Katla layer and similar marine layers remains provisional, though if verified would permit similar correlation between North Atlantic marine and European terrestrial records.

Description: The arrival of bison in North America marks one of the most successful large-mammal dispersals from Asia within the last million years, yet the timing and nature of this event remain poorly determined. Here, we used a combined paleontological and paleogenomic approach to provide a robust timeline for the entry...

Description: Extensive lacustrine microbialite deposits exposed along the shores of Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah preserve a rich continental paleoenvironmental record. Newly-reported microbialite carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios in carbonate, nitrogen isotope ratios in organic matter, and organic matter radiocarbon ages archive paleolake hydrological and biogeochemical changes from the late Pleistocene through the Holocene. Positive correlations between δ 18 O and δ 13 C in ∼15 – 7.6 cal ka microbialite carbonate are consistent with a hydrologically closed-basin lake with fluctuations in volume, chemistry, and associated changes in lake primary production. The δ 15 N of microbialite bulk organic matter (5 – 18 ‰ vs. AIR) shows that the balance between nitrogen fixation and assimilation of dissolved inorganic nitrogen has varied significantly. Inverse δ 18 O and δ 13 C correlations in combination with high δ 15 N in some carbonate deposits may imply periods of higher salinity and stable lake stratification similar to modern GSL conditions. We compare our C and O datasets with Pleistocene Lake Bonneville carbonate stable isotope records and demonstrate progressive development of spatially-isolated hydrological basins during the shift to warmer and drier conditions in the Holocene.

Description: ABSTRACT Building reliable chronologies from lake sediments, peat and other paleoenvironmental archives can be challenging, especially for historical times where radiocarbon is unreliable. Nineteenth‐ and 20th‐century eruptions from Mount St. Helens (MSH) provide important chronostratigraphic markers for regional paleoenvironmental studies within this time frame, but are constrained by poorly geochemically characterized tephra and/or limited published data. Here, we present glass geochemistry from the most significant eruptions from this time. This includes proximal, medial and distal deposits of the 18 May 1980 MSH eruption, layer T ( ad 1799/1800), a new tephra that we argue represents the ad 1842 eruption, and the 22 July 1980 eruption that had reported ashfall in Canada. Our results indicate that most tephras ejected during these eruptions, within a time frame of ~200 years, have distinct glass geochemical characteristics that can be used to identify distal deposits for tephrochronological studies. Layer T is on trend with analyses of the 1980 eruption but has a distinct dacitic glass population. The 1980 and ad 1842 eruptions are similar, both having rhyolitic glass compositions, but the ad 1842 event can be differentiated by a more constrained SiO2 range in the main geochemical population, and the presence of a unique SiO2 sub‐population.