Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:37:05.021Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late Pleistocene Glaciations in the Northwestern Sierra Nevada, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

L. Allan James ,
Jon Harbor ,
Derek Fabel ,
Dennis Dahms  and
David Elmore
L. Allan James
Affiliation:
Geography Department, University South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, 29208
Derek Fabel
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907-1397
Dennis Dahms
Affiliation:
Geography Department, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, 50614-0406
David Elmore
Affiliation:
Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 47907-1397
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Pleistocene fluvial landforms and riparian ecosystems in central California responded to climate changes in the Sierra Nevada, yet the glacial history of the western Sierra remains largely unknown. Three glacial stages in the northwestern Sierra Nevada are documented by field mapping and cosmogenic radionuclide surface-exposure (CRSE) ages. Two CRSE ages of erratic boulders on an isolated till above Bear Valley provide a limiting minimum age of 76,400±3800 10Be yr. Another boulder age provides a limiting minimum age of 48,800±3200 10Be yr for a broad-crested moraine ridge within Bear Valley. Three CRSE ages producing an average age of 18,600±1180 yr were drawn from two boulders near a sharp-crested bouldery lateral moraine that represents an extensive Tioga glaciation in Bear Valley. Nine CRSE ages from striated bedrock along a steep valley transect average 14,100±1500 yr and suggest rapid late-glacial ice retreat from lower Fordyce Canyon with no subsequent extensive glaciations. These ages are generally consistent with glacial and pluvial records in east-central California and Nevada.

Keywords

Sierra Nevada Quaternary climatelast glacial maximum stratigraphycosmogenic radionuclides
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 409 - 419
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, K.D, and Wesnousky, S.G Shoreline processes and the age of the Lake Lahontan highstand in the Jessup embayment, Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 110, (1998). 1318–1332.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V Records of millennial-scale climate change from the Great Basin of the western United States. Mechanisms of Global Climate Change at Millennial Time Scales. (1999). p. 203–225.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V, Burdett, J.W, Kashgarian, M, Lund, S.P, Phillips, F.M, and Rye, R.O Climatic and hydrologic oscillations in the Owens Lake Basin and Adjacent Sierra Nevada, California. Science 274, (1996). 746–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V, Burdett, J.W, Lund, S.P, Kashgarian, M, and Mensing, S Nearly synchronous climate change in the Northern hemisphere during the last glacial termination. Nature 388, (1997). 263–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V, May, H.M, Antweiler, R.C, Brinton, T.I, Kashgarian, M, Smoot, J.P, and Lund, S.P Continuous lake-sediment records of glaciation in the Sierra Nevada between 52,600 and 12,500 14C yr B.P. Quaternary Research 50, (1998). 113–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, A, and Loutre, M.F Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quaternary Sciences Review 10, (1991). 297–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevington, P.R, and Robinson, D.K Data reduction and error analysis for the physical sciences. (1992). WCB/McGraw-Hill, Boston.Google Scholar
Birkeland, P.W Pleistocene glaciation of the northern Sierra Nevada, north of Lake Tahoe, California. Journal of Geology 72, (1964). 810–825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackwelder, E Pleistocene glaciation in the Sierra Nevada and the Basin Ranges. Geological Society of America Bulletin 42, (1931). 865–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bursik, M.I, and Gillespie, A.R Late Pleistocene glaciation of Mono Basin, California. Quaternary Research 39, (1993). 24–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, D.H, and Gillespie, A.R Timing and significance of late-glacial and Holocene cirque glaciation in the Sierra Nevada, California. Quaternary International 38/39, (1997). 21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunne, J, Elmore, D, and Muzikar, P Scaling factors for the rates of production of cosmogenic nuclides for geometric shielding and attenuation at depth on sloped surfaces. Geomorphology 27, (1999). 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabel, D, and Harbor, J The use of in-situ produced cosmogenic radio-nuclides in glaciology and glacial geomorphology. Annals of Glaciology 28, (1999). 103–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fullerton, D. S. (1986). Chronology and correlation of glacial deposits in the Sierra Nevada, California.. In Quaternary Glaciations of the Northern Hemisphere Sibrava, V., Bowen, D. Q., and Richmond, G. M., Eds., Quaternary Science Reviews 5, 161–169.Google Scholar
Gillespie, A.R Quaternary glaciation and tectonism in the Southeastern Sierra Nevada, Inyo County, California. (1982). California Institute of Technology, Google Scholar
Gillespie, A.R Evidence for both Wisconsin and Illinois ages for the Tahoe glaciation, Sierra Nevada, California. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 16, (1984). 519 Google Scholar
Gillespie, A.R, and Molnar, P Asynchronous maximum advances of mountain and continental glaciers. Reviews in Geophysics 33, (1995). 311–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, A.R, Huneke, J.C, and Wasserburg, G.J Eruption age of a ∼100,000-year-old basalt from 40Ar-39Ar Analysis of partially degassed xenoliths. Journal Geophysical Research 89, (1984). 1033–1048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendy, I.L, and Kennett, J.P Latest Quaternary north Pacific surface-water responses imply atmosphere-driven climate instability. Geology 27, (1999). 291–294.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hostetler, S.W, and Clark, P.U Climatic controls of western U.S. glaciers at the last glacial maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews 16, (1997). 505–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, L.A Diversion of the upper Bear River: Glacial diffluence and Quaternary erosion, Sierra Nevada, CA. Geomorphology 14, (1995). 131–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, L. A, and Davis, J. D. (1994). Glaciation and Hydraulic Gold-Mining Sediment in the Bear and South Yuba Rivers, Sierra Nevada. Field Trip Guide, April 1–3, p, 106.Google Scholar
Kohl, C.P, and Nishiizumi, K Chemical isolation of quartz for measurement of in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 56, (1992). 3586–3587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindgren, W. (1900). Colfax Folio, California. U.S. Geological Survey, Geologic Atlas, Folio., 66.Google Scholar
Phillips, F.M, Zreda, M.G, Smith, S.S, Elmore, D, Kubik, P.W, and Sharma, P Cosmogenic chlorine-36 chronology for glacial deposits at Bloody Canyon, eastern Sierra Nevada. Science 248, (1990). 1529–1532.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, F.M, Zreda, M.G, Benson, L.V, Plummer, M.A, Elmore, D, and Sharma, P Chronology for fluctuations in late Pleistocene Sierra Nevada glaciers and lakes. Science 274, (1996). 749–761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, F.M, Stone, W.D, and Fabryka-Martin, J.T An improved approach to calculating low-energy cosmic-ray neutron fluxes at the land/atmosphere interface. Chemical Geology 175, (2001). 689–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quaternary Isotope Laboratory, (2000). GISP2 ice core data;, University of Washington;. http://depts.washington.edu/qil/.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J The 100,000-year ice-age cycle identified and found to lag temperature, carbon dioxide, and orbital eccentricity. Science 289, (2000). 1897–1902.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sharp, R, and Birman, J.H Additions to classical sequence of Pleistocene glaciations, Sierra Nevada, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74, (1963). 1079–1086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, J.O Air pressure and cosmogenic isotope production. Journal of Geophysical Research 105, (2000). 23753–23759.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Grootes, P. M. (2000). GISP2 Oxygen isotope ratios. Quaternary Research 53, 277–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Grootes, M, and Braziunas, T.F The GISP2 δ18O climate record of the past 16,500 years and the role of the sun, ocean, and volcanoes. Quaternary Research 44, (1995). 341–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahrhaftig, C., and Birman, J. H. (1965). The Quaternary of the Pacific mountain system in California.. In The Quaternary of the United States Wright, H. E. J., and Frey, D. G., Eds., pp. 299–340.Google Scholar
Zreda, M.G, Phillips, F.M, and Elmore, D Cosmogenic 36Cl accumulations in unstable landforms. 2. Simulations and measurements on eroding moraines. Water Resources Research 30, (1994). 3127–3136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar