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Chronology and glass chemistry of tephra and cryptotephra horizons from lake sediments in northern Alaska, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2017

Alistair J. Monteath ,
Maarten van Hardenbroek ,
Lauren J. Davies ,
Duane G. Froese ,
Peter G. Langdon ,
Xiaomei Xu  and
Mary E. Edwards
Alistair J. Monteath*
Affiliation:
Palaeoecology Laboratory (PLUS), School of Geography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Maarten van Hardenbroek
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
Lauren J. Davies
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
Duane G. Froese
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
Peter G. Langdon
Affiliation:
Palaeoecology Laboratory (PLUS), School of Geography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Xiaomei Xu
Affiliation:
Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Facility, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-3100, USA
Mary E. Edwards
Affiliation:
Palaeoecology Laboratory (PLUS), School of Geography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom Alaska Quaternary Center, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Geography and Environment, Room 1067, Shackleton Building 44, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom. E-mail address: ali.monteath@soton.ac.uk (A.J. Monteath).
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Abstract

Holocene tephrostratigraphy in Alaska provides independent chronology and stratigraphic correlation in a region where reworked old (Holocene) organic carbon can significantly distort radiocarbon chronologies. Here, we present new glass chemistry and chronology for Holocene tephras preserved in three Alaskan lakes: one in the eastern interior and two in the southern Brooks Range. Tephra beds in the eastern interior lake-sediment core are correlated with the White River Ash and the Hayes tephra set H (~4200–3700 cal yr BP), and an additional discrete tephra bed is likely from the Aleutian arc/Alaska Peninsula. Cryptotephras (nonvisible tephras) found in the Brooks Range include the informally named “Ruppert tephra” (~2700–2300 cal yr BP) and the Aniakchak caldera-forming event II (CFE II) tephra (~3600 cal yr BP). A third underlying Brooks Range cryptotephra is chemically indistinguishable from the Aniakchak CFE II tephra (4070–3760 cal yr BP) and is likely to be from an earlier eruption of the Aniakchak volcano.

Keywords

TephraTephrochronologyAlaskaHoloceneBrooks RangeEastern interiorAniakchakTaphonomy
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , September 2017 , pp. 169 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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