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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
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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

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