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Loess in the mid-Atlantic region, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2018

John S. Wah ,
Daniel P. Wagner  and
Darrin L. Lowery
John S. Wah*
Affiliation:
Matapeake Soil and Environmental Consultants, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania 17257, USA Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
Daniel P. Wagner
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA Geo-Sci Consultants, University Park, Maryland 20782, USA
Darrin L. Lowery
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA Chesapeake Watershed Archaeological Research Foundation, Easton, Maryland 21601, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: P.O. Box 186, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania 17257, USA. E-mail address: matapeake.soil@gmail.com (J.S. Wah).
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Abstract

Loess is common in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States south of the Late Wisconsinan glacial border particularly along rivers draining the glaciated areas of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The broadest deposits occur on the flat landscapes of the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland where two episodes of deposition have been identified. The earlier Miles Point Loess has a limited distribution and is buried by the more widespread Paw Paw Loess. OSL and 14C dates place deposition of the Miles Point Loess during MIS 3. The well developed paleosol formed in the Miles Point Loess acts as a stratigraphic marker. The Paw Paw Loess buries Clovis age cultural materials which date deposition to the end of the Pleistocene. Loess deposits and paleosols are critical in understanding regional landscape evolution, Late Pleistocene environments, and early North American cultural history. Mapping the extent of loess in the Mid-Atlantic using the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s gSSURGO database overrepresents loess in some areas and underrepresents in others.

Keywords

LoessMid-AtlanticMarylandDelmarvaPennsylvaniaNew JerseyVirginiaPaleosolPre-ClovisLandscape evolution
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 89 , Issue 3: INQUA LoessFest 2016 , May 2018 , pp. 786 - 796
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2018 

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