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Magnetostratigraphic evidence from the Cold Creek bar for onset of ice-age cataclysmic floods in eastern Washington during the early pleistocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Christopher J. Pluhar ,
Bruce N. Bjornstad ,
Stephen P. Reidel ,
Robert S. Coe  and
Paul B. Nelson
Christopher J. Pluhar*
Affiliation:
University of California, Earth Science Department, 1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077, USA
Bruce N. Bjornstad
Affiliation:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Applied Geology and Geochemistry (K6-81), P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, USA
Stephen P. Reidel
Affiliation:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Applied Geology and Geochemistry (K6-81), P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, USA
Robert S. Coe
Affiliation:
University of California, Earth Science Department, 1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077, USA
Paul B. Nelson
Affiliation:
University of California, Earth Science Department, 1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 831 459 3074.Email Address:cpluhar@es.ucsc.edu(C.J. Pluhar).
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Abstract

This study provides a detailed magnetostratigraphy of sediments composing the Cold Creek cataclysmic flood bar in the Pasco Basin, Washington. Our interpretation suggests onset of Missoula floods or similar events prior to 1.1 myr, later than previously suggested by Bjornstad et al. [Bjornstad, B.N., Fecht, K.R., Pluhar, C.J., 2001. Long history of pre-Wisconsin, Ice Age cataclysmic floods: evidence from southeastern Washington State. Journal of Geology 109 (6), 695–713]. Nonetheless these data suggest that Channeled Scabland features formed over a much longer timespan than commonly cited, that continental ice sheets of the early Pleistocene reached as far south as those of the late Pleistocene, and that similar physiography existed in eastern Washington and perhaps Montana to both generate and route Missoula-flood-like events. This study adds paleomagnetic polarity results from 213 new samples of silts and sands derived from nine new drill cores penetrating the Cold Creek cataclysmic flood bar to our previous database of 53 samples from four boreholes, resulting in a much more robust and detailed magnetostratigraphy. Rock magnetic studies on these sediments show pure magnetite to be the predominant remanence-carrying magnetic mineral, ruling out widespread remagnetization by secondary mineralization. The magnetostratigraphy at eastern Cold Creek bar is characterized by a normal polarity interval bracketed by reversed polarities. Equating the normal zone with the Jaramillo subchron (0.99–1.07 myr) affords the simplest correlation to the magnetic polarity timescale. Western Cold Creek bar was likely deposited during the Brunhes chron (0–0.78 myr) since it exhibits mainly normal polarities with only two thin reversed-polarity horizons that we interpret as magnetic excursions during the Brunhes.

Keywords

PaleomagnetismMagnetostratigraphySusceptibilityHysteresis parametersHanfordPasco BasinCold Creek barMissoulaScablandCataclysmic floodJokulhlaup
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 123 - 135
Copyright
University of Washington

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