Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:41:22.943Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Middle Pleistocene age of the Nome River glaciation, northwestern Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Darrell S. Kaufman ,
Robert C. Walter ,
Julie Brigham-Grette  and
David M. Hopkins
Darrell S. Kaufman
Affiliation:
Center for Geochronological Research, INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450 USA Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450 USA
Robert C. Walter
Affiliation:
Center for Geochronological Research, INSTAAR, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450 USA Geochronology Center, Institute of Human Origins, 2453 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709 USA
Julie Brigham-Grette
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geography, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 USA
David M. Hopkins
Affiliation:
Alaska Quaternary Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-1200 USA Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-1200 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the middle Pleistocene Nome River glaciation of northwestern Alaska, glaciers covered an area an order of magnitude more extensive than during any subsequent glacial intervals. The age of the Nome River glaciation is constrained by laser-fusion 40Ar/39Ar analyses of basaltic lava that overlies Nome River drift at Minnie Creek, central Seward Peninsula, that average 470,000 ± 190,000 yr (±1σ). Milligram-size subsamples of the lava were dated to identify and eliminate extraneous 40Ar enrichments that rendered the mean of conventional K-Ar dates on larger bulk samples of the same flow too old (700,000 ± 570,000 yr). While the 40Ar/39Ar analyses provide a minimum limiting age for the Nome River glaciation, maximum ages are provided by a provisional K-Ar date on a basaltic lava flow that underlies the Nome River drift at nearby Lave Creek, by paleomagnetic determinations of the drift itself at and near the type locality, and by amino acid epimerization analysis of molluscan fossils from nearshore sediments of the Anvilian marine transgression that underlie Nome River drift on the coastal plain at Nome. Taken together, the new age data indicate that the glaciation took place between 580,000 and 280,000 yr ago. The altitude of the Anvilian deposits suggests that eustatic sea level during the Anvilian transgression rose at least as high as and probably higher than during the last interglacial transgression; by correlation with the marine oxygen-isotope record, the transgression probably dates to stage 11 at 410,000 yr, and the Nome River glaciation is younger still. Analyses of floor altitudes of presumed Nome River cirques indicate that the Nome River regional snowline depression was at least twice that of the maximum late Wisconsin. The cause of the enhanced snowline lowering appears to be related to greater availability of moisture in northwestern Alaska during the middle Pleistocene.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , November 1991 , pp. 277 - 293
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

Bloom, A. L. Broecker, W. S. Chappell, J. M. A. Matthews, R. K. Mesolella, K. J. Quaternary sea-level fluctuations on a tectonic coast: New 230Th/234U dates from the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea. Quaternary Research 4 1974 185 205 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brigham-Grette, J. Hopkins, D. M. Extensive middle Pleistocene glaciation across central Beringia: Implications for climatic contrasts between mid and late Bruhnes. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 21 6 1989 53 54 Google Scholar
Broccoli, A. J. Manabe, S. The influence of continental ice, atmospheric CO2, and land albedo on the climate of the last glacial maximum. Climate Dynamics 1 1987 87 99 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, L. D. A Pleistocene sand sea on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain. Science 211 1981 381 383 Google Scholar
Carter, L. D. Brigham-Grette, J. Hopkins, D. M. Late Cenozoic marine transgressions of the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain Correlation of Quaternary Deposits and Events Around the Margin of Beaufort Sea. Geological Survey of Canada Open-File Report 1237 1986 21 26 Google Scholar
Dalrymple, G. B. Lanphere, M. A. Pringle, M. S. Correlation diagrams in 40Ar/39Ar dating: Is there a correct choice?. Geophysical Research Letters 15 1988 589 591 Google Scholar
Faure, G. Principles of Isotope Geology 1986 Wiley New York Google Scholar
Hall, C. M. York, D. KAr and 40Ar/39Ar age of the Lashamp geomagnetic polarity reversal. Nature 274 1978 462 464 Google Scholar
Hamilton, T. D. Glaciation in Alaska: Introduction and overview Hamilton, T. Reed, K. Thorson, R. Glaciation in Alaska: The Geologic Record 1986 Alaska Geological Society Anchorage 1 8 Google Scholar
Hamilton, T. D. Thorson, R. M. The Cordilleran ice sheet in Alaska Porter, S. Late Quaternary Environments of the United States 1983 University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis 38 52 Google Scholar
Hollin, J. T. Hearty, P. J. South Carolina interglacial sites and stage 5 sea levels. Quaternary Research 33 1990 1 17 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. Seward Peninsula Multiple Glaciation in Alaska: A Progress Report. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 289 1953 10 11 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. Geology of the Imuruk Lake Area, Seward Peninsula, Alaska 1963 U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1141-C Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. Quaternary marine transgressions in Alaska Hopkins, D. The Bering Land Bridge 1967 Stanford University Press Stanford, CA 121 143 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. Sea level history in Beringia during the past 250,000 years. Quaternary Research 3 1973 520 540 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. Aspects of the paleogeography of Beringia during the late Pleistocene Hopkins, D. Matthews, J. Schweger, C. Young, S. Paleoecology of Beringia 1982 Academic Press New York 3 28 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. MacNeil, F. S. Leopold, E. B. The coastal plain at Nome, Alaska: A type section for the Bering Strait region Chronology and climatology of the Quaternary, Part 4. 21st International Geological Congress, Copenhagen 1960 46 57 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D. M. Rowland, R. W. Patton, W. W. Middle Pleistocene mollusks from St. Lawrence Island and their significance for the Paleo-oceanography of the Bering Sea. Quaternary Research 2 1972 119 134 Google Scholar
Huston, M. Brigham-Grette, J. Hopkins, D. M. Paleogeographic significance of middle Pleistocene glaciomarine deposits on Baldwin Peninsula, northwest Alaska. Annals of Glaciology 14 1990 111 114 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imbrie, J. Berger, A. et al. The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate: Support from a revised chronology of the marine δ18O record. Milankovitch and Climate, Part 1 1984 Reidel MA 269 305 and 8 others Google Scholar
Kaufman, D. S. Pliocene-Pleistocene Chronostratigraphy, Nome, Alaska. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis 1991 University of Colorado Boulder Google Scholar
Kaufman, D. S. Surficial geologic map of the Solomon, Bendeleben and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map 1838-A 1986 Google Scholar
Kaufman, D. S. Hopkins, D. M. Late Cenozoic radiometric dates, Seward and Baldwin Peninsulas and adjacent continental shelf, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 85-374 1985 Google Scholar
Kaufman, D. S. Hopkins, D. M. Glacial history of the Seward Peninsula Hamilton, T. Reed, K. Thorson, R. Glaciation in Alaska: The Geologic Record 1986 Alaska Geological Society Anchorage 51 77 Google Scholar
Kaufman, D. S. Hopkins, D. M. Brigham-Grette, J. Miller, G. H. Amino acid geochronology of marine and glacial events at Nome, Alaska. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs 21 6 1989 A210 Google Scholar
Lamphere, M. A. Dalrymple, G. B. Identification of excess 40Ar by the 40Ar/39Ar age spectrum technique. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 32 1976 141 148 Google Scholar
Lawson, D. E. Glaciogenic resedimentation: Classification concepts and application to mass movement processes and deposits Goldthwait, R. Matsch, C. Genetic Classification of Glaciogenic Deposits 1988 A. A. Balkeman Rotterdam 147 167 Google Scholar
McDougall, I. Harrison, T. M. Geochronology and thermochronology by the 40Ar/39Ar method 1988 Oxford University Press (Clarendon) London/New York Google Scholar
McIntyre, G. A. Brooks, C. Compston, W. Turek, A. The statistical assessment of Rb-Sr isochrons. Journal of Geophysical Research 71 1966 5459 5468 Google Scholar
Miller, G. H. Aminostratigraphy of Baffin Island shell-bearing deposits Andrews, J. Quaternary Environments, Eastern Canadian Arctic, Baffin Bay and Western Greenland 1985 Allen & Unwin Boston 394 427 Google Scholar
Miller, G. H. Brigham-Grette, J. Amino acid geochronology: Resolution and precision in carbonate fossils. Quaternary International 1 1989 111 128 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, G. H. Mangerud, J. Aminostratigraphy of European marine interglacial deposits. Quaternary Science Reviews 4 1985 215 278 Google Scholar
Péwé, T. L. Quaternary geology of Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 835 1975 Google Scholar
Przybyl, B. J. The Regimen of Grand Union Glacier and the Glacial Geology of the Northeastern Kigluaik Mountains, Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis 1988 State University of New York Buffalo Google Scholar
Sachs, H. M. Late Pleistocene history of the North Pacific: Evidence from a quantitative study of radiolaria in core V21-173. Quaternary Research 3 1973 89 98 Google Scholar
Shackleton, N. J. Oxygen isotopes, ice volume and sea level. Quaternary Science Reviews 6 1987 183 190 Google Scholar
Taylor, J. R. An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements 1982 Oxford University Press London/New York Google Scholar
Till, A. B. Dumoulin, J. A. Gamble, B. M. Kaufman, D. S. Carroll, P. I. Preliminary geologic map and fossil data from Solomon, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276 1986 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wehmiller, J. F. Interlaboratory comparison of amino acid enantiomeric ratios in fossil Pleistocene mollusks. Quaternary Research 22 1984 109 120 Google Scholar
York, D. Least squares fitting of a straight line with correlated errors. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 5 1969 320 324 Google Scholar