Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:38:18.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new set of basaltic tephras from Southeast Alaska represent key stratigraphic markers for the late Pleistocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

Paul S. Wilcox ,
Jason Addison ,
Sarah J. Fowell ,
James F. Baichtal ,
Ken Severin  and
Daniel H. Mann
Paul S. Wilcox*
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
Jason Addison
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Rd., MS 910, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
Sarah J. Fowell
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
James F. Baichtal
Affiliation:
U.S. Forest Service, Tongass National Forest, Thorne Bay, Alaska 99919, USA
Ken Severin
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
Daniel H. Mann
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: paul.wilcox@uibk.ac.at (P.S. Wilcox).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Three new tephras have been identified in Southeast Alaska. An 8-cm-thick black basaltic tephra with nine discrete normally graded beds is present in cores from a lake on Baker Island. The estimated age of the tephra is 13,492 ± 237 cal yr BP. Although similar in age to the MEd tephra from the adjacent Mt. Edgecumbe volcanic field, this tephra is geochemically distinct. Black basaltic tephras recovered from two additional sites in Southeast Alaska, Heceta Island and the Gulf of Esquibel, are also geochemically distinct from the MEd tephra. The age of the tephra from Heceta Island is 14,609 ± 343 cal yr BP. Whereas the tephras recovered from Baker Island/Heceta Island/Gulf of Esquibel are geochemically distinct from each other, similarities in the ages of these tephras and the MEd tephra suggest a shared eruptive trigger, possibly crustal unloading caused by retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The submerged Addington volcanic field on the continental shelf, which may have been subaerially exposed during the late Pleistocene, is a possible source for the Southeast Alaska tephras.

Keywords

TephraTephrochronologyLake sedimentologyLate glacialGeochemistry
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 246 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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

REFERENCES

Addison, J.A., Begét, J.E., Ager, T.A., Finney, B.P., 2010. Marine tephrochronology of the Mt. Edgecumbe volcanic field, southeast Alaska, USA. Quaternary Research 73, 277–292.Google Scholar
Aitchison, J., 1982. The statistical analysis of compositional data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Methodological) 44, 139–177.Google Scholar
Ayuso, R.A., Karl, S.M., Slack, J.F., Haeussler, P.J., Bittenbender, P.E., Wandless, G.A., Colvin, A.S., 2005. Oceanic Pb-isotopic sources of Proterozoic and Paleozoic volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits on Prince of Wales Island and vicinity, southeastern Alaska. In: Haeussler, P.J., Galloway, J.P. (Eds.), Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, 2005. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1732, 1–20.Google Scholar
Baichtal, J.F., Carlson, R.J., 2010. Development of a model to predict the location of early-Holocene habitation sites along the western coast of Prince of Wales Island and the outer islands, southeast Alaska. Current Research in the Pleistocene 27, 64–67.Google Scholar
Barron, J.A., Bukry, D., Dean, W.E., Addison, J.A., Finney, B., 2009. Paleoceanography of the Gulf of Alaska during the past 15,000 years: results from diatoms, silicoflagellates, and geochemistry. Marine Micropaleontology 72, 176–195.Google Scholar
Begét, J.E., Motyka, R.J., 1998. New dates on late Pleistocene dacitic tephra from the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, southeastern Alaska. Quaternary Research 49, 123–125.Google Scholar
Blaauw, M., 2010. Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences. Quaternary Geochronology 5, 512–518.Google Scholar
Borchardt, G.A., 1974. The SIMAN coefficient for similarity analysis. Classification Society Bulletin 3, 1–8.Google Scholar
Borchardt, G.A., Aruscavage, P.J., Millard, H.J., 1972. Correlation of the Bishop ash, a Pleistocene marker bed, using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Journal of Sedimentary Research 42, 301–306.Google Scholar
Brown, T.A., Nelson, D.E., Mathewes, R.W., Vogel, J.S., Southon, J.R., 1989. Radiocarbon dating of pollen by accelerator mass spectrometry. Quaternary Research 32, 205–212.Google Scholar
Cashman, K., Blundy, J., 2000. Degassing and crystallization of ascending andesite and dacite. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 358, 1487–1513.Google Scholar
Clague, J.J., Evans, S.G., Rampton, V.N., Woodsworth, G.J., 1995. Improved age estimates for the White River and Bridge River tephras, western Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 32, 1172–1179.Google Scholar
Edwards, B., Russell, J., 2000. Distribution, nature, and origin of Neogene–Quaternary magmatism in the northern Cordilleran volcanic province, Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 112, 1280–1295.Google Scholar
Edwards, B., Russell, J., and Anderson, R., 2002. Subglacial, phonolitic volcanism at Hoodoo Mountain volcano, northern Canadian Cordillera. Bulletin of Volcanology 64, 254–272.Google Scholar
Fierstein, J., Hildreth, W., 2001. Preliminary volcano-hazard assessment for the Katmai volcanic cluster, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-489. Alaska Volcano Observatory, Anchorage, AK.Google Scholar
Gehrels, G.E., Berg, H.C., 1992. Geologic Map of Southeast Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO.Google Scholar
Gehrels, G.E., Berg, H.C., 1994. Geology of southeastern Alaska. In: Plafker, G., Berg, H.C. (Eds.), The Geology of Alaska. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp. 451–467.Google Scholar
Greene, H.G., O'Connell, V.M., Brylinsky, C.K., 2011. Tectonic and glacial related seafloor geomorphology as possible demersal shelf rockfish habitat surrogates—examples along the Alaskan convergent transform plate boundary. Continental Shelf Research 31, 39–53.Google Scholar
Hetherington, R., Barrie, J.V., Reid, R.G., MacLeod, R., Smith, D.J., James, T.S., Kung, R., 2003. Late Pleistocene coastal paleogeography of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada, and its implications for terrestrial biogeography and early postglacial human occupation. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40, 1755–1766.Google Scholar
Jarosewich, E., Nelen, J.A., Norberg, J.A., 1980. Reference samples for electron microprobe analysis. Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research 4, 43–47.Google Scholar
Karl, S.M., Baichtal, J.F., Calvert, A.T., Layer, P.W., 2013. Pliocene to Recent alkalic volcanic centers in southeast Alaska: western component of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province. Alaska Geology: Newsletter of the Alaska Geological Society 44, 1–2.Google Scholar
Le Bas, M.J., Le Maitre, R.W., Streckeisen, A., Zanettin, B., IUGS Subcommission on the Systematics of Igneous Rocks, 1986. A chemical classification of volcanic rocks based on the total alkali-silica diagram. Journal of Petrology 27, 745–750.Google Scholar
Lesnek, A.J., Briner, J.P., Lindqvist, C., Baichtal, J.F., Heaton, T.H., 2018. Deglaciation of the Pacific coastal corridor directly preceded the human colonization of the Americas. Science Advances 4, eaar5040.Google Scholar
Liu, E.J., Oliva, M., Antoniades, D., Giralt, S., Granados, I., Pla-Rabes, S., Toro, M., Geyer, A., 2016. Expanding the tephrostratigraphical framework for the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, by combining compositional and textural tephra characterisation. Sedimentary Geology 340, 49–61.Google Scholar
Lowe, D.J., 2011. Tephrochronology and its application: a review. Quaternary Geochronology 6, 107–153.Google Scholar
Praetorius, S., Mix, A., Jensen, B., Froese, D., Milne, G., Wolhowe, M., Addison, J., Prahl, F., 2016. Interaction between climate, volcanism, and isostatic rebound in Southeast Alaska during the last deglaciation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 452, 79–89.Google Scholar
Preece, S.J., Westgate, J.A., Stemper, B.A., Péwé, T.L., 1999. Tephrochronology of late Cenozoic loess at Fairbanks, central Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin 111, 71–90.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C.B., et al. , 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51, 1111–1150.Google Scholar
Riehle, J.R., Mann, D.H., Peteet, D.M., Engstrom, D.R., Brew, D.A., Meyer, C.E., 1992. The Mount Edgecumbe tephra deposits, a marker horizon in southeastern Alaska near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Quaternary Research 37, 183–202.Google Scholar
Shane, P.A., Froggatt, P.C., 1994. Discriminant function analysis of glass chemistry of New Zealand and North American tephra deposits. Quaternary Research 41, 70–81.Google Scholar
Soja, C.M., 1990. Island arc carbonates from the Silurian Heceta Formation of southeastern Alaska (Alexander terrane). Journal of Sedimentary Research 60, 235–249.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215–230.Google Scholar
Taylor, M.A., Hendy, I.L., Pak, D.K., 2014. Deglacial ocean warming and marine margin retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in the North Pacific Ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 403, 89–98.Google Scholar
Wentworth, C.K., 1922. A scale of grade and class terms for clastic sediments. Journal of Geology 30, 377–392.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Wilcox et al. supplementary material

Wilcox et al. supplementary material 1

Download Wilcox et al. supplementary material(File)
File 1.4 MB