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Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of a paleosol catena, the Zinj archeological level, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Steven G. Driese  and
Gail M. Ashley
Steven G. Driese*
Affiliation:
Terrestrial Paleoclimatology Research Group, Department of Geology, One Bear Place #97354, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7354 USA
Gail M. Ashley
Affiliation:
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8066, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:Steven_Driese@baylor.edu (S.G. Driese).
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Abstract

Paleosols record paleoclimatic processes in the Earth's Critical Zone and are archives of ancient landscapes associated with archeological sites. Detailed field, micromorphologic, and bulk geochemical analysis of paleosols were conducted near four sites at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania within the same stratigraphic horizon as the Zinjanthropus (Paranthropus) boisei archeological site. Paleosols are thin (< 35 cm), smectitic, and exhibit Vertisol shrink–swell features. Traced across the paleolandscape over 1 km and just beneath Tuff IC (1.845 Ma), the paleosols record a paleocatena in which soil moisture at the four sites was supplemented by seepage additions from adjacent springs, and soil development was enhanced by this additional moisture. Field evidence revealed an abrupt lateral transition in paleosol composition at the PTK site (< 1.5 m apart) in which paleosol B, formed nearest the spring system, is highly siliceous, vs. paleosol A, formed in smectitic clay. Thin-section investigations combined with mass-balance geochemistry, using Chapati Tuff as parent material and assuming immobile Ti, show moderately intense weathering. Pedotransfer functions indicate a fertile soil system, but sodicity may have limited some plant growth. Paleosol bulk geochemical proxies used to estimate paleoprecipitation (733–944 mm/yr), are higher than published estimates of 250–700 mm/yr using δD values of lipid biomarkers.

Keywords

Paleosol catenaEarly PleistoceneZinj archeological levelOlduvai GorgeTanzania
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 85 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 133 - 146
Copyright
University of Washington

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