Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:41:50.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stratigraphy, fossils, and age of sediments at the upper pit of the Lost Chicken gold mine: new information on the late Pliocene environment of east central Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John V. Matthews Jr. ,
J. A. Westgate ,
Lynn Ovenden ,
L. David Carter  and
Thomas Fouch
John V. Matthews Jr.*
Affiliation:
Ohana Productions, 1 Red Maple Ln, Hubley, Nova Scotia B3Z 1A5, Canada
J. A. Westgate
Affiliation:
Dept. of Geology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3B1, Canada
Lynn Ovenden
Affiliation:
RR 3, Casselman, Ontario K0A 1M0, Canada
L. David Carter
Affiliation:
201 Libby St., Sequim, WA 98382, USA
Thomas Fouch
Affiliation:
The Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:ohana@hfx.eastlink.cd (J.V. Matthews).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The “upper pit” at the Lost Chicken placer gold mine in east central Alaska contains fossils that provide information on the flora and insect fauna of interior Alaska just before the onset of global cooling at 2.5 myr. Fossils come from sediments interbedded with the Lost Chicken tephra (dated at 2.9 ± 0.4 myr—early Late Pliocene) and portray the floodplain and valley of a small creek within a region dominated by a coniferous forest richer in genera and species than the present one. Climate was wetter and less continental, and there was probably little or no permafrost. At least one other Pliocene tephra (the Fortymile tephra) occurs at the site and is also associated with plant and insect fossils. Among these fossils are extinct plants and insects like those found at other Tertiary sites in northern Canada and Alaska. The Lost Chicken sequence is the same age as the Beaufort Formation on Meighen Island, more than 1000 km to the north. Like Lost Chicken, Meighen Island sediments contain fossils representing a diverse boreal environment. This shows that the latitudinal climate gradient during early Late Pliocene time was shallower than at present and the boreal forest had a far greater latitudinal span than now.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , July 2003 , pp. 9 - 18
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

Ager, T.A., Matthews, J.V. Jr., Yeend, E., (1994). Pliocene terrace gravels of the ancestral Yukon River near Circle, Alaska: palynology, paleobotany, paleoenvironmental reconstruction and regional correlation. Quaternary International 22–23, 185–206.Google Scholar
Bennike, O., (1990). The Kap Kobenhavn Formation. stratigraphy and palaeobotany of a Plio-Pleistocene sequence in Peary Land, North Greenland. Meddelelser om Greenland 23, 1–85.Google Scholar
Bigazzi, G., and Galbraith, R.F., (1999). Point-counting technique for fission-track dating of tephra glass shards, and its relative standard error. Quaternary Research 51, 67–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cande, S.C., and Kent, D.V., (1995). Revised calibration of the geomagnetic polarity timescale for the late Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Journal of Geophysical Research 100, 6093–6095.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edlund, S.A., and Alt, B.T., (1989). Regional congruence of vegetation and summer climate patterns in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada. Arctic 42, 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elias, S.A., Matthews, J.V. Jr. Arctic North American seasonal temperatures from the latest Miocene to Early Pliocene, based on mutual climatic range analysis of fossil beetle assemblages. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 39, (2002). 911–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, H.L., and Keith, T.E.C., (1969). Geology along the Taylor Highway, Alaska. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1281, 1–36.Google Scholar
Fyles, J.G., Marincovich, L. Jr., Matthews, J.V. Jr., Barendregt, R., (1991). Unique mollusc find in the Beaufort Formation (Pliocene) on Meighen Island, Arctic Canada. in: Paper 91-1B Geological Survey of Canada, pp. 105–112.Google Scholar
Hare, F.K., and Hay, J.E., (1974). The climate of Canada and Alaska. Bryson, R.A., and Hare, F.K. World Survey of Climatology. Climates of North America. vol 11, Elsevier, Amsterdam. 49–134.Google Scholar
Janssens, J.A., (1979). Subfossil Bryophytes from Lost Chicken, Alaska. Unpublished Bryological Report JJ357 Google Scholar
Kaufman, D.S., and Brigham-Grette, J., (1993). Aminostratigraphic correlations and paleotemperature implications, Pliocene–Pleistocene high-sea-level deposits, northwestern Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews 12, 21–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunk, M.J., Rieck, H., Fouch, T.D., Carter, T.D., (1994). 40Ar/39Ar age constraints on Neogene sedimentary beds, Upper Ramparts, Half-Way Pillar and Canyon Village sites, Porcupine River, east central Alaska. Quaternary International 22–23, 31–42.Google Scholar
Maass, W.S.G., (1967). Studies on the taxonomy and distribution of Sphagnum. III. Observations on Sphagnum macrophyllum in the northern part of its range. The Bryologist 70, 177–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr. Quaternary environmental history of interior Alaska. pollen samples from organic colluvium and peats. Arctic and Alpine Research 2, (1970). 241–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr. Two new species of Micropeplus (Staphylinidae: Coleoptera) from the Pliocene of western Alaska with remarks on the evolution of Micropeplinae. Canadian Journal of Zoology 48, (1970). 779–788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr., and Ovenden, L.E., (1990). Late Tertiary plant macrofossils from localities in Arctic/Subarctic North America (Alaska, Yukon and Northwest Territories). a review of the data. Arctic 43, 364–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr., Telka, A., (1997). Insect fossils from the Yukon. in: Danks, H.V., Downes, J.A., (Eds.), Insects of the Yukon, Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods), Ottawa., pp. 911–962.Google Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr., Ovenden, L.E., and Fyles, J.G., (1990). Plant and insect fossils from the late Tertiary Beaufort Formation on Prince Patrick Island, N.W.T.. Harington, C.R. Canada’s Missing Dimension. Science and History in the Canadian Arctic Islands. Volume 1, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa. 105–135.Google Scholar
Naeser, N.D., Westgate, J.A., Hughes, O.L., and Péwé, T.L., (1982). Fission-track ages of late Cenozoic distal tephra beds in the Yukon Territory and Alaska. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 19, 2167–2178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouellet, C.E., Sherk, , Lawrence, C., (1973). Map of Plant Hardiness Zones in Canada, Ottawa, Publication 5003. Agriculture Canada Google Scholar
Porter, L., (1988). Late Pleistocene fauna of Lost Chicken Creek, Alaska. Arctic 41, 303–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preece, S.J., Westgate, J.A., Stemper, B.A., and Péwé, T.L., (1999). Tephrochronology of late Cenozoic loess at Fairbanks, central Alaska. Geological Society of America Bulletin 111, 71–90.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Repenning, C.A., (1990). Of mice and ice in the Late Pliocene of North America. Arctic 43, 314–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandhu, A.S., Westgate, J.A., and Alloway, B.V., (1993). Optimizing the isothermal plateau fission track dating method for volcanic glass shards. Nuclear Tracks 21, 479–488.Google Scholar
Schweger, C.E., (2001). The warm periods: Yukon’s interglacials. in: Canadian Quaternary Association Meetings, 2001: Program and Abstracts, p. 62 Google Scholar
Schweger, C.E., (2002). Interglacial paleoecology of Yukon. in: AMQUA 2002, American Quaternary Association Program and Abstracts of the 17th Annual Meeting, p. 116 Google Scholar
Staudacher, T.H., Jessberger, E.K., Dominik, B., Kirsten, T., and Schaeffer, O.A., (1982). 40Ar–39Ar ages of rocks and glasses from the Nördlinger Ries Crater and the temperature history of impact breccias. Journal of Geophysics 51, 1–11.Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A., (1989). Isothermal plateau fission-track ages of hydrated glass shards from the silicic tephra beds. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 95, 226–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westgate, J.A., Walter, R.C., Pearce, G.W., and Gorton, M.P., (1985). Distribution, stratigraphy, petrochemistry, and palaeomagnetism of the late Pleistocene Old Crow tephra in Alaska and the Yukon. Can Journal of Earth Sciences 22, 893–906.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westgate, J.A., Sandhu, A.S., and Shane, P., (1997). Fission-track dating. Aitken, M., and Taylor, R.E. Chronometric and Allied Dating in Archaeology. Plenum, New York. 127–158.Google Scholar
White, J.M., Ager, T.A., Adam, D.P., Leopold, E.B., Liu, G., Jette, H., and Schweger, C.E., (1997). An 18 million year record of vegetation and climate change in northwestern Canada and Alaska. tectonic and global climatic correlates. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 130, 293–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, J.M., Ager, T.A., Adam, D.P., Leopold, E.B., Liu, G., Jette, H., Schweger, C.E., (1999). Neogene and Quaternary Quantitative Palynostratigraphy and Paleoclimatology from Sections in Yukon and Adjacent Northwest Territories and Alaska. Bulletin 543, Geological Survey of Canada, CrossRefGoogle Scholar