Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-11T16:13:40.790Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating fluvial terraces by 230Th/U on pedogenic carbonate, Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Warren D. Sharp ,
Kenneth R. Ludwig ,
Oliver A. Chadwick ,
Ronald Amundson  and
Laura L. Glaser
Warren D. Sharp
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
Kenneth R. Ludwig
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
Oliver A. Chadwick
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Ronald Amundson
Affiliation:
Division of Ecosystem Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Laura L. Glaser
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Reliable and precise ages of Quaternary pedogenic carbonate can be obtained with 230Th/U dating by thermal ionization mass spectrometry applied to carefully selected milligram-size samples. Datable carbonate can form within a few thousand years of surface stabilization allowing ages of Quaternary deposits and surfaces to be closely estimated. Pedogenic carbonate clast-rinds from gravels of glacio-fluvial terraces in the Wind River Basin have median concentrations of 14 ppm U and 0.07 ppm 232Th, with median (230Th/232Th) = 270, making them well suited for 230Th/U dating. Horizons as thin as 0.5 mm were sampled from polished slabs to reduce averaging of long (≥105 yr), and sometimes visibly discontinuous, depositional histories. Dense, translucent samples with finite 230Th/U ages preserve within-rind stratigraphic order in all cases. Ages for terraces WR4 (167,000 ± 6,400 yr) and WR2 (55,000 ± 8600 yr) indicate a mean incision rate of 0.26 ± 0.05 m per thousand years for the Wind River over the past glacial cycle, slower than inferred from cosmogenic-nuclide dating. Terrace WR3, which formed penecontemporaneously with the final maximum glacial advance of the penultimate Rocky Mountain (Bull Lake) glaciation, has an age of 150,000 ± 8300 yr indicating that it is broadly synchronous with the penultimate global ice volume maximum.

Keywords

U-seriesGeochronologyPedogenic carbonateWind RiverBull Lake glaciationFluvial terraceIncision rateAlpine glaciation
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , March 2003 , pp. 139 - 150
Copyright
Elsevier Science (USA)

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

Amundson, R., Chadwick, O., Kendall, C., Wang, Y., and DeNiro, M. Isotopic evidence for shifts in atmospheric circulation during the late Quaternary in mid-North America. Geology 24 (1996). 23 26.Google Scholar
Amundson, R., Wang, Y., Chadwick, O., Trumbore, S., McFadden, L., McDonald, E., Wells, S., and DeNiro, M. Factors and processes governing the 14C content of carbonate in desert soils. Earth Planetary Science Letters 125, (1994). 385 405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackwelder, E. Cenozoic history of the mountains of central Wyoming. Journal of Geology 23, (1915). 97 117., 193–217., 307–340.Google Scholar
Cerling, T.E. The stable isotope composition of modern soil carbonate and its relationship to climate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 71, (1984). 229 240.Google Scholar
Cerling, T.E., Quade, J., Wang, Y.R., and Bowman, J.R. Carbon isotopes in soils and paleosols as ecology and paleoecology indicators. Nature 341, (1989). 138 139.Google Scholar
Chadwick, O.A., Hall, R.D., and Phillips, F.M. Chronology of Pleistocene glacial advances in the central Rocky Mountains. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109, (1997). 1443 1452.Google Scholar
Chen, J.H., Edwards, R.L., and Wasserburg, G.J. 238U 234U and 232Th in sea water. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 80, (1986). 241 251.Google Scholar
Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Hoff, J., Gallup, C.D., Richards, D.A., and Asmerom, Y. The half-lives of uranium-234 and thorium-230. Chemical Geology 169, (2000). 17 33.Google Scholar
Edwards, R.L., Chen, J.H., and Wasserburg, G.J. 238U—234U—230Th—232Th systematics and the precise measurement of time over the past 500,000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 81, (1987). 175 192.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., (1988). Assessment of the Applicability of the Thermoluminescence Dating Technique to Natural Hazard Evaluations at the High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository Site. Yucca Mountain, Nevada., RMS SL 026901. Nevada Bureau of Mines, Reno.Google Scholar
Gile, L.H., Peterson, F.F., and Grossman, R.B. Morphological and genetic sequences of carbonate accumulation in desert soils. Soil Science 101, (1966). 347 360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, A., and Molnar, P. Asynchronous maximum advances of mountain and continental glaciers. Reviews of Geophysics 33, (1995). 311 364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gosse, J.C., Klein, J., Evenson, E.B., Lawn, B., and Middleton, R. Beryllium-10 dating of the duration and retreat of the last Pinedale glacial sequence. Science 268, (1995). 1329 Google Scholar
Gosse, J.C., and Phillips, F.M. Terrestrial in situ cosmogenic nuclides. theory and application. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, (2001). 1475 1560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R.D. Effects of climate change on soils in the glacial deposits, Wind River Basin, Wyoming. Quaternary Research 51, (1999). 248 261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R.D., and Jaworoski, C. Reinterpretation of the Cedar Ridge section, Wind River Range, Wyoming. implications for the glacial chronology of the Rocky Mountains. Geological Society of America Bulletin 111, (1999). 1233 1249.Google Scholar
Hancock, G.S., Anderson, R.S., Chadwick, O.A., and Finkel, R.C. Dating fluvial terraces with 10Be and 26Al profiles. application to the Wind River, Wyoming. Geomorphology 27, (1999). 41 60.Google Scholar
Hancock, G.S., and Anderson, R.S. Numerical modeling of fluvial strath-terrace formation in response to oscillating climate. Geological Society of America Bulletin 114, (2002). 1131 1142.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imbrie, J.D., Hays, D.G., Martinson, D.G., McIntyre, A.C., Mix, A.C., Morler, J.J., Pisias, N.G., Prell, W.L., and Shackleton, N.J. The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate. support from a revised chronology of the δ18O record. Berger, A., Imbrie, J., Hays, J., Kukla, G., and Saltzman, B. Milankovitch and Climate. Understanding the Response to Astronomical Forcing, Part 1. (1984). Riedel, Bingham, Massachusetts. 269 305.Google Scholar
Izett, G.A., Pierce, K.L., Naeser, N.D., Jaworowski, C., (1992). Isotopic Dating of Lava Creek B tephra in Terrace Deposits Along the Wind River, Wyoming: Implications for Post 0.6 ma Uplift of the Yellowstone Hotspot. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 92–391.Google Scholar
Ku, T.-L., Bull, W.B., Freeman, S.T., and Knauss, K.G. 230Th—234U dating of pedogenic carbonates in gravelly desert soils of Vidal Valley, southern California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 90, (1979). 1063 1073.Google Scholar
Lanphere, M.A., Champion, D.E., Christiansen, R.L., Izett, G.A., and Obradovich, J.D. Revised ages for tuffs of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field. assignment of the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff to a new geomagnetic polarity event. Geological Society of America Bulletin 114, (2002). 559 568.Google Scholar
Lea, D.W. Ice ages, the California Current, and Devils Hole. Science 293, (2001). 59 60.Google Scholar
Leonard, E.M. Climatic change in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. estimates based on modern climate at Pleistocene equilibrium lines. Arctic and Alpine Research 21, (1989). 245 255.Google Scholar
Ludwig, K.R., (1999). User’s Manual for Isoplot/Ex, Version 2.01: A Geochronological Toolkit for Microsoft Excel. Berkeley Geochronology Center Special Publication No.1a, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Ludwig, K.R., and Paces, J.B. Uranium-series dating of pedogenic silica and carbonate, Crater Flat, Nevada. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 66, (2002). 487 506.Google Scholar
Mackin, J.H. Concept of a graded river. Geological Society of America Bulletin 59, (1948). 463 512.Google Scholar
Martinson, D.G., Pisias, N.G., Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Moore, T.C. Jr., and Shackleton, N.J. Age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages. development of a high resolution 0 to 300,000-year chronostratigraphy. Quaternary Research 27, (1987). 1 29.Google Scholar
Nishiiumi, K., Kohl, C.P., Arnold, J.R., Dorn, R.I., Klein, J., Fink, D., Middleton, R., and Lai, D. Role of in situ cosmogenic nuclides 10Be and 26Al in the study of diverse geomorphic processes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 18, (1993). 407 425.Google Scholar
Peterson, F.F., Bell, J.W., Dorn, R.I., Ramelli, A.R., and Ku, T.-L. Late Quaternary geomorphology and soils in Crater Flat, Yucca Mountain area, southern Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 107, (1995). 379 395.Google Scholar
Phillips, F.M., Zreda, M.G., Gosse, J.C., Klein, J., Evenson, E.B., Hall, R.D., Chadwick, O.A., and Sharma, P. Cosmogenic 36Cl and 10Be ages of Quaternary glacial and fluvial deposits of the Wind River Range, Wyoming. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109, (1997). 1453 1463.Google Scholar
Pierce, K.L., Obradovich, J.D., and Friedman, I. Obsidian-hydration dating and correlation of Bull Lake and Pinedale Glaciations near West Yellowstone, Montana. Geological Society of America Bulletin 87, (1976). 703 710.Google Scholar
Quade, J., Cerling, T.E., and Bowman, J.R. Systematic variations in the carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of pedogenic carbonate along elevation transects in the southern Great Basin, United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin 101, (1989). 464 475.Google Scholar
Reheis, M.C., Palmquist, R.C., Agard, S.S., Jaworoski, C., Mears, B. Jr., Madole, R.F., Nelson, A.R., and Osborn, G.D. Quaternary history of some southern and central Rocky Mountain basins. Morrison, R.B. Quaternary Nonglacial Geology; Conterminous U.S. Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America. (1991). v. K-2, Boulder. 407 440.Google Scholar
Richmond, G.M., (1976). Pleistocene stratigraphy and chronology in the mountains of western Wyoming. in: Mahaney, W.C., (Ed.), Quaternary Stratigraphy of North America, Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania, pp. 353–379.Google Scholar
Richmond, G.M., and Fullerton, D.S. Summation of quaternary glaciations in the United States of America. Sibrave, V., Bowen, D.Q., and Richmond, G.M. Quaternary glaciation of the northern hemisphere. (1986). Pergamon Press, Oxford. 183 196.Google Scholar
Szabo, B.J., Carr, W.J., Gottschall, W.C., (1981). Uranium–Thorium Dating of Quaternary Carbonate Accumulations in the Nevada Test Site Region, Southern Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81–119.Google Scholar
Szabo, B.J., O’Malley, P.A., (1985). Uranium-Series Dating of Secondary Carbonate and Silica Precipitates Relating to Fault Movements in the Nevada Test Site Region, and of Caliche and Travertine Samples from the Amargosa Desert. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 85–47.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., McDonald, E., Amundson, R., McFadden, L., and Chadwick, O. An isotopic study of soils in chronological sequences of alluvial deposits, Providence Mountains, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 108, (1996). 379 391.Google Scholar
Winograd, I.J., Coplen, T.B., Landwehr, J.M., Riggs, A.C., Ludwig, K.R., Szabo, B.J., Kolesar, P.T., and Revesz, K.M. Continuous 500,000-year climate record from vein calcite in Devils Hole, Nevada. Science 258, (1992). 255 260.Google Scholar
Winograd, I.J., Landwehr, J.M., Ludwig, K.R., Coplen, T.B., and Riggs, A.C. Duration and structure of the past four interglaciations. Quaternary Research 48, (1997). 141 154.Google Scholar
Wintle, A.G., and Huntley, D.J. Thermoluminescence dating of sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews 1, (1982). 31 53.Google Scholar