Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T12:59:35.925Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Middle Wisconsin glacial advance into the Appalachian Plateau, Sixmile Creek, Tompkins Co., NY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Daniel E. Karig  and
Norton G. Miller
Daniel E. Karig*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Norton G. Miller
Affiliation:
Biological Survey, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, 12230, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:dek9@cornell.edu (D.E. Karig).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Areal mapping of the middle Wisconsin varved clay site along Sixmile Creek near Ithaca, New York, has revealed a much more widespread and varied array of sediments than previously thought. Lacustrine clays, some varved, are interbedded with sands and gravels interpreted as sub-aqueous fan deposits, and both are overlain by a deformation till. Nine radiocarbon dates indicate a 34–37 14C ka BP age for the lacustrine sediment, with the deformation till less than a few thousand years younger. Beneath this sequence is a deposit dated at ± 42 14C ka BP. Both strata represent a tundra climate with a mean July temperature of about 10°C. The Sixmile Creek deformation till must correlate with the 35 14C ka BP till along the Genesee River, 125 km to the NW, and defines a Cherrytree stade glacial advance into the Appalachian Plateau, much further south than what has generally been accepted. Such an advance would require drainage from a proglacial lake in the western Ontario basin to flow westward instead of northeastward. The Sixmile strata suggest a colder than accepted middle Wisconsin stage. Recent data indicate that this stage is one of progressive cooling, with large climatic fluctuations.

Keywords

Middle WisconsinVarvesDeformation tillSub-aqueous fanRadiocarbon agesNew York
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 3 , November 2013 , pp. 522 - 533
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.)

Footnotes

1 Deceased.

References

Ashworth, A., Willenbring, J., (1998). Fossil beetles and climate change at Sixmile Creek, Ithaca, New York. American Paleontologist 6, 2–3.Google Scholar
Ashworth, A.C., Miller, N.G., Schmidt, V.E., Willenbring, J., (1997). The Sixmile Creek Site, Ithaca, NY, and potential problems with mid-Wisconsin regional paleoclimatic interpretations. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 29, 37.Google Scholar
Berger, G.W., Eyles, N., (1994). Thermoluminescence chronology of Toronto-area Quaternary sediments and implications for the extent of the midcontinent ice sheet(s). Geology 22, 31–34.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birks, H.H., (2000). Aquatic macrophyte vegetation development in Krakenes Lake, western Norway, during the late-glacial and early-Holocene. Journal of Paleolimnology 23, 7–19.Google Scholar
Bloom, A.L., (1972). Schedule and guidebook. Friends of the Pleistocene 35th Annual Reunion, Cornell University. 20.Google Scholar
Brennand, T.A., Lian, O.B., (2009). Insight into Quaternary environmental change in the Lake Ontario basin revealed through new chronological and glaciological information. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 41, 641.Google Scholar
Brookfield, M.E., Gwinn, Q.H.J., Martin, I.P., (1982). Quaternary sequences along the north shore of Lake Ontario: Oshawa–Port Hope. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 19, 1836–1850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cong, S., Ashworth, A.C., Schwerdt, D.P., (1996). Fossil beetle evidence for a short warm interval near 40,000 yr BP at Titusville, Pennsylvania. Quaternary Research 45, 216–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vernal, A., Causse, C., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Mott, R.J., Occhietti, S., (1986). Palynostratigraphy and Th/U ages of upper Pleistocene interglacial and interstadial depositson Cape Breton Island, eastern Canada. Geology 14, 554–557.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dredge, L.A., Thorleifson, L.H., (1987). The Middle Wisconsinan history of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. G"ographie Physique et Quaternaire 41, 215–235.Google Scholar
Dreimanis, A., (1970). Late-Pleistocene lakes in the Ontario and Erie Basins. Conference on Great Lakes Research, 12th, Proceedings. 170–180.Google Scholar
Elias, S.A., (1999). Mid-Wisconsin seasonal temperatures reconstructed from fossil beetle assemblages in eastern North America: comparisons with other proxy records from the Northern Hemisphere. Journal of Quaternary Science 14, 255–262.3.0.CO;2-X>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyles, C.H., Eyles, N., (1983). Sedimentation in a large lake: a reinterpretation of the late Pleistocene stratigraphy at Scarborough Bluffs, Ontario, Canada. Geology 11, 146–152.Google Scholar
Eyles, N., Westgate, J.A., (1987). Restricted regional extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the Great Lakes basins during early Wisconsin glaciation. Geology 15, 537–540.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyles, N., Williams, N.E., (1992). The sedimentary and biological record of the last interglacial"glacial transition at Toronto, Canada. Clarke, P.U., Lea, P.D. The last interglacial-glacial transition in North America. Geological Society of America Special Paper 270, 119–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fernow, L.R., (1956). A Fossil Plant Locality in Sixmile Valley. Unpublished Senior thesis, Department of Geology, Cornell University, ; 12 pp.Google Scholar
Frechette, B., de Vernal, A., (2013). Evidence for large-amplitude biome and climate changes in Atlantic Canada during the last interglacial and mid-Wisconsinan periods. Quaternary Research 79, 242–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatch, G.E., (1940). Embankment Design for an Earth Dam on Six Mile Creek. Department of Civil Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.(M.Sc. thesis).Google Scholar
Karrow, P.F., (1967). Pleistocene Geology of the Scarborough Area: Ontario Department of Mines Geological Report 46. Google Scholar
Karrow, P.F., (1974). Till stratigraphy in parts of Southwestern Ontario. Geological Society of America Bulletin 85, 761–768.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karrow, P.F., (2004). Late Quaternary Stratigraphic comparisons in south-central Ontario and western New York and the OIS 5E to early 3 interval. Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences 26, 202–210.Google Scholar
Karrow, P.F>, Warner, B.G., (1984). A subsurface Middle Wkisconsinan interstadial site at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Boreas 13, 67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karrow, P.F., Dreimanis, A., Barnett, P.J., (2000). A proposed diachronic revision of Late Quaternary time-stratigraphic classification in the eastern and northern Great Lakes Area. Quaternary Research 54, 1–12.Google Scholar
Karrow, P.F., McAndrews, J.H., Miller, B.B., Morgan, A.V., Seymour, K.L., White, O.L., (2001). Illinoian to Late Wisconsinan stratigraphy at Woodbridge, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 38, 921–942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, M.E., Andrews, J.T., (1999). Mid-Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet growth and decay: implications for Heinrich events 3 and 4. Paleoceanography 14, 211-223.Google Scholar
Miller, N.G., (1996). Age and paleoecology on an interstadial plant bed, Tompkins County, South-central New York. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 28, 82.Google Scholar
Muller, E.H., (1957). Filled bedrock gorges in the drainage basin of Cayuga Lake, New York. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 68, 1771.Google Scholar
Muller, E.H., (1965). The Finger Lakes region. In Part 2. International Association for Quaternary Research, VIIth Congress, Guidebook for Field Conference A, New England-New York State. 39–92.Google Scholar
Muller, E.H., Cadwell, D.H., (1986). Surficial Geologic Map of New York-Finger Lakes Sheet: New York State Museum. Albany, Geological Survey Map and Chart Series #40, 1:250,000 .Google Scholar
Muller, E.H., Calkin, P.E., (1993). Timing of Pleistocene glacial events in New York State. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 30, 1829–1845.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullins, H.T., Hinchey, E.J., Wellner, R.W., Stephens, D.B., Anderson, jr., W.T., Dwyer, T.R., Hine, A.C., (1996). Seismic stratigraphy of the Finger Lakes: a continental record of Heinrich event H-1 and Laurentide Ice Sheet instability. Mullins, H.T., Eyles, N. Subsurface Geologic Investigations of the New York Finger Lakes: Implications for Late Quaternary Deglaciation and Environmental Change. Geological Society of America Special Paper 311, 1–36.Google Scholar
Phillips, E.R., Evans, D.J.A., Auton, C.A., (2002). Polyphase deformation at an oscillating ice margin following the Loch Lomond Readvance, central Scotland, UK. Sedimentary Geology 149, 157–182.Google Scholar
Ramsey, C.R., (2012). A complete terrestrial radiocarbon record for 11.2 to 52.8 kyr B.P. Science 338, 370.Google Scholar
Ridge, J.C., (2003). The last deglaciation of the northeastern United States: a combined varve, paleomagnetic, and calibrated 14C chronology. Cremeens, D.L., Hart, J.P. Geoarcheology of landscapes in the glaciated northeast. New York State Museum Bulletin 497, 15–45.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.E., (1947). Varves in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. Ph. D. thesisDepartment of Geology, Cornell University, .Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.E., (1996). Middle Wisconsin varves near Ithaca, Central New York. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 28, 97.Google Scholar
von Engeln, O.D., (1961). The Finger Lakes Region: Its Origin and Nature. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y..(156 pp.).Google Scholar
Warner, B.G., Morgan, A.V., Karrow, P.F., (1988). A Wisconsin interstadial arctic flora and insect fauna from Clarksburg, Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology 68, 27–47.Google Scholar
Young, R.A., Burr, G.S., (2006). Middle Wisconsin glaciation in the Genesee Valley, N.Y.: a stratigraphic record contemporaneous with Heinrich Event H4. Geomorphology 75, 226–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar