Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T04:08:23.325Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optically stimulated luminescence age controls on late Pleistocene and Holocene coastal lithosomes, North Carolina, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David Mallinson ,
Kevin Burdette ,
Shannon Mahan  and
George Brook
David Mallinson*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA
Kevin Burdette
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L8
Shannon Mahan
Affiliation:
Luminescence Dating Laboratory, USGS Federal Facility, Denver, CO 80225, USA
George Brook
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:mallinsond@ecu.edu (D. Mallinson).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Luminescence ages from a variety of coastal features on the North Carolina Coastal Plain provide age control for shoreline formation and relative sea-level position during the late Pleistocene. A series of paleoshoreline ridges, dating to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a and MIS 3 have been defined. The Kitty Hawk beach ridges, on the modern Outer Banks, yield ages of 3 to 2 ka. Oxygen-isotope data are used to place these deposits in the context of global climate and sea-level change. The occurrence of MIS 5a and MIS 3 shorelines suggests that glacio-isostatic adjustment (GIA) of the study area is large (ca. 22 to 26 m), as suggested and modeled by other workers, and/or MIS 3 sea level was briefly higher than suggested by some coral reef studies. Correcting the shoreline elevations for GIA brings their elevation in line with other sea-level indicators. The age of the Kitty Hawk beach ridges places the Holocene shoreline well west of its present location at ca. 3 to 2 ka. The age of shoreline progradation is consistent with the ages of other beach ridge complexes in the southeast USA, suggesting some regionally contemporaneous forcing mechanism.

Keywords

Optically stimulated luminescenceCoastal geologyQuaternary sea levelPaleoshorelineGlacio-isostasy
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , January 2008 , pp. 97 - 109
Copyright
Elsevier Inc.

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

Bateman, M.D., Frederick, C.D., Jaiswal, M.K., Singhvi, A.K., (2003). Investigations into the potential effects of pedoturbation on luminescence dating. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, 1169–1176.Google Scholar
Berger, A., Loutre, M.F., (1991). Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quaternary Science Reviews 10, 297–317.Google Scholar
Berger, G.W., Murray, A.S., Havholm, K.G., (2003). Photonic dating of Holocene back-barrier coastal dunes, Northern North Carolina, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, 1043–1050.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, A.L., Yonekura, N., (1990). Graphic analysis of dislocated quaternary shorelines. Sea-Level Change National Academy of Sciences Press, 104–115.Google Scholar
Blum, M.D., Misner, T.J., Collins, E.S., Scott, D.B., Morton, R.A., Aslan, A., (2001). Middle holocene sea-level rise and highstand at + 2 m, Central Texas Coast. Journal of Sedimentary Research 71, 581–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boss, S.K., Hoffman, C.W., Cooper, B., (2002). Influence of fluvial processes on the Quaternary geologic framework of the continental shelf, North Carolina, USA. Marine Geology 183, 45–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brill, A.L., (1996). The Suffolk Shoreline, a Pleistocene barrier island in Beaufort and Pamlico Counties, NC. Unpubl. M.S. Thesis, Department of Geology, Duke University, , Durham., NC,154p.Google Scholar
Burdette, K., (2005). Chronostratigraphy and geologic framework of the Currituck Sand Ridges, Currituck County, NC. Unpub. M.S. Thesis, Dept. of Geology, East Carolina University, , Greenville., NC.184p.Google Scholar
Cabioch, G., Ayliffe, L.K., (2001). Raised coral terraces at Malakula, Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific, indicate high sea level during marine isotope stage 3. Quaternary Research 56, 357–365.Google Scholar
Cann, J.H., Belperio, A.P., Murray-Wallace, C.V., (2000). Late Quaternary paleosealevels and paleoenvironments inferred from foraminifera, Northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia. Journal Foraminiferal Research 30, 29–53.Google Scholar
Carey, J.S., Sheridan, R.E., Ashley, G.M., Uptegrove, J., (2005). Glacially-influenced late Pleistocene stratigraphy of a passive margin: New Jersey's record of the North American Ice Sheet. Marine Geology 218, 155–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, J., (2002). Sea level changes triggered rapid climate shifts in the last glacial cycle: new results from coral terraces. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1229–1240.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., Omura, A., Esat, A., McColluch, T., Pandolfi, M., Pillans, J., (1996). Reconciliation of Late Quaternary sea levels derived from coral terraces at Huon Peninsula with deep sea oxygen isotope records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 141, 227–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronin, T.M., Szsabo, B.J., Ager, T.A., Hazel, J.E., Owens, J.P., (1981). Quaternary climates and sea levels of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. , Science 211, 233–240.Google Scholar
Cutler, K.B., Edwards, R.L., Taylor, F.W., Cheng, H., Adkins, J.F., Gallup, C.D., Cutler, P.M., Burr, G.S., Bloom, A.L., (2003). Rapid sea-level fall and deep-ocean temperature change since the last interglacial period. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 206, 253–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duller, G.A.T., (1999). Luminescence analyst computer programme V2.18. Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.Google Scholar
Fisher, J.J., (1967). Development pattern of relict beach ridges, Outer Banks barrier chain, North Carolina. Unpub. PhD Dissertation, Department of Geology, University of North Carolina, , Chapel Hill., NC,250p.Google Scholar
Gayes, P.T., Scott, D.B., Collins, E.S., Nelson, D.D., (1992). A late Holocene sea-level irregularity in South Carolina. SEPM Special Publication 48, 154–160.Google Scholar
Havholm, K.G., Ames, D.V., Whittecar, G.R., Wenell, B.A., Riggs, S.R., Jol, H.M., Berger, G.W., Holmes, M.A., (2004). Stratigraphy of back-barrier coastal dunes, Northern North Carolina and Southern Virginia. Journal of Coastal Research 20, 980–999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imbrie, J., McIntyre, A., Mix, A.C., (1989). Oceanic response to orbital forcing in the late Quaternary: observational and experimental strategies. Berger, A., Schneider, S.H., Duplessy, J.-C., Climate and Geosciences, a Challenge for Science and Society in the 21st Century. D. Reidel Publishing Company.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, G.H., Geology of the Mulberry Island, Newport News North, and Hampton Quadrangles, Virginia: Virginia Division of Natural Resources Report of Investigations vol. 41, 72 pp.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., (1993). Glacial rebound and sea-level change: and example of a relationship between mantle and surface processes. Tectonophysics 223, 1022–1044.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., Chappell, J., (2001). Sea level change through the last glacial cycle. Science 292, 679–686.Google Scholar
Lambeck, K., Yokoyama, Y., Purcell, T., (2002). Into and out of the Last Glacial Maximum: sea-level change during Oxygen Isotope Stages 3 and 2. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 343–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linsley, B., (1996). Oxygen-isotope record of sea level and climate variations in the Sulu Sea over the past 150,000 years. Nature 380, 234–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallinson, D., Riggs, S., Culver, S., Thieler, R., Foster, D., Corbett, D., Farrell, K., Wehmiller, J., (2005). Late Neogene and Quaternary evolution of the northern Albemarle Embayment (Mid-Atlantic Continental Margin, USA). Marine Geology 217, 97–117.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A., Ruddiman, W.F., Karlin, K., Mix, A.C., (1989). Surface water response of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean to orbital forcing. Paleoceanography 4, 19–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millard, H.T., Maat, P.B., Thermoluminescence Dating Procedures in Use at the U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report vol. 94-249, 112 pp.Google Scholar
Miller, G.H., Mode, W.N., Wolfe, A.P., Sauer, P.E., Bennike, O., Forman, L.L., Short, S.K., Stafford, T.W., (1999). Stratified interglacial lacustrine sediments from Baffin Island, Arctic Canada: chronology and paleoenvironmental implications. Quaternary Science Reviews 18, 789–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mixon, R.B., Szabo, B.J., Owens, J.P., (1982). Uranium-series dating of mollusks and corals and age of Pleistocene deposits, Chesapeake Bay area, Virginia and Maryland. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1067-E, E1–E18.Google Scholar
Morton, R.A., Paine, J., Blum, M.D., (2000). Responses of stable bay-margin and barrier island systems to Holocene sea-level highstands, Western Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Sedimentary Research 70, 478–490.Google Scholar
Muhs, D.R., (1992). The last interglacial–glacial transition in North America: evidence from uranium-series dating of coastal deposits. Clark, P.U., Lea, P.D., The Last Interglacial–Glacial Transition in North America: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America Special Paper 270, 31–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muhs, D.R., Simmons, K.R., Steinke, B., (2002). Timing and warmth of the Last Interglacial period: new U-series evidence from Hawaii and Bermuda and a new fossil compilation for North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1355–1383.Google Scholar
Muhs, D.R., Wehmiller, J.F., Simmons, K.R., York, L.L., (2004). Quaternary sea-level history of the United States. Gillespie, A.R., Porter, S.C., Atwater, B.F., The Quaternary Period in the United States. Elsevier, Amsterdam., 147–183.Google Scholar
Murray, A.S., Wintle, A.G., (2000). Luminescence of dating of quartz using an improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol. Radiation Measurements 32, 57–73.Google Scholar
Murray-Wallace, C.V., Belperio, A.P., Gostin, V.A., Cann, J.H., (1993). Amino acid racemization and radiocarbon dating of interstadial marine strata (oxygen isotope stage 3), Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia. Marine Geology 110, 83–92.Google Scholar
Oaks, R., (1964). Post miocene stratigraphy and morphology, outer coastal plain, southeastern Virginia. Unpub. Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, , New Haven., CT,318p.Google Scholar
Oaks, R.A., Coch, N.K., (1963). Pleistocene sea levels, Southeastern Virginia. Science 140, 970–983.Google Scholar
Oaks, R.A., Coch, N.K., Post-Miocene Stratigraphy and Morphology, Southeastern Virginia: Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Bulletin 82, 135 pp.Google Scholar
Oaks, R.A., Coch, N.K., Sanders, J.E., Flint, R.F., (1974). Post-Miocene shorelines and sea levels, Southeastern Virginia. Oaks, R.Q., DuBar, J.R., Post-Miocene Stratigraphy Central and Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain. Utah State University Press, 53–87.Google Scholar
Ollerhead, J., Huntley, D.J., Berger, G.W., (1994). Luminescence dating of sediments from Buctouche Spit, New Brunswick. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 31, 523–531.Google Scholar
Oppo, D.W., McManus, J.F., Cullen, J.L., (2003). Deepwater variability in the Holocene epoch. Nature 422, 277–278.Google Scholar
Otvos, E.G., (2004). Holocene Gulf levels: recognition issues and an updated sea-level curve. Journal of Coastal Research 20, 680–699.Google Scholar
Parham, P., Riggs, S., Culver, S., Mallinson, D., (2007). Quaternary depositional patterns and sea-level fluctuations, Northeastern North Carolina. Quaternary Research 67, 83–99.Google Scholar
Peebles, P.C., (1984). Late cenozoic landforms, stratigraphy and history of sea level oscillations of southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. Unpub. Ph.D. Dissertation, The College of William and Mary, USA.Google Scholar
Peltier, W.R., (2002). On eustatic sea level history: Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 377–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltier, W.R., (2004). Global glacial isostasy and the surface of the Ice-Age Earth: the ICE5G (VM2) Model and GRACE. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 32, 111–149.Google Scholar
Pirazzoli, P.A., (1996). Sea-level Changes — the Last 20000 Years. John Wiley and Sons Ltd., West Sussex, England., 211 pp.Google Scholar
Potter, E.-K., Lambeck, K., (2003). Reconciliation of sea-level observations in the Western North Atlantic during the last glacial cycle. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 217, 171–181.Google Scholar
Ray, C.E., Wetmore, A., Dunkel, D.H., Drez, P., (1968). Fossil vertebrates from the marine Pleistocene of Southeastern Virginia. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 153, 3, (Publ. 4742),25p., 2 pl.Google Scholar
Riggs, S., York, L., Wehmiller, J., Snyder, S., (1992). Depositional patterns resulting from high-frequency Quaternary sea-level fluctuations in Northeastern North Carolina. Quaternary Coasts of the United States: Marine and Lacustrine Systems, SEPM Special Pubication. vol. 48, 141–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rink, W.J., Forrest, B., (2006). Dating evidence for the accretion history of beach ridges on Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island, Florida, USA. Journal of Coastal Research 21, 1000–1008.Google Scholar
Roberts, H.M., Wintle, A.G., (2001). Equivalent dose determinations for polymineralic fine-grains using the SAR protocol: application to a Holocene sequence of the Chinese Loess plateau. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 859–863.Google Scholar
Roberts, H.H., Whelan, T., Smith, W.G., (1977). Holocene sedimentation at Cape Sable, South Florida. Sedimentary Geology 18, 25–60.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, A.B., (1999). Sedimentary facies and evolution of late Pleistocene to recent coastal lithosomes on the east Texas shelf [unpublished Ph.D. dissertation]. Rice University, , 203p.Google Scholar
Rodriguez, A.B., Anderson, J.B., Banfield, L.A., Taviani, M., Abdulah, K., Snow, J.N., (2000). Identification of a-15 m middle Wisconsin Shoreline on the Texas inner continental shelf. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 158, 25–43.Google Scholar
Sager, E.D., Riggs, S.R., (1998). Models for Holocene valley-fill history of Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. Alexander, C., Henry, V.J., Davis, R., Tidalites: Processes and Products. Journal of Sedimentary Research, Special Publication vol. 61, 119–127.Google Scholar
Schellmann, G., Radtke, U., (2003). A revised morpho- and chronostratigraphy of the Late and Middle Pleistocene coral reef terraces on Southern Barbados (West Indies). Earth Science Reviews .Google Scholar
Siddall, M., Rohling, E.J., Almogi-Labin, A., Hemleben, Ch., Meischner, D., Schmelzer, I., Smeed, D.A., (2003). Sea-level fluctuations during the last glacial cycle. Nature 423, 853–858.Google Scholar
Singhvi, A.K., Bluszcz, A., Bateman, M.D., Rao, M.S., (2001). Luminescence dating of loess-palaeosol sequences and coversands: methodological aspects and palaeoclimatic implications. Earth Science Reviews 54, 193–211.Google Scholar
Szabo, B.J., (1985). Uranium-series dating of fossil corals from marine sediments of Southeastern United States Atlantic Coastal Plain. Geological Society of America Bulletin 96, 398–406.Google Scholar
Tanner, W.F., (1995). Origin of beach ridges and swales. Marine Geology 129, 149–161.Google Scholar
Thompson, W.G., Goldstein, S.L., (2005). Open-system coral ages reveal persistent suborbital sea-level cycles. Science 308, 401–404.Google Scholar
Van Heteran, S., Huntley, D.J., van de Plassche, O., Lubberts, R.K., (2000). Optical dating of dune sand for the study of sea-level change. Geology 28, 411–414.Google Scholar
Ward, L.W., Strickland, G.L., (1985). Outline of tertiary stratigraphy and depositional history of the U.S. Atlantic Margin. Poag, C.W., Geologic Evolution of the United States Atlantic Margin. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York., 125–188.Google Scholar
Wehmiller, J.F., Krantz, D.E., Simmons, K.R., Ludwig, K.R., Markewich, H.W., Rich, F., Hulbert, R.C., (1997). US Atlantic Coastal Plain Late Quaternary geochronology; TIMS U-series coral dates continue to indicate 80 kyr sea level at or above present. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 29, 6, 346.Google Scholar
Wehmiller, J.F., Simmons, K.R., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Martin-McNaughten, J., York, L.L., Krantz, D.E., Shen, C.C., (2004). Uranium-series coral age from the US Atlantic Coastal Plain — the "80 ka problem" revisited. Quaternary International 120, 3–14.Google Scholar
Wellner, R.M., Ashley, G.M., Sheridan, R.E., (1993). Seismic stratigraphic evidence for a submerged middle Wisconsin barrier: implications for sea-level history. Geology 21, 109–112.Google Scholar
Wolfe, A.P., Frechette, B., Richard, P.J.H., Miller, G.H., Forman, S.L., (2000). Paleoecology of a > 90,000-year lacustrine sequence from Fog Lake, Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 1677–1699.Google Scholar
Yokoyama, Y., Esat, T.M., Lambeck, K., Fifield, L.K., (2000). Last ice age millennial scale climate changes recorded in Huon Peninsula Corals. Radiocarbon 42, 383–401.Google Scholar
York, L.L., (1984). Aminostratigraphy of Stetson Pit and Ponzer areas of North Carolina by Pleistocene mollusk analysis. Unpub. M.S. Thesis, Dept. of Geology, University of Delaware, , Newark., DE,188p.Google Scholar
York, L.L., (1990). Aminostratigraphy of U.S. Atlantic Coast Pleistocene deposits: Maryland continental shelf and North and South Carolina Coastal Plain. Unpub. PhD. Dissertation, Dept. of Geology, University of Delaware, , Newark., DE,580p.Google Scholar
Zervas, C.E., (2004). North Carolina Bathymetry/Topography Sea Level Rise Project: Determination of Sea Level Trends. NOAA Technical Report NOS CO-OPS 041. May 31 pp.Google Scholar