Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T00:30:58.550Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pollen Diagram from the Nebraska Sandhills and the Age of the Dunes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

H. E. Wright Jr. ,
J. C. Almendinger  and
J. Grüger
H. E. Wright Jr.
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
J. C. Almendinger
Affiliation:
Limnological Research Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
J. Grüger
Affiliation:
Abteilung für Palynologie der Universität, Unterekarspüle 2, D-34 Göttingen, West Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates of organic alluvium beneath as much as 40 m of dune sand along the Dismal River have led to the suggestion that the Nebraska Sandhills date from the Holocene rather than the last glacial period. On the other hand, the basal layers of lake and marsh deposits in interdune depressions at three localities date in the range of 9000 to 12,000 yr B.P., implying a pre-Holocene age for the sand dunes. A pollen diagram for one of these sites, Swan Lake, indicates prairie vegetation throughout the last 9000 yr, with no suggestion that the landscape was barren enough to permit the shaping of the massive dunes characterizing the area. Sand was not transported across the site during the Holocene, either during the marsh phase, which lasted until 3700 yr B.P., or during the subsequent lake phase. The sand that buries the alluvium along the Dismal River may represent only local eolian activity, or it may indicate that the younger of the two main dune series identified by H. T. U. Smith (1965, Journal of Geology 73, 557–578) is Holocene in age, and the older one Late Wisconsin in age.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , July 1985 , pp. 115 - 120
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

Ahlbrandt, T.S. Swinehart, J.B. Maroney, D.G. (1983). The dynamic Holocene dune fields of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain basins, U.S.A. Brookfield, M.E. Ahlbrandt, T.S. Eolian Sediments and Processes Elsevier Amsterdam 379–406 Google Scholar
Grüger, J. (1973). Studies on the late-Quaternary vegetation history of northeastern Kansas Geological Society of America Bulletin 84, 237–250 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keen, K.L. (1985). Sand Dunes of the Anoka Sand-plain, Minnesota Unpublished M.S. thesis University of Minnesota Google Scholar
McAndrews, J.H. Wright, H.E. (1969). Modern pollen rain across the Wyoming basins and the northern Great Plains Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 9, 17–43 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogden, J.G. Hay, R.J. (1965). Ohio Wesleyan University Natural Radiocarbon Measurements. II Radiocarbon 7, 116–173 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, P.B. (1961). A pollen profile from the grassland province Science (Washington, D.C.) 134, 2038–2040 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, H.T.U. (1965). Dune morphology and chronology in central and western Nebraska Journal of Geology 73, 557–578 Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. (1969). Yale natural radiocarbon measurements. IX Radiocarbon 2, 545–658 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorp, J. Smith, H.T.U. (1952). Pleistocene Eolian Deposits of the United States, Alaska, and Parts of Canada Geological Society of America map, scale 1:2,500,000Google Scholar
Warren, A. (1976). Morphology and sediments of the Nebraska Sand Hills in relation to Pleistocene winds and the development of aeolian bedforms Journal of Geology 84, 685–700 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, W.A. Bright, R.C. (1968). Pollen, seed, and molbusk analysis of a sediment core from Pickerel Lake, northeastern South Dakota Geological Society of America Bulletin 79, 855–876 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, W.A. Wright, H.E. (1966). Late-Wisconsin pollen and seed analysis from the Nebraska Sandhills Ecology 47, 202–210 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, G.L. (1982). Dynamic considerations for the age of the Nebraska Sand Hills 11th International Congress on Sedimentology Hamilton, Ontario, 1982 172 AbstractsGoogle Scholar
Wells, G.L. (1983). Late-glacial circulation over central North America revealed by aeolion features Street-Perrott, A. Beran, M. Ratcliffe, R. Variations in the Global Water Budget 317–330 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, H.E. Jr. (1970). Vegetational history of the central plains Dort, W. Jr. Jones, J.K. Jr. Pleistocene and Recent Environments of the Central Plains Univ. of Kansas Press Lawrence, Kansas 157–172 Google Scholar