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Late Pliocene to late Pleistocene environments preserved at the Palisades Site, central Yukon River, Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Paul Matheus ,
James Begét ,
Owen Mason  and
Carol Gelvin-Reymiller
Paul Matheus*
Affiliation:
Alaska Quaternary Center and the Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5540, USA
James Begét
Affiliation:
Department of Geology & Geophysics and the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5780, USA
Owen Mason
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA
Carol Gelvin-Reymiller
Affiliation:
1191 Dolphin Way, Fairbanks, AK 99709, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Alaska Quaternary Center, CSEM, 900 Yukon Drive, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775-5940. Fax: +1-907-474-6293. E-mail address:ffpem1@uaf.edu (P. Matheus).
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Abstract

The Palisades Site is an extensive silt-loam bluff complex on the central Yukon River preserving a nearly continuous record of the last 2 myr. Volcanic ash deposits present include the Old Crow (OCt; 140,000 yr), Sheep Creek (SCt; 190,000 yr), PA (2.02 myr), EC (ca. 2 myr), and Mining Camp (ca. 2 myr) tephras. Two new tephras, PAL and PAU, are geochemically similar to the PA and EC tephras and appear to be comagmatic. The PA tephra occurs in ice-wedge casts and solifluction deposits, marking the oldest occurrence of permafrost in central Alaska. Three buried forest horizons are present in association with dated tephras. The uppermost forest bed occurs immediately above the OCt; the middle forest horizon occurs below the SCt. The lowest forest bed occurs between the EC and the PA tephras, and correlates with the Dawson Cut Forest Bed. Plant taxa in all three peats are common elements of moist taiga forest found in lowlands of central Alaska today. Large mammal fossils are all from common late Pleistocene taxa. Those recovered in situ came from a single horizon radiocarbon dated to ca. 27,000 14C yr B.P. The incongruous small mammal assemblage in that horizon reflects a diverse landscape with both wet and mesic environments.

Keywords

AlaskaYukon RiverBeringiaInterglacialPeatDawson Cut Forest BedTephraPermafrostMammals
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , July 2003 , pp. 33 - 43
Copyright
University of Washington

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