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A new set of basaltic tephras from Southeast Alaska represent key stratigraphic markers for the late Pleistocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

Paul S. Wilcox ,
Jason Addison ,
Sarah J. Fowell ,
James F. Baichtal ,
Ken Severin  and
Daniel H. Mann
Paul S. Wilcox*
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
Jason Addison
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Rd., MS 910, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
Sarah J. Fowell
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
James F. Baichtal
Affiliation:
U.S. Forest Service, Tongass National Forest, Thorne Bay, Alaska 99919, USA
Ken Severin
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
Daniel H. Mann
Affiliation:
Geoscience Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
*
*Corresponding author e-mail address: paul.wilcox@uibk.ac.at (P.S. Wilcox).
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Abstract

Three new tephras have been identified in Southeast Alaska. An 8-cm-thick black basaltic tephra with nine discrete normally graded beds is present in cores from a lake on Baker Island. The estimated age of the tephra is 13,492 ± 237 cal yr BP. Although similar in age to the MEd tephra from the adjacent Mt. Edgecumbe volcanic field, this tephra is geochemically distinct. Black basaltic tephras recovered from two additional sites in Southeast Alaska, Heceta Island and the Gulf of Esquibel, are also geochemically distinct from the MEd tephra. The age of the tephra from Heceta Island is 14,609 ± 343 cal yr BP. Whereas the tephras recovered from Baker Island/Heceta Island/Gulf of Esquibel are geochemically distinct from each other, similarities in the ages of these tephras and the MEd tephra suggest a shared eruptive trigger, possibly crustal unloading caused by retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. The submerged Addington volcanic field on the continental shelf, which may have been subaerially exposed during the late Pleistocene, is a possible source for the Southeast Alaska tephras.

Keywords

TephraTephrochronologyLake sedimentologyLate glacialGeochemistry
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 92 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 246 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019 

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