Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T00:28:13.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating Late Pleistocene Pluvial Events and Tephras by Correlating Paleomagnetic Secular Variation Records from the Western Great Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert M. Negrini  and
Jonathan O. Davis
Robert M. Negrini
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Geology, California State University, Bakersfield, California 93311
Jonathan O. Davis
Affiliation:
Quaternary Sciences Center, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada 89506
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Paleomagnetic records are used to correlate sedimentary sequences from pluvial Lakes Chewaucan and Russell in the western Great Basin. This correlation is the basis for age control in the relatively poorly dated sequence from Lake Chewaucan. The resulting chronology supports a lack of sedimentation in Lake Chewaucan during the interval 27,400 to 23,200 yr B.P., an assertion supported by the presence of a lag deposit at the corresponding stratigraphic horizon. Because the Lake Chewaucan outcrop (near Summer Lake, Oregon) is near the bottom of the lake basin, we conclude that Lake Chewaucan was at a lowstand during this time interval. The Chewaucan lowstand is coeval with the lowstand accompanying the Wizard's Beach Recession (isotope stage 3) previously seen in the geologic record from nearby pluvial Lake Lahontan. The ages of six tephra layers, including the Trego Hot Springs tephra, were also estimated using the paleomagnetic correlation. Together, the new age of the Trego Hot Springs tephra (21,800 yr B.P.) and the lake surface level prehistory of Lake Chewaucan imply a revised model for the lake surface level prehistory of Lake Lahontan. The revised model includes a longer duration for the Wizard's Beach Recession and the occurrence of a younger lowstand of short duration soon after the lowstand corresponding to the Wizard's Beach Recession.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , July 1992 , pp. 46 - 59
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

Allison, I.S. Geology of Pluvial Lake Chewaucan, Lake County, Oregon 1983 Oregon State University Studies in Geology 11, Corvalis, OR Google Scholar
Banerjee, S.K. Experimental methods of rock magnetism and paleomagnetism Advances in Geophysics 23 1981 25 99 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V. Currey, D.R. Dorn, R.I. Lajoie, K.R. Oviatt, C.G. Robinson, S.W. Smith, G.I. Stine, S. Chronology of expansion and contraction of four Great Basin lake systems during the past 35,000 years Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78 1990 241 Google Scholar
Berger, G.W. Davis, J.O. Negrini, R.M. Thermoluminescence dating of tephra from Orgeon and Nevada International Union for Quaternary Research, Inter-Congress Commission of Tephrochronology 1990 3 (Abstracts) Google Scholar
Dansie, A.J. Davis, J.O. Stafford, T.W. Jr. The Wizard's Beach Recession: Farmdalian (25,500 yr B.P.) vertebrate fossils co-occur with early Holocene artifacts Willig, J.A. Aikens, C.M. Fagan, J.L. Early Human Occupation in Far Western North America: The Clovis-Archaic Interface Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 21 1988 Google Scholar
Davis, J.O. Level of Lake Lahontan during deposition of the Trego Hot Springs tephra about 23,400 years ago Quaternary Research 19 1983 312 324 Google Scholar
Davis, J.O. Correlation of late Quaternary tephra layers in a long pluvial sequence near Summer Lake, Oregon Quaternary Research 23 1985 38 53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denham, C.R. Counter-clockwise motion of paleomagnetic directions 24,000 years ago at Mono Lake, California Journal of Geomagnetism and Geolectricity 26 1974 487 498 Google Scholar
Gillen, K.P. Evans, M.E. New geomagnetic paleosecular-variation results from the Old Crow Basin, Yukon Territory, and their use in stratigraphic correlation Canadian Journal of Earch Sciences 26 1989 2507 2511 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, S. Karlin, R. A sixty thousand year paleomagnetic record from Gulf of California sediments: secular variation, late Quaternary excursions and geomagnetic implications Earth and Planetary Science Letters 92 1989 219 233 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddicoat, J.C. Coe, R.S. Mono Lake Excursion Journal of Geophysical Research 84 1979 261 271 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddicoat, J.C. Lajoie, K.R. Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M. Detection and dating of the Mono Lake excursion in the Lake Lahontan Sehoo Formation, Carson Sink, Nevada EOS Transactions of the American geophysical Union 63 1982 920 Google Scholar
Liddicoat, J.C. Lund, S.P. A high resolution record of secular variation from Quaternary sediments of Mono Lake, California EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 64 1983 685 Google Scholar
Lund, S.P. Liddicoat, J.C. Lajoie, K.L. Henyey, T.L. Robinson, S. Paleomagnetic evidence for long-term (104 year) memory and periodic behavior of the Earth's core dynamo process Geophysical Research Letters 15 1988 1101 1104 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullineaux, D.R. Wilcox, R.E. Ebaugh, W.F. Fryxell, R. Rubin, M. Age of the last major scabland flood of the Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington Quaternary Research 10 1978 171 180 Google Scholar
Negrini, R.M. Davis, J.O. Verosub, K.L. Mono Lake geomagnetic excursion found at Summer Lake, Oregon Geology 12 1984 643 646 Google Scholar
Negrini, R.M. Verosub, K.L. Davis, J.O. The middle to late Pleistocene geomagnetic field recorded in fine-grained sediments from Summer Lake, Oregon, and Double Hot Springs, Nevada, U.S.A. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 87 1988 173 192 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridge, J.C. Brennan, W.J. Muller, E.H. The use of paleomagnetic declination to test correlations of late Wisconsinan glaciolacustrine sediments in central New York Geological Society of America Bulletin 102 1990 26 44 Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, J.G. Larson, E.E. Paleomagnetism of two late Pleistocene lake basins in Colorado: An evaluation of detrital remanent magnetization as a recorder of the geomagnetic field Journal of Geophysical Research 88 1983 10,611 10,624 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, G.D. Late Quaternary tectonic development of the northwestern part of the Summer Lake Basin, South-Central Oregon M.S. thesis 1990 Humboldt State University Arcata, CA Google Scholar
Spaulding, G.F. Leopold, E.B. Van Devender, T.R. Late Wisconsin paleoecology of the American Southwest Porter, S.C. The Late Pleistocene of the United States 1983 Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis, MN 259 293 Google Scholar
Spiker, E. Kelley, L. Oman, C. Rubin, M. U.S. Geological Survey radiocarbon dates XII Radiocarbon 19 1977 332 353 Google Scholar
Tarling, D.H. Palaeomagnetism 1983 Chapman and Hall London, UK Google Scholar
Turner, G.M. Evans, M.E. Hussin, I.B. A geomagnetic secular variation study (31,000–19,500 bp) in western Canada Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 71 1982 159 171 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verosub, K.L. Davis, J.O. Valastro, S. A paleomagnetic record from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, and its implications for proposed geomagnetic excursions Earth and Planetary Science Letters 49 1980 141 148 Google Scholar
Verosub, K.L. Geomagnetic secular variation and the dating of Quaternary sediments Easterbrook, D.J. Dating Quaternary Sediments Geological Society of America Special Paper 227 1988 123 138 Google Scholar