Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:34:36.272Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Delayed Postglacial Uplift and Synglacial Sea Levels in Coastal Central New England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Carl Koteff ,
Gilpin R. Robinson ,
Richard Goldsmith  and
Woodrow B. Thompson
Carl Koteff
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 22092
Gilpin R. Robinson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 22092
Richard Goldsmith
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 22092
Woodrow B. Thompson
Affiliation:
Maine Geological Survey, Augusta, Maine
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The postglacial uplift pattern indicated by elevations of ice-marginal glaciomarine deltas in coastal New England, deposited between approximately 15,000 and 14,000 yr B.P. during ice retreat from northeastern Massachusetts into southwestern Maine, is very similar to that previously recorded for glaciolacustrine deltas of similar age from inland areas of New England. Multiple regression analyses of elevations from both sets of deltas show an extremely close fit to tilted flat surfaces that rise 0.852 m/km to the N 28.5°W along the coast and 0.889 m/km to the N 20.5°W in western New England. The close similarity of uplift pattern in areas where elevation data are from different base-level media, along with additional shore-line evidence, indicates (1) that both areas are part of the same crustal postglacial uplift block, (2) that postglacial uplift was delayed until after 14,000 yr B.P., and (3) that little or no eustatic sea-level change occurred between 15,000 and 14,000 yr B.P., during which time the margin of the late Wisconsinan Laurentide ice sheet retreated about 100 km from Boston, Massachusetts, into southwestern Maine. Elevation data from even younger glaciomarine deltas in the coastal area indicate that soon after the ice margin reached southwestern Maine and adjacent New Hampshire (ca, 14,000 yr B.P.), eustatic sea level rose rapidly 7-10 m during the time that the ice margin retreated 5-10 km, which may have occurred during an interval of only 50-100 yr, Our new data not only confirm the delayed postglacial uplift model previously described for western New England, but also indicate that little or no eustatic sea-level change occurred during a substantial period of early deglaciation. However, at about 14,000 yr B.P., sea level rose rapidly. Postglacial uplift in the region apparently began between 14,000 and 13,300 yr B.P., before the retreating ice margin reached eastern Maine.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , July 1993 , pp. 46 - 54
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

Bard, E. Arnold, M. Maurice, P. Duprat, J. Moyes, J., and Duplessy, J-C. (1987). Retreat velocity of the North Atlantic polar front during the last deglaciation determined by 14C accelerator mass spectrometry. Nature 328, 791–794.Google Scholar
Bard, E. Fairbanks, R. Arnold, M. Maurice, P. Duprat, J. Moyes, J., and Duplessy, J-C. (1989). Sea-level estimates during the last deglaciation based on 18O and accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages measured in Globigerina bulloides. Quaternary Research 31, 381–391.Google Scholar
Berger, W. H. Killmgley, J. S., and Vincent, E. (1987). Time scale of the Wisconsin/Holocene transition: Oxygen isotope record in the western equatorial Pacific. Quaternary Research 28, 295–306.Google Scholar
Birch, F. S. (1990), Radiocarbon dates of Quaternary sedimentary deposits on the inner continental shelf of New Hampshire, Northeastern Geology 12, 218–230.Google Scholar
Bloom, A. L. (1960). “Late Pleistocene Changes of Sea Level in Southwestern Maine.” Maine Geological Survey, Augusta.Google Scholar
Clark, J. A. (1980). The reconstruction of the Laurentide ice sheet of North America from sea level data: Method and preliminary results. Journal of Geophysical Research 85, 4307–4323.Google Scholar
Duplessy, J. C Delibrias, G. Turon, J. L. Pujol, C, and Duprat, J. (1981). Deglacial warming of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean: Cor-relation with the paleoclimatic evolution of the European continent. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecoiogy 35, 121–144.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R. G. (1989). A 17,000-year glacio-eustatic sea level record: influence of glacial melting rales on the Younger Dryas event and deep-ocean circulation. Nature 342, 637–642.Google Scholar
Flint, R. F. (1933). Late Pleistocene sequence in the Connecticut Valley. Geological Society of America Bulletin 44, 965–988.Google Scholar
Gilbert, G. K. (1890). Lake Bonneville. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 1.Google Scholar
Jahns, R. H., and Willard, M. E. (1942). Late Pleistocene and Recent deposits in the Connecticut Valley, Massachusetts. American Journal of Science 240, 161–191, 265–287.Google Scholar
Kaye, C. A., and Barghoorn, E. (1964). Late Quaternary sea-level change and crustal rise at Boston, Massachusetts, with notes on the autocompaction of peat. Geological Society of America Bulletin 75, 63–80.Google Scholar
Koteff, C, and Pessl, F. Jr. (1981). Systematic ice retreat in New England. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1179.Google Scholar
Koteff, C., and Larsen, F. D, (1989). Postglacial uplift in western New England: Geologic evidence for delayed rebound. In “Earthquakes at North Atlantic Passive Margins: Neotectonics and Postglacial Rebound” (Gregersen, S. and Basham, P. W., Eds.), pp. 105–123. Kluwer Academic, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Peltier, W. R. (1986). Slow changes in the earth’s shape and gravitational field: Constraints on the glaciation history and internal visco-elastic stratification. In “Space Geodesy and Geodynamics,” pp. 78–109. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W. F. (1987). Synthesis; The ocean/ice sheet record. In “North America and Adjacent Oceans During the Last Deglaciation” (Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H. E. Jr., Eds.), pp. 463–478. The Geology of North America K-3. Geological Society of America, Boulder.Google Scholar
Scott, D. B., and Greenberg, D. A. (1983). Relative sea-level rise and tidal development in the Fundy tidal system. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 20, 1554–1564.Google Scholar
Smith, G. W. (1985). Chronology of late Wisconsinan deglaciation of coastal Maine. In “Late Pleistocene History of Northeastern New England and Adjacent Quebec” (Borns, H. W. Jr. LaSalle, P., and Thompson, W. B., Eds.), pp. 29–44. Geological Society of America Special Paper 197, Boulder.Google Scholar
Stone, B. D., and Borns, H. W. Jr. (1986). Pleistocene glacial and interglacial stratigraphy of New England, Long Island, and adjacent Georges Bank in the Gulf of Maine. In “Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere” (Sibrava, V. Bowen, D. Q., and Richmond, G. M., Eds.), pp. 39–52. Pergamon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Stone, J. R. Schafer, J. P., and London, E. H. (1982). The surficial geologic maps of Connecticut illustrated by a field trip in central Connecticut. In “New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 74th Annual Meeting” (Joesten, R. and Quarter, S. S., Eds.), pp. 5–25. Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Guide-book No. 5, Hartford.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Borns, H. W. Jr. (1975). Late Quaternary marine invasion of Maine: Its chronology and associated crustal movement. Geological Society of America Bulletin 86, 99–104.Google Scholar
Thompson, W. B. Crossen, K. J. Borns, W. H. Jr., and Andersen, B. G. (1989). “Neotectonics of Maine,” pp. 43–67. Maine Geological Survey, Augusta.Google Scholar