Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T15:55:30.559Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

New Evidence for the Age of the Gubik Formation Alaskan North Slope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles A. Repenning*
Affiliation:
United States Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025 USA

Abstract

At several Alaskan North Slope localities south of the shore of the Arctic Ocean the Gubik Formation, herein regarded as latest Pliocene and Pleistocene in age, contains a marine unit at its base. Near Ocean Point and near Teshekpuk Lake this basal unit, or the lowest exposed marine unit, of the Gubik contains unusual, relatively warm-water marine mammals. Although these mammals have poorly known fossil histories, consideration of what is known suggests that the basal marine unit near Ocean Point is of latest Pliocene age, between 2.2 and 1.7 my old, and that the marine unit near Teshekpuk Lake is probably late Pleistocene, most likely correlating with the Sangamon Interglaciation and about 120,000 yr old.

Type
Original Articles
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

Bee, J.W., Hall, R.E.. 1956. Mammals of northern Alaska on the Arctic Slope. University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publication No. 8.Google Scholar
Black, R.F.. 1964. Gubik formation of Quaternary age in northern Alaska Exploration of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 and Adjacent Areas, Northern Alaska, 1944–1953, Part 2. Regional Studies. U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 302-C 5991.Google Scholar
Bloom, A.L., Broecker, W.S., Chappell, J.M.A., Matthews, R.K., Mesolella, K.J.. 1974. Quaternary sea level fluctuations on a tectonic coast; new 230Th 234U dates from the Huon Peninsula, New Guinea. Quaternary Research 4. 185205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boellstorff, J.. 1978. North American Pleistocene stages reconsidered in light of probable Pliocene-Pleistocene continental glaciation. Science 202. 305307.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carter, L.D., Repenning, C.A., Marincovich, L.N., Hazel, J.E., Hopkins, D.M., McDougall, K., Naeser, C.W.. 1977. Gubik and pre-Gubik Cenozoic deposits along the Colville River near Ocean Point, North Slope, Alska. U.S., Geological Survey, Circular 751-B. B12B14.Google Scholar
Carter, L.D., Robinson, S.W.. 1981. Minimum age of beach deposits north of Teshekpuk Lake, Alaskan Arctic coastal plain. U.S., Geological Survey, Circular 823-B. B8B9.Google Scholar
Cregut, E.. 1979. La faune de mammiferes du Pleistocene moyen de la Caune de l'Arago a Tautavel, Pyrenees-Orientales. Travaux du Laboratorie de Paleontology Humaine et de Prehistoire No. 3.Google Scholar
Cronin, T.M., Szabo, B.J., Ager, T.A., Hazel, J.E., Owens, J.P.. 1981. Quaternary climates and sea levels of the Atlantic coastal plain. Science 211. 233240.Google Scholar
Dodd, J.R., Mead, J., Stanton, R.J. Jr.. 1977. Paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Pliocene Centerville Beach section, northern California. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 34. 381386.Google Scholar
Doutt, J.K.. 1942. A review of the genus Phoca . Annals of the Carnegie Museum 24. 60125.Google Scholar
Einarsson, T., Hopkins, D.M., Doell, R.R.. 1967. The stratigraphy of Tjornes, northern Iceland, and the history of the Bering Land Bridge. The Bering Land Bridge. Hopkins, D.M.. Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif. 312325.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G., Matthews, R.K.. 1978. The marine oxygen isotope record in Pleistocene coral, Barbados, West Indies. Quaternary Research 10. 181196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gladenkov, Y.B.. 1981. Marine Plio-Pleistocene of Iceland and problems of its correlation. Quaternary Research 15. 1823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grigorescu, D.. 1976. Paratethyan seals. Systematic Zoology 25. 407419.Google Scholar
Harmon, R.S., Thompson, P.T., Schwarcz, H.P., Ford, D.C.. 1978. Late Pleistocene paleoclimates of North America as inferred from stable isotope studies of speleothems. Quarternary Research 9. 5470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, Y., Hopkins, D.M.. 1980. Arctic oceanic climate in late Cenozoic time. Science 209. 577.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hibbard, C.W.. 1972. Class Mammalia [excluding horses]. Early Pleistocene Preglacial and Glacial Rocks and Faunas of North-Central Nebraska. Skinner, M.F., Hibbard, C.W.American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin.148. 77116. (1).Google Scholar
Hopkins, D.M.. 1967. Quaternary marine transgressions in Alaska. The Bering Land Bridge. Hopkins, D.M.. Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif. 4790.Google Scholar
Ingle, J.C.. 1976. Late Neogene paleobathymetry and paleoenvironments of the Humboldt Basin, northern California. The Neogene symposium. Fritsche, A.E., Best, H.T. Jr., Wornardt, W.W.Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists.. 5361. Pacific Section, guidebook for 1976 meetings.Google Scholar
Kent, D., Opdyke, N.D., Ewing, M.. 1971. Climatic change in the North Pacific using ice-rafted detritus as a climatic indicator. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82. 27412754.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kenyon, K.W.. 1969. The sea otter in the eastern Pacific Ocean. North American Fauna No. 68.Google Scholar
Kilmer, F.H.. 1972. A new species of sea otter from the late Pleistocene of northwestern California. Southern California Academy of Sciences, Bulletin 71. 150157.Google Scholar
Kukla, G.J.. 1977. Pleistocene land-sea correlations. I. Europe. Earth-Science Reviews 13. 307374.Google Scholar
MacNeil, F.S.. 1957. Cenozoic Megafossils of Northern Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey 99126. Professional Paper 294-C.Google Scholar
Nelson, R.E.. 1981. Paleoenvironments during deposition of a section of the Gubik formation exposed along the lower Colville River, North Slope. U.S. Geological Survey, Circular 823-B. B9B11.Google Scholar
O'Neill, J.J.. 1924. The geology of the Arctic coast of Canada west of the Kent Peninsula. Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1918, Reports A. 11.Google Scholar
Repenning, C.A.. 1976. Enhydra and Enhydriodon from the Pacific coast of North America. U.S. Geological Survey, Journal of Research 4 3. 305315.Google Scholar
Repenning, C.A.. 1980. Faunal exchanges between Siberia and North America. Canadian Journal of Anthropology 1 1. 3744.Google Scholar
Repenning, C. A. (in press). Biochronology of the microtine rodents of the United States. In “Cenozoic Mammals: Their Temporal Record, Biostratigraphy, and Biochronology” (Woodburne, M. O, Ed.). Univ. of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Repenning, C.A., Ray, C.E., Grigorescu, D.. 1979. Pinniped biogeography. Historical Biogeography, Plate Tectonics, and the Changing Environment. Gray, J., Boucot, A.J.. Oregon State Univ. Press, Corvallis. 357369.Google Scholar
Roth, B.. 1979. Late Cenozoic Marine Invertebrates from Northwest California and Southwest Oregon. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Schrader, F.C.. 1904. A Reconnaissance of Northern Alaska. U.S. Geological SurveyProfessional Paper 20.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J.. 1969. The last interglacial in the marine and terrestrial records. Proceedings of the Royal Society (London), Series B 174. 135154.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., Opdyke, N.D.. 1976. Oxygen-isotope and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Pacific core V28-239 late Pliocene to latest Pleistocene. Geological Society of America, Memoir 145. 449464.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., Opdyke, N.D.. 1977. Oxygen isotope and paleomagnetic evidence for early Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Nature (London) 270. 216219.Google Scholar
Stanford, D.J.. 1976. The Walakpa site, Alaska: Its place in the Birnirk and Thule cultures. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology xiii No. 20. 226.Google Scholar