Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:04:54.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Palynology and Phytogeographical Significance of a Late-Pleistocene Refugium Near Kalaloch, Washington

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Calvin J. Heusser
Calvin J. Heusser*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, New York University, New York, New York 10003 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A sea cliff facing the open ocean 3 km north of Kalaloch, Washington, and exposing 32 m of interbedded peat, clay, sand, and gravel contains a unique continuous record of late-Pleistocene vegetation and environments on the western side of the Olympic Peninsula. The record obtains from the palynology of plant communities in the unglaciated refugium. Fourteen radiocarbon dates from peat beds in the sea cliff reveal that the record spans the time from 16,700 B. P. to greater than 47,000 B. P. The earliest organic deposits are estimated to date from 70,000 B. P. Pollen assemblages from 222 sample levels in a measured section, divided into 16 zones, are correlated, in the main, with the sequence of Salmon springs, Olympia, and Fraser geologic-climatic units in the Puget Lowland. Correlation derives from the fluctuations of a July average temperature curve reconstructed from the modern vegetation and climatic equivalents of the pollen assemblages. The sequence of stadial and interstadial environments depicted at Kalaloch is found to be more complex than is indicated by the Puget Lowland succession.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , September 1972 , pp. 189 - 201
Copyright
Academic Press, Inc.

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

American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature 1961 Code of stratigraphic nomenclature Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 45 645–665 Google Scholar
Armstrong, J.E. Crandell, D.R. Easterbrook, D.J. Noble, J.B. 1965 Late Pleistocene stratigraphy and chronology in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington Geological Society of America Bulletin 76 321–330 Google Scholar
Baldwin, E.M. 1939 Late Cenozoic Diastrophism along the Olympic Coast Unpublished master's thesis State College of Washington Google Scholar
Crandell, D.R. 1964 Pleistocene glaciations of the southwestern Olympic Peninsula, Washington U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 501-B 135–139 Google Scholar
Crandell, D.R. 1965 The glacial history of western Washington and Oregon Wright, H.E. Jr. Frey, D.G. The Quaternary of the United States Princeton University Press Princeton, NJ 341–353 Google Scholar
Crandell, D.R. Mullineaux, D.R. Waldron, H.H. 1958 Pleistocene sequence in southeastern part of the Puget Sound lowland, Washington American Journal of Science 256 384–397 Google Scholar
Easterbrook, D.J. 1963 Late Pleistocene glacial events and relative sea level changes in the Northern Puget Lowland, Washington Geological Society of America Bulletin 74 1465–1484 Google Scholar
Easterbrook, D.J. 1969 Pleistocene chronology of the Puget Lowland and San Juan Islands, Washington Geological Society of America Bulletin 80 2273–2286 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterbrook, D.J. Hansen, B.S. 1971 Palynology and stratigraphy of early-Wisconsin to Recent sediments in the Puget Lowland, Washington Geological Socicty of America, Abstracts with Programs for 1971 2 551–552 Google Scholar
Fisher, L.C. 1941 Climate of Washington Climate and Man U. S. Department of Agriculture Washington, D. C. 1170–1181 Google Scholar
Heusser, C.J. 1964 Palynology of four bog sections from the western Olympic Peninsula, Washington Ecology 45 23–40 Google Scholar
Heusser, C.J. 1969 Modern pollen spectra from the Olympic Peninsula, Washington Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 96 407–417 Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C.L. Cronquist, A. Ownbey, M. Thompson, J.W. 1955 Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Part 5: Compositae University of Washington Press Seattle Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C.L. Cronquist, A. Ownbey, M. Thompson, J.W. 1959 Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Part 4: Ericaceae Through Campanulaceae University of Washington Press Seattle Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C.L. Cronquist, A. Ownbey, M. Thompson, J.W. Vascular Plants of the pacific Northwest, Part 3: Saxifragaceae to Ericaceae University of Washington Press Seattle Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C.L. Cfonquist, A. Ownbey, M. Thompson, J.W. 1964 Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Part 2: Salicaceae to Saxifragaceae University of Washington Press Seattle Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C.L. Cronquist, A. Ownbey, M. Thompson, J.W. 1969 Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Part 1: Vascular Cryptogams, Gymnosperms, and Monocotyledons University of Washington Press Seattle Google Scholar
Jones, G.N. 1936 A botanical survey of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington University of Washington Publications in Biology 2 1–286 Google Scholar
Lupton, C.T. 1914 Oil and gas in the western part of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 581 23–81 Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. 1969 Yale natural radiocarbon measurements IX Radiocarbon 11 545–658 Google Scholar