Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:50:37.252Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, and cosmogenic-isotope burial ages of fossil-bearing strata within Riverbluff Cave, Greene County, Missouri

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2017

Charles W. Rovey II ,
Greg Balco ,
Matt Forir  and
William F. Kean
Charles W. Rovey II*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Geology, and Planning, Missouri State University, 901 S. National, Springfield, Missouri 65897, USA
Greg Balco
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, California 94709, USA
Matt Forir
Affiliation:
Missouri Institute of Natural Science, 2327 W. Farm Road 190, Springfield, Missouri 65810, USA
William F. Kean
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201, USA
*
*Corresponding author at: Department of Geography, Geology, and Planning, Missouri State University, 901 S. National, Springfield, Missouri 65897, USA. E-mail address: [email protected] (C.W. Rovey).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Riverbluff Cave, in Greene County, Missouri, is a short single passage between the James River and its direct tributary, Ward Branch. Before stream incision the cave functioned as a spillway/piracy between the two streams during high-discharge events and accumulated a sequence of stratified fluvial sediments within the cave. Five cosmogenic-nuclide burial ages for these sediments range from 0.984 to 0.570 Ma. These ages are consistent with both the stratigraphic order of the samples and the inferred position of the Matuyama/Brunhes paleomagnetic boundary. These ages indicate that sandy channel-facies deposits derived from Ward Branch entrances began to accumulate within the cave as early as 0.984±0.065 Ma. This facies is capped by highly fossiliferous gravel beds dated at 0.658±0.065 Ma, which contain abundant mammoth bones (possibly Mammuthus trogontherii) and other vertebrates. The high concentration implies that this deposit may record some type of mass-mortality event. By 0.570±0.072 Ma, all Ward Branch entrances had been abandoned because of incision, and a laminated red clay derived from backflow from flooding along the James River capped the older channel sediments.

Keywords

Riverbluff CaveMissouriMammothsBurial dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 516 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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

REFERENCES

Anthony, D.M., Granger, D.E., 2004. A Late Tertiary origin for multilevel caves along the western escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee and Kentucky, established by cosmogenic 26Al and 10Be. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 66, 46–55.Google Scholar
Balco, G., Briner, J., Finkel, R.C., Rayburn, J.A., Ridge, J.C., Schaefer, J.M., 2009. Regional beryllium-10 production rate calibration for late-glacial northeastern North America. Quaternary Geochronology 4, 93–107.Google Scholar
Balco, G., Stone, J.O., Lifton, N.A., Dunai, T.J., 2008. A complete and easily accessible means of calculating surface exposure ages or erosion rates from 10Be and 26Al measurements. Quaternary Geochronology 2, 174–195.Google Scholar
Bierman, P., Steig, E., 1996. Estimating rates of denudation using cosmogenic isotope abundances in sediment. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 21, 125–139.3.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosch, R.F., White, W.B., 2004. Lithofacies and transport of clastic sediments in karstic aquifers. In: Sasowsky, I.D., Mylroie, J. (Eds.), Studies of Cave Sediments: Physical and Chemical Records of Paleoclimate. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, pp. 1–22.Google Scholar
Canfield, D.E., Berner, R.A., 1987. Dissolution and pyritization of magnetite in anoxic marine sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 51, 645–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chmeleff, J., von Blanckenburg, F., Kossert, K., Jakob, D., 2010. Determination of the 10Be half-life by multicollector ICP-MS and liquid scintillation counting. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268, 192–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M., Matmon, A., Fink, D., Ron, H., Niedermann, S., 2011. Dating Pliocene lacustrine sediments in the central Jordan Valley, Israel—implications for cosmogenic burial dating. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 305, 317–327.Google Scholar
Dom, J.E., Wicks, C.M., 2003. Morphology of the caves of Missouri. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 65, 155–159.Google Scholar
Dorale, J.A., Edwards, R.L., Alexander, E.C. Jr., Shen, C., Richards, D.A., Cheng, H., 2004. Uranium-series dating of speleothems: current techniques, limits, & applications. In: Sasowsky, I.D., Mylroie, J. (Eds.), Studies of Cave Sediments: Physical and Chemical Records of Paleoclimate. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York, pp. 177–197.Google Scholar
Graham, R.W., 1998. The Pleistocene terrestrial mammal fauna of North America. In: Janis, C.M., Scott, K.M., Jacobs, L.K. (Eds.), Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America Vol. 1, Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 66–71.Google Scholar
Granger, D.E., 2006. A review of burial dating methods using 26Al and 10Be. In: Siame, L.L., Bourlès, D.L., Brown, E.T. (Eds.), In Situ-Produced Cosmogenic Nuclides and Quantification of Geological Processes. Geological Society of America, Special Papers, 415, 1–16.Google Scholar
Granger, D.E., Fabel, D., Palmer, A.N., 2001. Pliocene-Pleistocene incision of the Green River, Kentucky, determined from radioactive decay of cosmogenic 26Al and 10Be in Mammoth Cave sediments. Geological Society of America Bulletin 113, 825–836.Google Scholar
Granger, D.E., Kirchner, J.W., Finkel, R.C., 1997. Quaternary downcutting rate of the New River, Virginia, measured from differential decay of cosmogenic 26Al and 10Be in cave deposited alluvium. Geology 25, 107–110.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallberg, G.R., Fenton, T.E., Miller, G.A., 1978. Standard weathering zone terminology for the description of Quaternary sediments in Iowa. In: Hallberg, G.R. (Ed.), Standard Procedures for Evaluation of Quaternary Materials in Iowa. Iowa Geological Survey Technical Information Series, No. 8. Iowa Geological Survey, Iowa City, pp. 75–109.Google Scholar
Hawksley, O., 1986. Remains of Quaternary vertebrates from Ozark caves and other miscellaneous sites. Missouri Speleology 26, 1–67.Google Scholar
Heisinger, B., Lal, D., Jull, A.J.T., Kubic, P., Ivy-Ochs, S., Knie, K., Lazarev, V., Nolte, E., 2002a. Production of selected cosmogenic radionuclides by muons: 2. Capture of negative muons. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 200, 357–369.Google Scholar
Heisinger, B., Lal, D., Jull, A.J.T., Kubic, P., Ivy-Ochs, S., Neumaier, S., Knie, K., Lazarev, V., Nolte, E., 2002b. Production of selected cosmogenic radionuclides by muons: 1. Fast muons. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 200, 345–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Izett, G.A., Wilcox, R.E., 1982. Map Showing Localities and Inferred Distributions of the Huckleberry Ridge, Mesa Falls and Lava Creek Ash Beds (Pearlette Family Ash Beds) of Pliocene and Pleistocene Age in the Western United States and Canada. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Miscellaneous Investigations Map I-325, scale 1:4,000,000. USGS, Reston, VA.Google Scholar
Karlin, R., Levi, S., 1985. Geochemical and sedimentological control of the magnetic properties of hemipelagic sediments. Journal of Geophysical Research 90, 10373–10392.Google Scholar
Korschinek, G., Bergmaier, A., Faestermann, T., Gerstmann, U.C., Knie, K., Rugel, G., Wallener, A., et al., 2010. A new value for the half-life of Be-10 by heavy-ion elastic recoil detection and liquid scintillation counting. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 268, 187–191.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B., Anderson, E., 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lisiecki, L.E., Raymo, M.E., 2005. A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O records. Paleoceanography 20, PA1003. http://dx.doi.org/1029/2004PA001071.Google Scholar
Lister, A., Bahn, P., 2007. Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Lister, A.M., Sher, A.V., 2015. Evolution and dispersal of mammoths across the Northern Hemisphere. Science 350, 805–809.Google Scholar
Matmon, A., Ron, H., Chazan, M., Porat, N., Horwitz, L.K., 2012. Reconstructing the history of sediment deposition in caves. A case study from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Geological Society of America Bulletin 124, 611–625.Google Scholar
Muzikar, P., Granger, D., 2006. Combining cosmogenic, stratigraphic, and paleomagnetic information using a Bayesian approach: general results and an application to Sterkfontein. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 243, 400–408.Google Scholar
Nishiizumi, K., 2004a. 10Be, 26Al, 36Cl, and 41Ca AMS standards: abstract O16-1. In: Nakamura, T. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, 9-13 September 2002. North-Holland, Amsterdam, p. 130.Google Scholar
Nishiizumi, K., 2004b. Preparation of 26Al AMS standards. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224, 388–392.Google Scholar
Nishiizumi, K., Imamura, M., Caffee, M.W., Southon, J.R., Finkel, R.C., McAnich, J.A., 2007. Absolute calibration of 10Be AMS standards. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 258, 403–413.Google Scholar
Reams, M.W., 1998. Cave sediments and the geomorphic history of the Ozarks. Missouri Speleology 38, 1–97.Google Scholar
Rovey, C.W. II, Balco, G., 2015. Paleoclimatic interpretations of buried paleosols within the pre-Illinoian till sequence in northern Missouri, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 417, 44–56.Google Scholar
Rovey, C.W. II, Forir, M., Balco, G., Gaunt, D., 2010. Geomorphology and paleontology of Riverbluff Cave, Springfield, Missouri. In: Evans, K.R., Aber, J.S. (Eds.), From Precambrian Rift Volcanoes to the Mississippian Shelf Margin: Geological Field Excursions in the Ozark Mountains. Geological Society of America Field Guide 17. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp. 1–8.Google Scholar
Sasowsky, I.D., White, W.B., Schmidt, V.A., 1995. Determination of stream-incision rate in the Appalachian plateaus by using cave-sediment magnetostratigraphy. Geology 23, 415–418.Google Scholar
Schaller, M., von Blanckenburg, F., Hovius, N., Veldkamp, A., van den Berg, M.W., Kubik, P.W., 2004. Paleoerosion rates from cosmogenic Be-10 in a 1.3 Ma terrace sequence: response of the river Meuse to changes in climate and rock uplift. Journal of Geology 112, 127–144.Google Scholar
Schmidt, V.A., 1982. Magnetostratigraphy of sediments in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Science 217, 827–829.Google Scholar
Singer, B.S., 2014. A Quaternary geomagnetic instability time scale. Quaternary Geochronology 21, 29–52.Google Scholar
Springer, G.S., Kite, J.S., Schmidt, V.A., 1997. Cave sedimentation, genesis, and erosional history in the Cheat River Canyon, West Virginia. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109, 524–532.Google Scholar
Stock, G.M., Anderson, R.S., Finkel, R.C., 2004. Pace of landscape evolution in the Sierra Nevada, California, revealed by cosmogenic dating of cave sediments. Geology 32, 193–196.Google Scholar
Stock, G.M., Granger, D.E., Sasowsky, I.D., Anderson, R.S., Finkel, R.C., 2005. Comparison of U-Th, paleomagnetism, and cosmogenic burial methods for dating caves: implications for landscape evolution studies. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 236, 388–403.Google Scholar
Stock, G.M., Riihimaki, C.A., Anderson, R.S., 2006. Age constraints on cave development and landscape evolution in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 68, 76–84.Google Scholar
Stone, J., 2004. Extraction of Al & Be from quartz for isotopic analysis. UW Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory Methods and Procedures. University of Washington, Seattle. http://depts.washington.edu/cosmolab/chem/Al-26_Be-10.pdf.Google Scholar
Stone, J.O., 2000. Air pressure and cosmogenic isotope production. Journal of Geophysical Research 105, 23753–23759.Google Scholar
White, W.B., 1988. Geomorphology and Hydrology of Karst Terrains. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
White, W.B., 2007. Cave sediments and paleoclimate. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 69, 76–93.Google Scholar
Wilcox, R.E., Naeser, C.W., 1992. The Pearlette family ash beds in the Great Plains: finding their identities and their roots in the Yellowstone country. Quaternary International 13/14, 9–13.Google Scholar
Zerathe, S., Braucher, R., Lebourg, T., Bourlès, D., Manetti, M., Léanni, L., 2013. Dating chert (diagenetic silica) using in-situ produced Be-10: possible complications revealed through a comparison with Cl-36 applied to coexisting limestone. Quaternary Geochronology 17, 81–93.Google Scholar