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Unprecedented last-glacial mass accumulation rates determined by luminescence dating of loess from western Nebraska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Helen M. Roberts ,
Daniel R. Muhs ,
Ann G. Wintle ,
Geoff A. T. Duller  and
E. Arthur Bettis III
Helen M. Roberts*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
Daniel R. Muhs
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225, USA
Ann G. Wintle
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
Geoff A. T. Duller
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DB, UK
E. Arthur Bettis III
Affiliation:
Department of Geoscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +44-1970-622659. Email Address:[email protected]
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Abstract

A high-resolution chronology for Peoria (last glacial period) Loess from three sites in Nebraska, midcontinental North America, is determined by applying optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to 35–50 μm quartz. At Bignell Hill, Nebraska, an OSL age of 25,000 yr near the contact of Peoria Loess with the underlying Gilman Canyon Formation shows that dust accumulation occurred early during the last glacial maximum (LGM), whereas at Devil’s Den and Eustis, Nebraska, basal OSL ages are significantly younger (18,000 and 21,000 yr, respectively). At all three localities, dust accumulation ended at some time after 14,000 yr ago. Mass accumulation rates (MARs) for western Nebraska, calculated using the OSL ages, are extremely high from 18,000 to 14,000 yr—much higher than those calculated for any other pre-Holocene location worldwide. These unprecedented MARs coincide with the timing of a mismatch between paleoenvironmental evidence from central North America, and the paleoclimate simulations from atmospheric global circulation models (AGCMs). We infer that the high atmospheric dust loading implied by these MARs may have played an important role, through radiative forcing, in maintaining a colder-than-present climate over central North America for several thousand years after summer insolation exceeded present-day values.

Keywords

Dust fluxPeoria LoessOptically stimulated luminescence datingOSLQuartzCoarse-silt-sized grainsMass accumulation rate (MAR)Climate forcing
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 59 , Issue 3 , May 2003 , pp. 411 - 419
Copyright
Elsevier Science (USA)

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