Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-9q27g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T05:02:58.094Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Benthonic Foraminiferal Faunal and Isotopic Data for the Postglacial Evolution of the Champlain Sea1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Bruce H. Corliss ,
Allen S. Hunt  and
Lloyd D. Keigwin Jr.
Bruce H. Corliss
Affiliation:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Allen S. Hunt
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05401
Lloyd D. Keigwin Jr.
Affiliation:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Benthonic foraminiferal faunal and isotopic data from Champlain Sea sediments (approximately 12,500 to 10,000 yr B.P. in age) in two piston cores from Lake Champlain provide a detailed, apparently continuous record of the evolution of the Champlain Sea. Cassidulina reniforme and Islandiella helenae are the dominant benthonic foraminifera during the initial phase of the Champlain Sea, and are replaced by Elphidium excavatum forma clavatum and Protelphidium orbiculare as the dominant species during the remainder of the sea's history. The oxygen-isotopic data show a gradual decrease in δ18O between approximately 12,500 and 10,900 yr B.P., followed by a more rapid decrease during the interval 10,900 to 10,000 yr B.P. The δ13C data have a similar trend as δ18O, with generally decreasing values up the section. The isotopic and faunal data suggest that nearly marine conditions were present in the initial plase of the Champlain Sea, followed by gradually decreasing salinities and increasing temperatures as the sea evolved. The beginning of the rapid isotopic decrease at approximately 10,900 yr B.P. marks the onset of the largest environmental change in the history of the Champlain Sea, probably reflecting a major pulse of meltwater from the Laurentide Ice Sheet.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , May 1982 , pp. 325 - 338
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.)

Footnotes

1

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution No. 4977.

References

Bayfield, H.W. (1837). Notes on the geology of the north coast of the St. Lawrence. Transactions Geological Society of London (Series 2) 5, 89–103.Google Scholar
Chapman, D.H. (1937). Late-glacial and post-glacial history of the Champlain Valley. American Journal of Science 34, 89–124.Google Scholar
Chase, J.S. Hunt, A.S. (1972). Sub-bottom profiling in central Lake Champlain—A reconnaissance study Proceedings, 15th Conference on Great Lakes Research 317–329.Google Scholar
Connally, G.G. Sirkin, L.A. (1971). Luzerne readvance near Glens Falls, New York. Geological Society of America, Bulletin 82, 989–1008.Google Scholar
Cooper, S.C. (1964). Benthonic foraminifera of the Chuckchi Sea. Contributions from the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research 15, 79–104.Google Scholar
Craig, H. Gorton, L.I. (1965). Isotopic oceanography: Deuterium and oxygen 18 variations in the ocean and marine atmosphere. Symposium on Marine Geochemistry Schink, D.R. Corless, J.T. Narragansett Marine Laboratory Occasional Pub. No. 3 277–374.Google Scholar
Cronin, T.M. (1977). Late-Wisconsin marine environments of the Champlain Valley (New York, Quebec). Quaternary Research 7, 238–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronin, T.M. 1979a. Foraminifer and ostracode species diversity in the Pleistocene Champlain Sea of the St. Lawrence lowlands. Journal of Paleontology 53 2 233–244.Google Scholar
Cronin, T.M. 1979b. Late Pleistocene benthic foraminifer from the St. Lawrence lowlands. Journal of Paleontology 53 4 781–814.Google Scholar
Elson, J.A. (1969). Radiocarbon dates, Mya arenaria phase of the Champlain Sea. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 6, 367–372.Google Scholar
Emiliani, C. Rooth, C. Stipp, J.J. (1978). The Late Wisconsin flood into the Gulf of Mexico. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 41, 159–162.Google Scholar
Fillon, R.F. Hunt, A.S. (1974). Late-Pleistocene benthonic foraminifera of the southern Champlain Sea: Paleotemperature and paleosalinity indications. Maritime Sediments 10, 14–18.Google Scholar
Freeman-Lynde, R.P. Hutchinson, D.R. Folger, D.W. Wiley, B.H. Hewett, M.J. (1980). The origin and distribution of subbottom sediments in southern Lake Champlain. Quaternary Research 14, 224–239.Google Scholar
Gunther, F.J. Hunt, A.S. (1977). Paleoecology of marine and freshwater Holocene Ostracodes from Lake Champlain, Neartic North America. Sixth International Ostracode SymposiumSaalfelden, Austria.Google Scholar
Hillaire-Marcel, C. (1974). Le deglaciation au nordouest de Montreal: Donnees radiochronologiques et faits stratigraphiques. Revue Geographique Montreal 28, 407–417.Google Scholar
Hillaire-Marcel, C. (1981). Paleo-oceanographie isotopique des mers post-glaciaires du Quebec. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 35, 63–119.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, C.H. (1861). The phenomena of modified drift. The Geology of Vermont Hitchcock, E. Sr. Albert D. Hager. Claremont, N.H 93–250.Google Scholar
Hooper, K. (1968). Benthonic foraminiferal depth—assemblages of the continental shelf off eastern Canada. Maritime Sediments 4, 96–99.Google Scholar
Hunt, A.S. (1980). The stratigraphy of unconsolidated sediments of Lake Champlain. Vermont Geology 1, 12–15.Google Scholar
Karrow, P.F. Anderson, T.W. Clarke, A.H. Delorme, L.D. Schreenivasa, M.P. (1975). Stratigraphy, paleontology and age of Lake Algonquin sediments in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Quaternary Research 5, 49–87.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D. Jr.. 1979. Late Cenozoic stable isotope stratigraphy and paleoceanography of DSDP sites from the east equatorial and central north Pacific Ocean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 45 2 361–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, J.P. Shackleton, N.J. (1975). Laurentide Ice Sheet meltwater recorded in Gulf of Mexico deep-sea cores. Science 188, 147–150.Google Scholar
Leventer, A. Williams, D.F. Kennett, J.P. (1982). Dynamics of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last deglaciation: Evidence from the Gulf of MexicoIn Preparation.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loeblich, A.R. Tappan, H. (1953). Studies of Arctic foraminifera. Smithsonian Institution Miscellaneous Collections 121, 1–150.Google Scholar
Luz, B. (1979). Palaeo-oceanography of the postglacial Eastern Mediterranean. Nature (London) 278, 847–848.Google Scholar
Lyell, C. (1841). Remarks on some fossil and Recent shells, collected by Captain Bayfield, R.N., in Canada. Transactions, Geological Society of London (Series 2) 6 1 135–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyell, C. (1842). Remarks on some fossil and Recent shells, collected by Captain Bayfield, R.N., in Canada. Proceedings, Geological Society of London 3, 119–120.Google Scholar
McDonald, B.C. (1968). Deglaciation and differential postglacial rebound in the Appalachian region of southeastern Quebec. Journal of Geology 76, 664–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, J.W. (1973). Distribution and Ecology of Living Benthic Foraminiferids. Crane, Russak & Co., Inc. New York.Google Scholar
Oana, S. Deevey, E.S. (1960). C13 in lake waters, and its possible bearing on paleolimnology. American Journal of Science 258A, 253–272.Google Scholar
Phleger, F.B. (1952). Foraminifera distribution in some sediment samples from the Canadian and Greenland Arctic. Contribution from the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research 3, 80–89.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, C.G. Hooper, K. Jones, P.C. (1980). The apertural structures of Islandiella and Cassidulina . Journal of Foraminiferal Research 10 7 48–60.Google Scholar
Sackett, W.M. Moore, W.S. (1967). Isotopic variations of dissolved inorganic C. Chemical Geology 1, 323–328.Google Scholar
Vergnaud-Grazzini, C. (1975). δ 18O changes in foraminifera carbonates during the last 105 years in the Mediterranean Sea. Science 190, 272–274.Google Scholar
Vergnaud-Grazzini, C. Ryan, W.B.F. Cita, M.B. (1977). Stable isotopic fraction, climatic change and episodic stagnation in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Quaternary. Marine Micropaleontology 2, 353–370.Google Scholar
Vilks, G. (1968). Foraminiferal study of the Magdelen Shallows, Gulf of St. Lawrence. Maritime Sediments 4, 14–21.Google Scholar
Vilks, G. (1969). Recent Foraminifera in the Canadian Arctic. Micropaleontology 15, 35–60.Google Scholar
Wagner, F.J.E. (1970). Faunas of the Pleistocene Champlain Sea. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 181, 1–104.Google Scholar
Williams, D.F. Thunell, R.C. Kennett, J.P. (1978). Periodic freshwater flooding and stagnation of the eastern Mediterranean Sea during the Late Quaternary. Science 201, 252–254.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed