Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T07:12:44.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interglacial Deposits at Birch Creek, Northeast Interior Alaska

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mary E. Edwards  and
Patricia F. McDowell
Mary E. Edwards
Affiliation:
College of Forest Resources AR-10 and Quaternary Research Center AK-60, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Patricia F. McDowell
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A 12-m sequence of lake sediment and peat in a 45-m high exposure on Birch Creek, northeast Alaska, contains pollen of Picea, Betula, Alnus and Populus, and wood of Picea and Populus. This sequence, which may represent 10,000 yr of more of accumulation, is beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating. It lies between two units of loess; the underlying loess lies above the Old Crow Tephra, recently dated at 149,000 ± 13,000 yr B.P. The lake sediments probably were deposited during the last interglaciation (isotope substage 5e) and subsequently buried by Wisconsinan loess. Analogs for the ancient lake may be deep, long-lived thaw lakes that are present in the modern landscape. When Birch Creek is correlated with other sites across nonglaciated Alaska and northwest Canada, there appears to be a common interglacial signal in sediments overlying the Old Crow Tephra.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 1991 , pp. 41 - 52
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

Ager, T.A. Late Quaternary Environmental History of the Tanana Valley, Alaska Institute of Polar Studies, Report No. 54 1975 Ohio State University Columbus Google Scholar
Ager, T.A. Brubaker, L.B. Quaternary palynology and vegetation history of Alaska Bryant, V.M. Holloway, R.G. Pollen Records of Late-Quaternary North American Sediments 1985 American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation Dallas, TX 353 384 Google Scholar
Anderson, P.M. Late Quaternary vegetational change in the Kotzebue Sound area, northwestern Alaska Quaternary Research 24 1985 307 321 Google Scholar
Anderson, P.M. Brubaker, L.B. Modern pollen assemblages from northern Alaska Review of Paleobotany and Palynology 46 1986 273 291 Google Scholar
Anderson, P.M. Reanier, R.E. Brubaker, L.B. Late Quaternary vegetational history of the Black River region in northeastern Alaska Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 25 1988 84 94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnosky, C.W. Anderson, P.M. Bartlein, P.J. The northwestern U.S. during deglaciation; Vegetational history and paleoclimatic implications North America and adjacent oceans during the last deglaciation Ruddiman, W.F. Wright, H.E. Jr. The Geology of North America Vol. K-3 1987 The Geological Society of America Boulder, CO 289 321 Google Scholar
Bartlein, P.J. Prentice, I.C. Orbital variations, climate and paleoecology Trends in Ecology and Evolution 4 1989 195 199 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Begét, J.E. Stone, D.B. Hawkins, D.B. Paleoclimatic forcing of magnetic susceptibility variations in Alaska loess during the late Quaternary Geology 18 1990 40 43 2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, G.W. Thermoluminescence dating of the Pleistocence Old Crow Tephra and adjacent loess, near Fairbanks, Alaska Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 24 1987 1975 1984 Google Scholar
Birks, H.J.B. Birks, H.H. Quaternary Palaeoecology 1981 Arnold London Google Scholar
Colinvaux, P.A. The environment of the Bering Land Bridge Ecological Monographs 34 1964 297 329 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cwynar, L.C. Burden, E. MacAndrews, J.H. An inexpensive sieving method for concentrating pollen and spores from fine-grained sediments Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 16 1979 1115 1120 Google Scholar
Edwards, M.E. Brubaker, L.B. A Late-Wisconsin and Holocene vegetation history from Sands of Time Lake, N.E. interior Alaska Abstracts, Eighth Biennial Meeting of the American Quaternary Association Boulder 1984 35 Google Scholar
Edwards, M.E. Brubaker, L.B. Late Quaternary vegetation history of the Fishhook Bend area, Porcupine River, Alaska Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 23 1986 1765 1773 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, M.E. McDowell, P.F. Quaternary deposits at Birch Creek, N.E. interior Alaska: the possibility of climatic reconstruction Late Cenozoic History of the Interior basins of Alaska and the Yukon Carter, L.D. Hamilton, T.D. Galloway, J.P. United States Geological Survey Circular 1026 1989 48 50 Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Edwards, M.E. Hopkins, D.M. Deep thermokarst lakes in the Southern Yukon Flats, Alaska Proceedings, 39th. Arctic Science Conference Fairbanks 1988 207 Google Scholar
Hamilton, T.D. Ager, T.A. Robinson, S.W. Late Holocene ice wedges near Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S.A.: Environmental setting and history of growth Arctic and Alpine Research 15 1983 157 168 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heusser, L.E. King, J.E. North America Huntley, B. Webb, T. III Vegetation History 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht 193 236 Google Scholar
Hopkins, D.M. History of Imuruk lake, Seward Peninsula, Alaska Geological Society of America Bulletin 70 1959 1033 1046 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, D.M. Geology of Imuruk lake area, Seward Peninsula, Alaska U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1141-C 1963 Google Scholar
Hughes, O.L. Surficial Geology of northern Yukon Territory and northwestern District of Mackenzie, Northwest Territories Geological Survey of Canada Paper 69-36 1972 Ottawa Google Scholar
Lamb, H.F. Edwards, M.E. The Arctic Huntley, B. Webb, T. III Vegetation History 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht 519 555 Google Scholar
Lichti-Federovitch, S. Palynology of six sections of late Quaternary sediments from the Old Crow River, Yukon Territory Canadian Journal of Botany 51 1973 553 564 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr. Wisconsin environment of interior Alaska: Pollen and macrofossil analysis of a 27 m core from Isabella Basin (Fairbanks, Alaska) Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 11 1974 812 841 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr. Quaternary environments at Cape Deceit (Seward Peninsula, Alaska): Evolution of a tundra ecosystem Geological Society of America Bulletin 85 1974 1353 1385 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, J.V. Jr. Schweger, C.E. Hughes, O.L. Climatic change in eastern Beringia during oxygen isotope stages 2 and 3: Proposed thermal events Carter, L.D. Hamilton, T.D. Galloway, J.P. Late Cenozoic History of the Interior basins of Alaska and the Yukon 1989 United States Geological Survey Circular 1026 Washington, D.C 34 38 Google Scholar
Naeser, N.D. Westgate, J.A. Hughes, O.L. Péwé, T.L. Fission-track ages of late Cenozoic distal tephra beds in the Yukon territory and Alaska Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 19 1982 2167 2178 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Péwé, T.L. Quaternary Geology of Alaska U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 835 1975 Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Péwé, T.L. Quaternary Stratigraphic Nomenclature in Unglaciated Central Alaska U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 862 1975 Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Péwé, T.L. Quaternary stratigraphy of the Fairbanks area, Alaska Late Cenozoic History of the Interior basins of Alaska and the Yukon Carter, L.D. Hamilton, T.D. Galloway, J.P. United States Geological Survey Circular 1026 1989 72 77 Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Ritchie, J.C. Cwynar, L.C. Spear, R.W. Evidence from northwest Canada for an early Holocene Milankovitch thermal maximum Nature (London) 305 1983 126 128 Google Scholar
Schweger, C.E. Matthews, J.V. Jr. Early and middle Wisconsinan environments of eastern Beringia: Stratigraphic and paleoecological implications of the Old Crow tephra Geographie physique et Quaternaire 39 1985 275 290 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackleton, J. Environmental histories from Whitefish and Imuruk Lakes, Seward Peninsula, Alaska Institute of Polar Studies Report No. 76 1982 Ohio State University Columbus, OH Google Scholar
Watts, W.A. Europe Huntley, B. Webb, T. III Vegetation History 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht 155 192 Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A. Discovery of a largre-magnitude, late-Pleistocene volcanic eruption in Alaska Science 218 1982 789 790 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westgate, J.A. Isothermal plateau fission-track age of the late Pleistocene Old Crow Tephra, Alaska Geophysical Research Letters 15 1988 376 379 Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A. Briggs, N.D. Dating methods of Pleistocene deposits and their problems: V. Tephrochronology and fission-track dating Geoscience Canada 7 1980 3 10 Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A. Péwé, T.L. Gorton, M.P. Tephrochronology of the Gold Hill Loess in central Alaska Abstracts, The Geological Society of America 95th. Annual meeting Louisiana 1982 645 646 Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A. Hamilton, T.D. Gorton, M.P. Old Crow Tephra: A new late Pleistocene stratigraphic marker across north-central Alaska and western Yukon Territory Quaternary Research 19 1983 38 54 Google Scholar
Westgate, J.A. Walter, R.C. Pearce, G.W. Gorton, M.P. Distribution, stratigraphy, petrochemistry, and paleomagnetism of the late Pleistocene Old Crow tephra in Alaska and the Yukon Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22 1985 893 906 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, J.R. A geologic reconnaissance, Yukon Flats district, Alaska U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1111-H 1962 290 331 Google Scholar
Wintle, A.G. Westgate, J.A. Thermoluminescence age of Old Crow tephra in Alaska Geology 14 1986 594 597 Google Scholar