Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:24:20.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Paleomagnetism and Magnetic Polarity Stratigraphy of the Mammal-Bearing Section of Anza Borrego State Park, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

N.D. Opdyke ,
E.H. Lindsay ,
N.M. Johnson  and
T. Downs
N.D. Opdyke
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
E.H. Lindsay
Affiliation:
The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
N.M. Johnson
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 USA
T. Downs
Affiliation:
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, California 90007 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We sampled 150 sites in fine-grained Plio-Pleistocene sediments of the Palm Springs and Imperial Formations. Sampling was confined to 3000 m of stratigraphically continuous section containing abundant vertebrate fossil remains of the Vallecito Creek, Arroyo Seco, and Layer Cake local faunas of the Irvingtonian and Blancan Land Mammal Ages. The magnetic stability of these sediments was sufficient to delineate the magnetic stratigraphy, which ranges from below the Cochiti event at the base, to the Matuyama reversed magnetic epoch at the top of the section. Eight faunal events are placed relative to the magnetic polarity sequence. They are cf. Pliohippus extinction, Geomys appearance, cf. Equus appearance, Tremarctos appearance, Hypolagus extinction, cf. Odocoileus appearance, Smilodon and ? Euceratherium appearance. The latter two faunal events characterize Irvingtonian Land Mammal Age. The transition from the Blancan to Irvingtonian Land Mammal Age occurs in the lower Matuyama magnetic epoch close to the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary. The appearance of European migrants during the lower Matuyama magnetic epoch indicates that the Bering land bridge was exposed for animal migration between Europe and North America at this time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , May 1977 , pp. 316 - 329
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

Armstrong, R.L. Leeman, W.P. Malde, H.E. (1975). KAr dating, Quaternary and Neogene volcanic rocks of the Snake River Plain, Idaho American Journal of Science 275 225-251 Google Scholar
Berggren, W.A. Phillips, J.D. Bertels, A. Wall, D. (1967). Late Pliocene-Pleistocene stratigraphy in deep-sea cores from the south central North Atlantic Nature (London) 216 253-254 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berggren, W.A. Van Couvering, J.A. (1974). The late Neogene. Biostratigraphy, geochronology and paleoclimatology of the last 15 million years in marine and continental sequences Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology and Paleoecology 16 ix-216 Google Scholar
Downs, T. White, J.A. (1968). A vertebrate faunal succession in superposed sediments from Late Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene in California Proceedings of XXIII International Geological Congress, Section 10, Tertiary-Quaternary Boundary Academica Press Prague 41-47 Google Scholar
Downs, T. Woodard, G.D. (1961). Middle Pleistocene extension of the Gulf of California into the Imperial Valley (abs.) Geological Society of America Special Papers 68Number 1231 Google Scholar
Flint, R.F. (1971). Quaternary Geology Wiley New York 750 Google Scholar
Harrison, C.G.A. Peterson, M.N.A. (1965). A magnetic mineral from the Indian Ocean American Mineralogist 50 704-712 Google Scholar
Johnston, C.S. Savage, D.E. (1955). A survey of various late Cenozoic vertebrate faunas of the panhandle of Texas. Part 1. Introduction, description of localities, preliminary faunal lists University of California Publications in Geological Sciences 31 27-49 Google Scholar
Johnson, N. Opdyke, N.D. Lindsay, E. (1975). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy of Pliocene-Pleistocene terrestrial deposits and vertebrate fauna, San Pedro Valley, Arizona Geological Society of America Bulletin 86 5-11 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, D.V. Lowrie, W. (1974). Origin of magnetic instability in sediment cores from the central North Pacific Journal of Geophysical Research 79 2987-3000 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, E.H. Johnson, N.M. Opdyke, N.D. (1976). Preliminary correlation of North American land mammal ages and geomagnetic chronology Smith, G.R. Friedland, N.E. Studies on Cenozoic Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Claude W. Hibbard Memorial Vol. 3 Univ. of Michigan Press Ann Arbor 111-119University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology No. 12Google Scholar
Løvlie, R. Lowrie, W. Jacobs, M. (1971). Magnetic properties and mineralogy of four deep-sea cores Earth and Planetary Science Letters 15 157-168 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundelius, E. L., Churcher, C. S., Downs, T., Harington, C. R., Lindsay, E. H., Schultz, G., Semken, H. A., and Zakrzewski, R. J. (in press). The North American Quaternary sequence. Google Scholar
McDougall, I. Watkins, N.D. (1973). Age and duration of the Réunion geomagnetic polarity event Earth and Planetary Science Letters 19 443-452 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McElhinny, M.W. (1966). An improved method for demagnetizing rocks in alternating magnetic fields Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 10 369-374 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriam, R. Bandy, O.R. (1965). Source of upper Cenozoic sediments in Colorado Delta region Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 35 911-916 Google Scholar
Molyneux, L. (1971). A complete result magnetometer for measuring the remanent magnetization of rocks Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 24 1-5 Google Scholar
Opdyke, N.D. (1972). Paleomagnetism of deep-sea cores Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics 10 213-249 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Repenning, C.A. (1967). Palearctic-Nearctic mammalian dispersal in the late Cenozoic Hopkins, D.M. The Bering Land Bridge Stanford Univ. Press Stanford 288-311 Google Scholar
Savage, D.E. (1951). Late Cenozoic vertebrates of the San Francisco Bay Region University of California Publications in Geological Science 28 215-314 Google Scholar
Tarbet, L.A. (1951). Imperial Valley, in possible future petroleum provinces of North America American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 35 260-263 Google Scholar
Tedford, R.H. (1970). Principles and practices of mammalian geochronology in North America North American Paleontology Convention, Proceedings F Chicago, 1969 666-703 Google Scholar
Watson, G.S. (1956). A test for randomness of directions Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Geophysical Supplement 7 160-161 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, J.A. (1969). Late Cenozoic bats (Subfamily Nyctophilinae) from the Anza-Borrego Desert of California Contributions in Mammalogy—A Volume Honoring Professor E. Raymond Hall Kansas University Museum of Natural History Miscellaneous Publication 51 275-282 Google Scholar
Woodard, G.D. (1974). Redefinition of Cenozoic stratigraphic column in Split Mountain Gorge, Imperial Valley, California American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 58 521-539 Google Scholar
Woodring, W.P. (1932). Distribution and age of the Tertiary deposits of the Colorado Desert Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 148 1-25 Google Scholar
Zagwijn, W.H. (1974). The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in western and southern Europe Boreas 3 75-97 Google Scholar
Zakrzewski, R.J. (1974). Fossil Ondatrini from western North America Journal of Mammalogy 55 284-292 CrossRefGoogle Scholar