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Tephrochronology of the Western Gulf of Mexico for the Last 185,000 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Karen Rabek ,
Michael T. Ledbetter  and
Douglas F. Williams
Karen Rabek
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 USA
Michael T. Ledbetter
Affiliation:
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, P.O. Box 223, Moss Landing, California 95039 USA
Douglas F. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29210 USA
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Abstract

Tephra in 31 piston cores from the western Gulf of Mexico and 7 piston cores from the equatorial Pacific were analyzed by electron microprobe. Six ash layers in the western Gulf of Mexico were easily distinguished by TiO2, FeO, and CaO contents and correlated by geochemistry in order to determine the distribution pattern for each ash layer. Correlation by geochemistry is an easier, more accurate method than biostratigraphic correlation; some of the tephras were miscorrelated by biostratigraphy. The six tephras were dated by geochemical identification in a piston core with oxygen-isotope stratigraphy and the ages are Y5 (30,000 yr B.P.), Y6 (65,000 yr B.P.), Y8 (84,000 yr B.P.), X2 (110,000 yr B.P.), W1 (136,000 yr B.P.), and W2 (185,000 yr B.P.). Data from this study corroborated correlations of the Y8 tephra in the western Gulf of Mexico with the D layer in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. None of the other five layers in the Gulf of Mexico, however, were found in the Pacific Ocean. The limited distribution of the Y5, Y6, X2, and W2 ash layers close to Mexico indicates possible sources in Mexico. Tephra from the late Pleistocene La Primavera pumice in Mexico, however, does not correlate with the marine tephra.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , May 1985 , pp. 403 - 416
Copyright
University of Washington

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