Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:04:28.249Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wind-Transverse Corrugations in Pleistocene Periglacial Landscapes of Central Pennsylvania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ben Marsh
Ben Marsh*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 17837
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Periglacial conditions beyond the Wisconsin glacial limit produced wind-transverse corrugations in east-central Pennsylvania. The corrugations are low, linear ridges typically several hundred meters long, 10–30 m wide, and 3–8 m above the local slope. They are composed of matrix-supported diamictons. Depending upon landscape position, the corrugations form welts, step and risers, or ground-ice-scar ramparts. The average direction normal to the corrugations is clustered at 118°/298°, similar to the late Wisconsin or early Holocene wind direction of 284° measured from a nearby fossil dune field. But the corrugations were neither eroded nor deposited by wind. Rather, they record nivation beside snow that accumulated in wind-transverse patterns. Their wide distribution implies that the region was treeless during the late Wisconsin maximum. Present discontinuities in these and other periglacial features suggest wasting of ice-rich fill in upland valleys, with consequent widening of stream channels and fan growth, at the end of periglacial time.

Keywords

periglacialnivationwind-orientedPennsylvania
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , March 1998 , pp. 149 - 156
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

Ballantyne, C.K., 1987. The present-day periglaciation of upland Britain. Periglacial Process and Landforms in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, p. 113–126.Google Scholar
Ballantyne, C.K., Harris, C., 1994. The Periglaciation of Great Britain.. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge. Google Scholar
Berg, T.M., 1980. Geological Map of Pennsylvania (Scale 1:250,000). Pennsylvania Geological Survey, Harrisburg. Google Scholar
Chase, C., 1977. Central Pennsylvania sand dunes. Pennsylvania Geology. 8 9–12.Google Scholar
Clark, G.M., 1992. Periglacial geomorphology. Clark, G.M., Central Appalachian Periglacial Geomorphology. Pennsylvania State University Department of Agronomy, University Park, 42–88.Google Scholar
Clark, G.M., Ciolkosz, E.J., 1988. Periglacial geomorphology of the Appalachian Highlands and Interior Highlands south of the glacial border—a review. Geomorphology. 1 191–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dohrenwend, J.C., 1984. Nivation landforms in the western Great Basin and their paleoclimatic significance. Quaternary Research. 22 275–288.Google Scholar
Eckenrode, J.J., 1985. Soil Survey of Union County. United States Department of Agriculture, Washington. Google Scholar
Marsh, B., 1987. Pleistocene pingo scars in Pennsylvania. Geology. 15 945–947.Google Scholar
Marsh, B., 1992. Montandon dune field. Clark, G.M., Central Appalachian Periglacial Geomorphology. Pennsylvania State University Department of Agronomy, University Park, 118–120.Google Scholar
1985. Climates of the States, Volume 2. Gale Research Company, Detroit. Google Scholar
Seppälä, M., 1988. Palsas and related forms. Clark, M.J., Advances in Periglacial Geomorphology. Wiley, Chichester, 247–278.Google Scholar
Thorn, C., 1988. Nivation: A geomorphic chimera. Clark, M.J., Advances in Periglacial Geomorphology. Wiley, Chichester, 3–32.Google Scholar
Thorson, R.M., Schile, C.A., 1995. Deglacial eolian regimes in New England. GSA Bulletin. 107 751–761.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn, A.L., 1980. Geocryology: A survey of Periglacial Processes and Environments. Wiley, New York. Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., 1983. Vegetation history of the eastern United States 25,000 to 10,000 years ago. Wright, H.E., Late Quaternary Environments of the United States. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 294–310.Google Scholar