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Late Quaternary Spring-Fed Deposits of the Grand Canyon and Their Implication for Deep Lava-Dammed Lakes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Darrell S. Kaufman ,
Gary O'Brien ,
Jim I. Mead ,
Jordon Bright  and
Paul Umhoefer
Darrell S. Kaufman*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011-4099
Gary O'Brien
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011-4099
Jim I. Mead
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011-4099
Jordon Bright
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011-4099
Paul Umhoefer
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Quaternary Sciences Program, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86011-4099
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: darrell.kaufman@nau.edu.
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Abstract

One of the most intriguing episodes in the Quaternary evolution of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, Arizona, was the development of vast lakes that are thought to have backed up behind lava erupted into the gorge. Stratigraphic evidence for these deep lava-dammed lakes is expectedly sparse. Possible lacustrine deposits at six areas in the eastern canyon yielded no compelling evidence for sediment deposited in a deep lake. At two of the sites the sediment was associated with late Quaternary spring-fed pools and marshes. Water-lain silt and sand at lower Havasu Creek was deposited ∼3000 cal yr ago. The deposit contains an ostracode assemblage similar to that living in the modern travertine-dammed pools adjacent to the outcrop. The second deposit, at Lees Ferry, formed in a spring-fed marsh ∼43,000 cal yr ago, as determined by 14C and amino acid geochronology. It contains abundant ostracode and mollusk fossils, the richest assemblages reported from the Grand Canyon to date. Our interpretation of these sediments as spring-fed deposits, and their relative youth, provides an alternative to the conventional view that deposits like these were formed in deep lava-dammed lakes that filled the Grand Canyon.

Keywords

Grand CanyonArizonamollusksostracodesamino acid geochronologylava dammed lake
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2002 , pp. 329 - 340
Copyright
University of Washington

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