Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T22:21:17.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new formation process for calcic pendants from Pahranagat Valley, Nevada, USA, and implication for dating Quaternary landforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Amy L. Brock  and
Brenda J. Buck
Amy L. Brock*
Affiliation:
Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Box 4010, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4010, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 702 895 4064.E-mail addresses:alb@unlv.nevada.edu (A.L. Brock), buckb@unlv.nevada.edu (B.J. Buck).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has been assumed that soil pendants form in a similar manner as stalactites, in which innermost laminae are the oldest and outer laminae are the youngest. This study presents a new interpretation for soil pendant development. Pahranagat Valley, Nevada, pendants contain features indicating continued precipitation through time at the clast–pendant contact, implying that the oldest deposits are not always found at the pendant–clast contact, as other studies have assumed. These features include a void at the clast–pendant contact where minerals such as calcium carbonate, silica, and/or fibrous silicate clays precipitate. In addition, fragments of the parent clast and detrital grains are incorporated into the pendant and are displaced and/or dissolved and result in the formation of sepiolite. This study indicates that pendants are complex, open systems that during and after their formation undergo chemical changes that complicate their usefulness for dating and paleoenvironmental analyses.

Keywords

PendantsPedogenic carbonateSoilDatingSepiolite
Type
Short Papers
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 359 - 367
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

Allen, B.L., (1985). Micromorphology of Aridisols. Douglas, L.A., Thompson, M.L., Soil Micromorphology and Soil Classification Proceedings of the Soil Science Society of America, Anaheim., 197–216.Google Scholar
Amundson, R.G., Chadwick, O.A., Sowers, J.M., Doner, H.E., (1989). The stable isotope chemistry of pedogenic carbonates at Kyle Canyon, Nevada. Soil Science Society of America Journal 53, 201–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amundson, R., Wang, Y., Chadwick, O., Trumbore, S., McFadden, L., McDonald, E., Wells, S., DeNiro, M., (1994). Factors and processes governing the 14C content of carbonate in desert soils. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 125, 385–405.Google Scholar
Birkeland, P.W., (1999). Soils and Geomorphology. 3rd ed. Oxford Univ. Press, New York., 430 p.Google Scholar
Blank, R.R., Fosberg, M.A., (1990). Micromorphology and classification of secondary calcium carbonate accumulations that surround or occur on the undersides of coarse fragments in Idaho, USA. Douglas, L.A., Soil Micromorphology: A Basic and Applied Science Developments in Soil Science vol. 19, Elsevier, 341–346.Google Scholar
Blisniuk, P.M., Sharp, W.D., (2003). Rates of late Quaternary normal faulting in central Tibet from U-series dating of pedogenic carbonate in displaced fluvial gravel deposits. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 215, 169–186.Google Scholar
A.L., Brock, (2002). Genesis and Morphology of Soil Pendants in Quaternary Landforms of Pahranagat Valley. Nevada: Master's Thesis,University of Nevada, , Las Vegas., 163 p.Google Scholar
Bull, W.B., (1991). Geomorphic Response to Climate Change. Oxford Univ. Press, NY, NY., 326 p.Google Scholar
Buol, S.W., Hole, F.D., McCracken, R.W., (1997). Soil Genesis and Classification. 4th ed. Iowa State Univ. Press, Ames.Google Scholar
Chadwick, O.A., Sowers, J.M., Amundson, R.G., (1988). Morphology of calcite crystals in clast coatings from four soils of the Mojave Desert Region. Soil Science Society of America Journal 52, 211–219.Google Scholar
Courtey, M.-A., Marlin, C., Dever, L., Tremblay, P., Vachier, P., (1994). The properties, genesis and environmental significance of calcitic pendents from the High Arctic (Spitsbergen). Geoderma 61, 71–102.Google Scholar
Ducloux, J., Laouina, A., (1989). The pendant calcretes in semi-arid climate: an example located near Taforalt, NW Morocco. Catena 16, 237–322.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., Miller, G.H., (1984). Time dependant soil morphologies and pedogenic processes on raised beaches, Broggerhalvoya, Spitsbergen, Svalbard Archipelago. Arctic and Alpine Research 16, 381–394.Google Scholar
Gee, G.W., Bauder, J.W., (1986). Particle-size analysis. Methods of Soil Analysis part 1—Physical and Mineralogical Methods: Soil Science Society of America Book Series 5, American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Madison., 383–411.Google Scholar
Gile, L.H., Peterson, F.F., Grossman, R.B., (1966). Morphological and genetic sequences of carbonate accumulation in desert soils. Soil Science 101, 347–360.Google Scholar
Haneberg, W.C., Tripp, G., (1991). An irrigation-induced debris flow in northern New Mexico. Bulletin of the Association of Engineering Geologists 28, 359–374.Google Scholar
Levine, S.J., Hendricks, D.M., (1990). Carbonate forms in residual horizons of limestone derived soils in northern Arizona. Douglas, L.A., Soil Micromorphology: A Basic and Applied Science Developments in Soil Science vol. 19, Elsevier, 373–380.Google Scholar
Ludwig, K.R., Paces, J.B., (2002). Uranium-series dating of pedogenic silica and carbonate, Crater Flat, Nevada. Geochemica et Cosmochemica Acta 66, 487–506.Google Scholar
Machette, M.N., (1978). Dating quaternary faults in the Southwestern United States by using buried calcic paleosols. Journal of Research of the USGS 6, 369–381.Google Scholar
Maliva, R.G., Siever, R., (1988). Diagenic replacement controlled by force of crystallization. Geology 16, 655–691.Google Scholar
McFadden, L.D., Amundson, R.G., Chadwick, O.A., (1991). Numerical modeling, chemical, and isotopic studies of carbonate accumulation in soils of arid regions. Occurrence, Characteristics, and Genesis of Carbonate, Gypsum, and Silica Accumulations in Soils Soil Science Society of America Special Publication vol. 26, 17–35.Google Scholar
Monger, C.H., Collins, M.E., Carter, B.J., Gladfetter, B.G., Southard, R.J., (1995). Pedology in Arid Lands Archaeology Research: An Example from Southern New Mexico–Western Texas in Pedological Perspectives in Archaeological Research. Soil Science Society of America Special Publication vol. 44, 35–50.Google Scholar
Monger, C.H., Adams, H.P., (1996). Micromorphology of calcite-silica deposits, Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Soil Science Society of America Journal 60, 519–530.Google Scholar
Monger, C.H., Daugherty, L.A., (1991). Neoformation of palygorskite in a southern New Mexico Aridisol. Soil Science Society of America Journal 55, 1646–1650.Google Scholar
Monger, C.H., Kelley, E.F., (2002). Silica minerals. Dixon, J.B., Schulze, D.G., Soil Mineralogy with Environmental Applications Soil Science Society of America Book Series 7, Madison, Wisconsin., 611–636.Google Scholar
Munk, L.P., Southard, R.J., (1993). Pedogenic implications of opaline pendants in some California Late-Pleistocene Palexeralfs. Soil Science Society of America Journal 57, 149–154.Google Scholar
Peterson, F.F., (1981). Landforms of the Basin and Range Province; Defined for Soil Survey. Nevada Agricultural Experimental Station, Technical Bulletin vol. 28, 52 p.Google Scholar
Pierce, K.L., (1985). Quaternary history of faulting on the Arco segment of the Lost River Fault, Central Idaho. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 85–290, 195–206.Google Scholar
Pierce, K.L., Scott, W.E., (1982). Pleistocene episodes of alluvial-gravel deposition, southeastern Idaho. Bonnichsen, B., Breckenridge, R.M., Cenozoic Geology of Idaho Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin vol. 26, 685–702.Google Scholar
Pustovoytov, K., (1998). Pedogenic carbonate cutans as a record of the Holocene history of relic-steppes of the Upper Kolyma Valley (North-Eastern Asia). Catena 34, 185–195.Google Scholar
Pustovoytov, K., (2002). Pedogenic carbonate cutans on clasts in soils as a record of history of grassland ecosystems. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 177, 199–214.Google Scholar
Reheis, M.C., (1988). Pedogenic replacement of aluminosilicate grains by CaCO3 in Ustolic Haplargids, South-Central Montana, USA. Geoderma 41, 243–261.Google Scholar
Reheis, M.C., Sowers, J.M., Taylor, E.M., McFadden, L.D., Harden, J.W., (1992). Morphology and genesis of carbonate soils on the Kyle Canyon fan, Nevada, U.S.A.. Geoderma 52, 303–342.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, W.H., (1999). Carbon sequestration in soils. Science 284, 2095.Google Scholar
Retallack, G.J., (2001). Soils of the past. Blackwell Science, Oxford., 404.Google Scholar
Sharp, W.D., Ludwig, K.R., Chadwick, O.A., Amundson, R., Glaser, L.L., (2003). Dating fluvial terraces by 230Th/U on pedogenic carbonate, Wind River Basin, Wyoming. Quaternary Research 59, 139–150.Google Scholar
Sletten, R.S., (1988). The formation of pedogenic carbonates on Svalbard: the influence of cold temperatures and freezing. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Permafrost, Trondheim, Norway, Aug. 2–5394–467.Google Scholar
Sowers, J.M., Harden, J.W., Robinson, S.W., McFadden, L.D., Amundson, R.G., Jull, A.J.T., Reheis, M.C., Taylor, E.M., Szabo, B.J., Chadwick, O.A., Ku, T.L., (1988). Geomorphology and pedology on the Kyle Canyon alluvial fan, southern Nevada. Weide, D.L., Faber, M.L., This Extended Land, Geological Journeys in the Southern Basin and Range Geological Society of America, Cordilleran Section, Field Trip Guidebook 137–157.Google Scholar
Treadwell-Steitz, C., McFadden, L.D., (2000). Influence of parent material and grain size on carbonate coatings in gravelly soils, Palo Duro Wash, New Mexico. Geoderma 94, 1–22.Google Scholar
Vincent, K.R., Bull, W.B., Chadwick, O.A., (1994). Construction of a soil chronosequence using the thickness of pedogenic carbonate coatings. Journal of Geological Education 42, 316–324.Google Scholar
Wang, D., Anderson, D.W., (1998). Stable carbon isotopes of carbonate pendants from Chernozemic soils of Saskatchewan, Canada. Geoderma 84, 309–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, N.L., (1978). Displacive calcite: evidence from recent and ancient calcretes. Geology 6, 699–703.Google Scholar