Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-30T08:40:51.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Paleoenvironmental analysis of a middle Wisconsinan biota site, southwestern Virginia, U.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

G. Richard Whittecar*
Affiliation:
Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
Thomas C. Wynn
Affiliation:
Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
Charles S. Bartlett Jr.
Affiliation:
Bartlett Geological Consultants, Abingdon, VA 24210, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +1 757 683 5303.E-mail address:rwhittec@odu.edu (G.R. Whittecar)

Abstract

The Ratcliff Site in southwestern Virginia lies in a small second-order stream valley filled with approximately 3.5 m of organic-rich deposits that contain bones of mammoth, mastodon, deer (or antelope), logs, and plant macrofossils. Radiocarbon analyses indicate the age of the organic-rich sediment ranges from > 44,000 to 29,100 14C yr BP, a time period with no fossil remains reported in this region of the Appalachians. Analyses of field observations, textural data, organic carbon content, and plant macrofossils indicate that the organic-rich sediments contain interbedded standing-water and debris-flow deposits. Up to 6 m of oxidized debris-flow sediments bury the organic-rich sediments. The presence of Rubus parviflorus (Thimble Berry) throughout the deposit indicates the site had a boreal environment from > 44,000 to 29,100 14C yr BP. Plant macrofossil evidence indicates the uplands had stands of spruce/jack-pine forests while the valley contained ponds and associated wetlands. Three debris flows occurred at the site between approximately 38,000 and 29,000 14C yr BP, suggesting a recurrence interval for major storms of approximately 3000 yr, even though the apparent stability of the boreal environment implies a climate not conducive to catastrophic rainstorms. This conflicting combination of features suggests that during the middle Wisconsinan this area experienced generally cool climates, dominated by polar air masses, but was punctuated by relatively brief warm periods marked by incursions of tropical air masses.

Type
Research Article
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.)

Footnotes

1 Present address: Geology and Physics Department, Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA 17745, USA.

References

Adams, J.M., Faure, H., (1997). QEN members. Review and Atlas of Palaeovegetation: Preliminary Land Ecosystem Maps of the World Since the Last Glacial Maximum.. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA., http://www.esd.ornl.gov/ern/qen/adams1.html.Google Scholar
Alley, R.B., (2000). The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Change and Our Future.. Princeton University Press, 229 pp.Google Scholar
Barron, E., Pollard, D., (2002). High-resolution climate simulations of oxygen isotope Stage 3 in Europe.. Quaternary Research 58, 296309.Google Scholar
Bartlett, C.S., (1993). Elephant hunting in Virginia: the Ratcliff Pleistocene fossil site, Russell County, Virginia.. Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America 26, (4) . 3.Google Scholar
Bond, G., Broecker, W., Johnson, S., McManus, J., Labeyrie, L., Jouzel, J., Bonani, G., (1993). Correlations between climate records from North Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice.. Nature 365, 143147.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Hare, F.K., (1974). The climates of North America.. Bryson, R.A., Hare, F.K., World Survey of Climatology, Climates of North America. Elsevier, New York., 147.Google Scholar
Clark, G.M., (1987). Debris slide and debris flow historical events in the Appalachians south of the glacial border.. Costa, J.E., Wieczorek, G.F., Debris Flows/Avalanches: Process, Recognition and Mitigation. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO., 125138.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, 191220.Google Scholar
Conard, H.S., Redfearn, P.L., (1979). How to Know the Mosses and Liverworts.. 2nd ed.W.C. Brown, Dubuque., 302 pp.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Gundestrup, N.S., Hammer, C.U., Hvidberg, C.S., Steffensen, J.P., Sveinbjornsdottir, A.E., Jouzel, J., Bond, G., (1993). Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyear ice-core record.. Nature 364, 218220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darby, D.A., (1984). Mineral identification and semiquantitative procedures for X-ray diffraction data.. Department of Physics and Geophysical Sciences, Technical Report, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. 10 pp.Google Scholar
Dean, W.E., (1974). Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition; comparison with other methods.. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 44, 242248.Google Scholar
Delcourt, P.A., (1980). Goshen Springs: Late Quaternary vegetation record for southern Alabama.. Ecology 61, 371386.Google Scholar
Delcourt, P.A., Delcourt, H.R., (1981). Vegetation maps for eastern North America: 40,000 yr BP to the present.. Romans, R.C., Geobotany II. Plenum, .CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, L.S., Morgan, B.A., Kochel, R.C., Howard, A.D., (2003). Quaternary deposits and landscape evolution of the central Blue Ridge of Virginia.. Geomorphology 56, 139154.Google Scholar
Fernald, M.L., (1950). Gray's Manual of Botany.. American Book Company, New York.Google Scholar
Fleming, G.P., Coulling, P.P., Patterson, K.D., Taverna, K., (2006). The natural communities of Virginia: classification of ecological community groups. Second approximation.. Version 2.2. Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage, Richmond, VA.. http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/dnh/ncintro.htm.Google Scholar
Folk, R.L., (1974). Petrology of Sedimentary Rocks.. Hemphill Publishing Company, Austin, TX.Google Scholar
Frey, D.G., (1953). Regional aspects of the late-glacial and post-glacial pollen succession of southeastern North Carolina.. Ecological Monographs 23, 289313.Google Scholar
Frey, D.G., (1955). A time revision of the Pleistocene pollen chronology of southeastern North Carolina.. Ecology 36, 762763.Google Scholar
Fullerton, D.S., Bush, C.A., Pennell, J.N., (2003). Map of surficial deposits and materials in the eastern and central United States (East of 1020 West Longitude).. U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series I-2789.Google Scholar
Gleason, H.A., Cronquist, A., (1991). Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada.. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, E.C., Jacobson, G.L. Jr., Watts, W.A., Hansen, B.C.S., Maasch, K.A., (1993). A 50,000-year record of climate oscillations from Florida and its temporal correlation with the Heinrich events.. Science 261, 198200.Google Scholar
Gryta, J.J., Bartholomew, M.J., (1989). Factors influencing the distribution of debris avalanches associated with the 1969 Hurricane Camille in Nelson County, Virginia.. Schultz, A.P., Jibson, R.W., Landslide Processes of the Eastern U.S. and Puerto Rico. Geological Society of America, Special Paper vol. 236, 1528.Google Scholar
Hazel, J.E., (1970). Binary coefficients and clustering in biostratigraphy.. Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, 32373252.Google Scholar
Huntley, B., Alfano, M.J., Allen, J.R.M., Pollard, D., Tzedakis, P.C., de Beaulieu, J., Gruger, E., Watts, B., (2003). European vegetation during marine oxygen isotope stage-3.. Quaternary Research 59, 195212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, R.B., Cron, E.D., McGeehin, J.P., (1989). Slope movements triggered by heavy rainfall, November 3–5, 1985, in Virginia and West Virginia, U.S.A.. Schultz, A.P., Jibson, R.W., Landslide Processes of the Eastern U.S. and Puerto Rico. Geological Society of America, Special Paper vol. 236, 1114.Google Scholar
Kachigan, S.K., (1991). Multivariate Statistical Methods.. Radius Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kochel, R.C., (1987). Holocene debris flows in central Virginia.. Costa, J.E., Wieczorek, G.F., Debris Flows/Avalanches: Process, Recognition and Mitigation. Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO., 139155.Google Scholar
Litwin, R.J., Morgan, B., Eaton, L.S., and Wieczorek, G. (2004). Assessment of Late Pleistocene to Recent climate-induced vegetation changes in and near Shenandoah National Park (Blue Ridge Province, Va.).. U. S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004–1351, 73 pp.Google Scholar
Martin, A.C., Barkley, W.D., (1973). Seed Identification Manual.. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Martinson, D., Pisian, N.G., Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Moore, T.C. Jr., Shackelton, N.J., (1987). Age dating and the orbital theory of the Ice Ages: development of a high-resolution 0–300,000 year chronostratigraphy.. Quaternary Research 27, 129.Google Scholar
McDonald, J.N., Bartlett, C.S. Jr., (1983). An associated musk ox skeleton from Saltville, Virginia.. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 2, 458470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McQueen, C.B., (1990). Field Guide to Peat Mosses of the Boreal North America.. University Press of New England, Hanover., 138 pp.Google Scholar
Mills, H.H., (2000). Controls on form process, and sedimentology of alluvial fans in the Central and Southern Appalachians, southeastern U.S.A.. Southeastern Geology 39, 281283.Google Scholar
Montgomery, F.H., (1977). Seeds and fruits of plants of eastern Canada and northeastern United States.. University of Toronto Press, Toronto., 232 pp.Google Scholar
Ray, C.E., Cooper, B.N., Benninghoff, W.S., (1967). Fossil mammals and pollen in a late Pleistocene deposit at Saltville, Virginia.. Journal of Paleontology 41, 608622.Google Scholar
Richmond, G., Fullerton, D.S., (1986). Quaternary Glaciations in the United States of America.. Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q., Richmond, G.M., Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere. Permagmon, Oxford., 3200.Google Scholar
Scott, D.B., Hermelin, J.O.R., (1993). A device for precision splitting of micropaleontological samples in liquid suspension.. Journal of Paleontology 67, 151154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smoot, J. (2004). Sedimentary fabrics of stratified slope deposits at a site near Hoover's camp. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004–1059, 52 pg.Google Scholar
Stephenson, S.L., Ash, A.N., Stauffer, D.F., (1993). Appalachian oak forests.. Martin, W.H., Boyce, S.G., Echternacht, A.C., Biodiversity of the Southeastern United States: Upland Terrestrial Communities. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York., 255303.Google Scholar
Tiffney, B.H., (1989). The collection and study of dispersed Angiosperm fruits and seeds.. Tiffney, B.F., Phytodebris—Notes for a workshop on the study of fragmentary plant remains. Paleobotanical Section of the Botanical Society of America, Toronto, Canada., 97124.Google Scholar
van Andel, T.H., (2002). The climate and landscape of the middle part of the Weichselian glaciation in Europe: The Stage 3 Project.. Quaternary Research 57, 28.Google Scholar
van Andel, T.H., Tzedakis, P.C., (1996). Paleolithic landscapes of Europe and environs.. Quaternary Science Reviews 15, 481500.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., (1973). The vegetation record of a Mid-Wisconsin interstadial in northwest Georgia.. Quaternary Research 3, 257268.Google Scholar
Watts, W.A., (1980). The Late Quaternary vegetation history of the southeastern United States.. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 11, 387409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, W.A., Hansen, B.C.S., Grimm, E.C., (1992). Camel Lake: a 40,000-yr record of vegetational and forest history from northwest Florida.. Ecology 73, 10561066.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D.R., (1981). Late-Pleistocene vegetational changes in northeastern North Carolina.. Ecological Monographs 5, 451471.Google Scholar
Whittecar, G.R., Ryter, D.W., (1992). Boulder streams, debris fans and Pleistocene climate change in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia.. Journal of Geology 100, 487494.Google Scholar
Wieczorek, G.F., Morgan, B.A., Campbell, R.H., Orndorff, R.C., Burton, W.C. Southworth, C.S., Smith, J.A., (1996). Preliminary Inventory of Debris-flow and flooding effects of the June 27, 1995. storm in Madison County, Virginia showing time sequence of positions of storm-cell center. USGS Open-File Report 96-13. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.Google Scholar
Wilkes, G.P., Giannini, W.F., Grimm, P.T., (1994). Notes on ancient logs, Allegheny county, Virginia.. Virginia Minerals 40, 2930.Google Scholar
Wynn, T.C., (1998). A Paleoenvironmental Study of a Middle Wisconsinan Biota Site. Russell County, Virginia. Unpublished thesis, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.Google Scholar