Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T15:04:46.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Soil Development Parameters in the Absence of a Chronosequence in a Glaciated Basin of the White Mountains, California-Nevada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Terry W. Swanson ,
Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk  and
Randel J. Southard
Terry W. Swanson
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of California, Davis, California 95616
Randel J. Southard
Affiliation:
Department of Land, Air and Water Resource, University of California, Davis, California 95616
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Detailed mapping and provisional numerical age determinations of glacial deposits in the South Chiatovich Creek Basin of the White Mountains provide an opportunity to evaluate the ability of conventional soil parameters to discriminate first- and second-order glacial events. Sampling and analytical procedures were designed to minimize variation in climate and lithology. When lithology and climate are similar among sites, age trends are more pronounced in both field and chemical soil properties. Profile development indices (PDIs), adjusted by removing melanization and pH, systematically increase with greater soil age, and discriminate first-order, but not second-order, glacial events. The best-fit curve for adjusted PDI data assumes an exponential form and suggests that the rate of soil formation in this region decreases over time, similar to the rate of weathering-rind development. Variation in eolian influx and surface erosion, which are dominant processes affecting soils of the basin, cause major uncertainties in establishing soil age and, hence, soil-development rates. Even on the youngest glacial deposits, soil age is probably significantly less than deposit age due to these geomorphic processes. Soil and weathering parameters imply that these field techniques can be inexpensively employed to define relative chronologies and to assess surface degradation and its impact on surface exposure ages. Results from this study indicate that site-selection strategy for establishing glacial chronologies should be reevaluated. Working with stable residual bedrock surfaces and associated low-relief outwash fans and terraces may prove more productive than focusing on relatively unstable moraine surfaces in tectonically active mountain systems.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , March 1993 , pp. 186 - 200
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

Bachman, S. B. (1978). Pliocene-Pleistocene break-up of the Sierra Nevada-White-Inyo Mountains block and formation of Owens Val-ley. Geology 6, 461–463.Google Scholar
Berry, M. E. (1987). Morphological and chemical characteristics of soil catenas on Pinedale and Bull Lake moraine slopes in the Salmon River Mountains, Idaho. Quaternary Research 28, 210–225.Google Scholar
Bierman, P., and Gillespie, A. R. (1991). A significant factor in exposure-age determination and geomorphic surface evolution. Geology 19, 641–644.Google Scholar
Birkeland, P. W. (1984). “Soils and Geomorphology.” Oxford Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
Birkeland, P. W., and Burke, R. M. (1988). Soil catena chronose-quences on eastern Sierra Nevada moraines, California, U.S.A. Arctic and Alpine Research 20, 473–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, R. M., and Birkeland, P. W. (1979). Reevaluation of multiparameter relative dating techniques and their application to the glacial sequence along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, California. Quaternary Research 11, 21–51.Google Scholar
Chase, C. G., and Wallace, T. C. (1986). Uplift of the Sierra Nevada of California. Geology 14, 730–733.Google Scholar
Crowder, D. F. Robinson, P. F., and Harris, D. L. (1972). “Geologic Map of the Benton Quadrangle, Mono County, California and Esmeralda and Mineral Counties, Nevada.” U.S. Geological Survey, Map GQ-1012.Google Scholar
Crowder, D. F., and Ross, D. C.(1973). “Petrography of Some Granitic Bodies in the Northern White Mountains, California-Nevada.” U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 775.Google Scholar
Dorn, R. I. Cahill, T. A. Elred, R. A. Gill, T. E. Kusko, B. H. Bach, A. J., and Elliott-Fisk, D. L. (1990). Dating rock varnish by the cation ratio method with PIXE, ICP, and the electron microprobe. International Journal of Pixe 1, 1–16.Google Scholar
Dorn, R. I. Turrin, B. D. Jull, A. J. T. Linick, T. W., and Donahue, D. J. (1987). Radiocarbon and cation-ratio ages for rock varnish on Tioga and Tahoe morainal boulders of Pine Creek, eastern Sierra Nevada, California, and their paleoclimatic implications. Quaternary Research 28, 38–49.Google Scholar
Elliott-Fisk, D. L. (1987). Glacial geomorphology of the White Mountains, CA-NV: Establishment of a glacial chronology. Physical Geography 8, 299–323.Google Scholar
Harden, J. W. (1982). A quantitative index of soil development from field descriptions: Examples from a chronosequence in central California. Geoderma 28, 1–28.Google Scholar
Harden, J. W., and Taylor, E. M. (1983). A quantitative comparison of soil development in four climatic regimes. Quaternary Research 20, 342–359.Google Scholar
Harden, J. W. Taylor, E. M. Hill, C Mark, R. K. McFadden, L. D. Reheis, M. C Sowers, J. M., and Wells, S. G. (1991). Rates of soil development from four soil chronosequences in the southern Great Basin. Quaternary Research 35, 383–399.Google Scholar
Jenny, H. (1941). “Factors of Soil Formation.” McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Marchand, D. E. (1970). Soil contamination in the White Mountains, Eastern California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, 2497–2506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchand, D. E. (1971). Rates and modes of denudation, White Mountains, Eastern California. American Journal of Science 270, 109–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFadden, L. D., and Weldon, R. J. II (1987). Rates and processes of soil development on Quaternary terraces in Cajon Pass, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 98, 280–293.Google Scholar
McKeague, J. A., and Day, J. H. (1966). Dithionite and oxalate-extractable Fe and Al as aids in differentiating various classes of soils. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 46, 13–22.Google Scholar
Meierding, T. C. (1984). Con-elation of Rocky Mountain Pleistocene deposits by relative dating methods: A perspective. In “Quaternary Chronologies” (Mahaney, W. C., Ed.), pp. 455–477. Geobooks, Norwich.Google Scholar
Pace, N. Keipert, D. W., and Nissen, E. M. (1974). “Climatological data summary for the Crooked Creek Laboratory (10,150 ft.) 1949-1973, and the Barcroft Laboratory (12,470 ft.), 1953–1973.” University of California, White Mountain Research Station.Google Scholar
Phillips, F. M. Zreda, M. G. Smith, S. S. Elmore, D. Kubik, P. W., and Sharma, P. (1990). Cosmogenic chlorine-36 chronology for glacial deposits at Bloody Canyon, eastern Sierra Nevada. Science 248, 1529–1532.Google Scholar
Porter, S. C. (1971). Fluctuations of Late Pleistocene alpine glaciers in western North America. In “The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages” (Turekian, K. K., Ed.), pp. 307–329. Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Reheis, M. C. (1988). Dust influx in southern Nevada and California-Preliminary finding. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 20 (no. 2), 207.Google Scholar
Singer, M. J., and Janitzky, P. (Eds.) (1986). “Field and Laboratory Procedures Used in a Soil Chronosequence Study.” U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1648. Google Scholar
Soil Survey Staff (1981). “Soil Survey Manual. USDA.” U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Southard, S. B., and Southard, R. J. (1989). Mineralogy and classification of Andic soils in northeastern California. Soil Science Society of America Journal 53, 1784–1791.Google Scholar
Swanson, T. W. Elliott-Fisk, D. E. Dorn, R. L, and Phillips, F. M. (1988). Quaternary glaciation of the Chiatovich Creek Basin, White Mountains, CA-NV: A multiple dating approach. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 20, A209.Google Scholar
Swanson, T. W. Elliott-Fisk, D. L., and Southard, R. J. (in press). Quaternary glaciation of the Chiatovich Creek Basin, White Moun-tains, California-Nevada, and regional implications. Quaternary Science Reviews. Google Scholar
van Donk, J. (1976). 18O record of the Atlantic Ocean for the entire Pleistocene epoch. In “Investigations of Late Quaternary Paleocean-ography and Paleoclimatology” (Cline, R. M. and Hays, J. D., Eds.). Geological Society of America Memoir 145, 147–163.Google Scholar