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Use of single-grain geochemistry of cryptic tuffs and volcaniclastic sandstones improves the tephrostratigraphic framework of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lindsay J. McHenry ,
Harald Stollhofen  and
Ian G. Stanistreet
Lindsay J. McHenry*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 3209 N. Maryland Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
Harald Stollhofen
Affiliation:
GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Schlossgarten 5, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
Ian G. Stanistreet
Affiliation:
Dept. of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Street, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3GP, UK
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:lmchenry@uwm.edu (L.J. McHenry).
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Abstract

Single-grain geochemical composition of volcaniclastic sandstones can be a potential tool to improve correlations of mixed pyroclastic/epiclastic deposits. To test this, trachytic tuffs of the paleoanthropologically important FLK, FLK N, and FLK NN sites of Pleistocene Olduvai Gorge Bed I (Tanzania) are used as an established tephrostratigraphic framework against which to test volcaniclastic sandstone correlations. Fluvio-lacustrine sandstones and tuff samples were collected from eight archeological trenches between Tuffs IB and ID across a 500-m transect, including Leakey's famous Zinjanthropus (FLK) and OH 7/OH 8 (FLK NN) sites. A previously Tephrostratigraphy unknown, thin, fine, mineralogically unique, black trachyandesitic fallout ash was discovered below Tuff IC. Compositions of individual augite, feldspar and titanomagnetite grains from sandstones between Tuffs IB and IC reveal some IB-equivalent material, and a new compositional assemblage distinct from the sandwiching marker tuffs. Mineral compositions of the “tripartite” volcaniclastic sandstone between Tuffs IC and ID are similar to ID. Volcaniclastic sandstone grain fingerprints further refine correlations between fluvio-lacustrine sections within the area, providing support for proposed high-resolution stratigraphic reconstruction of the Zinjanthropus and OH 7/OH 8 land surfaces. This method might be applied to other sections where pyroclastic particles are admixed but distinct tuffs are not preserved.

Keywords

Olduvai GorgePleistoceneTephrostratigraphySedimentology
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , September 2013 , pp. 235 - 249
Copyright
University of Washington

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