Linda L. York

Quaternary sea-level history of the United States

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of some of the accomplishments in understanding Quaternary sea-level fluctuations as recorded on the coastlines of the United States and emphasizes on the sea-level record of the last interglacial complex. Many of the sea-level high stands of the Quaternary are recorded in the reef record of the tectonically stable Florida Keys. Stratigraphic studies show that the deposits of prelast-interglacial high stands are present, although dating is yet to establish the precise timing of these deposits. Reefs and coral-bearing marine deposits, both emergent and submergent, are identified, mapped, and dated in the Hawaiian Islands. Prelast-interglacial high sea stands are recorded on the coast of California, and several fossil-bearing localities in southern California hold promise for unraveling middle and early Pleistocene sea-level history. The longer-term Quaternary sea-level record of the Atlantic Coastal Plain is apparent in thick stratigraphic sequences, multiple aminozones ranging back to the early Pleistocene. The reasons for the discrepancies between the coastal sea-level record and the deep-sea oxygen isotope record are not understood but provide an important challenge to future investigations on the coasts of the United States.

Quaternary stratigraphy and sea-level history of the U.S. Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain

Abstract Middle-Atlantic, inner continental shelf stratigraphic studies document a regional, Late Pleistocene, fossiliferous mud deposit, from northern New Jersey to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Seismic reconnaissance and detailed stratigraphic analyses reveal the nature of the mud, termed unit Q2, on the Maryland inner continental shelf. Extensive amino acid relative age determinations (from the single genus Mulinia ), combined with additional amino acid analyses from onshore deposits having radiometric dates for calibration, indicate an age range for unit Q2 corresponding to Oxygen Isotope Stage 5. Ostracode assemblages delineate four distinct climatic episodes in unit Q2, enabling correlation of the zones in Q2 to the deep sea isotopic record of climatic fluctuations (substages) in Stage 5. Late Stage 5 is represented, on the Maryland shelf, by the 6 meter-thick mud of unit Q2, deposited in an open-shelf environment at slightly depressed sea levels relative to Substage 5e. Late Stage 5 sea levels (including sea-level minima) can be estimated for the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain by direct measurement of the altitudes of ostracode zone boundaries offshore, and from peak transgressive facies in correlative deposits onshore. Late Stage 5 sea levels determined from the inner shelf and adjacent nearshore facies on the Atlantic coast comprise the most complete sea-level history for Stage 5 yet proposed. Some recent revisions of glacioeustatic sea-level models advocate slightly higher sea levels during late Stage 5 (Substage 5c in particular) than originally estimated from uplifting reef tracts, and support sea levels higher than estimates from deep-sea isotopic records. The sea-level record from the Maryland inner continental shelf confirms these recent estimates in an area of minimal tectonism, and adds sea-level minima estimates for Substages 5d and 5b. Offshore, a more complete record of Stage 5 is preserved than in onshore deposits, which are limited to peak transgressive facies. Discrepancies in correlation among emerged coastal plain facies therefore become resolvable within the context provided by the shelf stratigraphy.

Stetson Pit, Dare County, North Carolina: An integrated chronologic, faunal, and floral record of subsurface coastal quaternary sediments

Continuous split spoon samples from a drill hole penetrating 34 m of coastal plain sediments at Stetson Pit in Dare County, North Carolina were taken for lithologic, aminostratigraphic, faunal (ostracodes) and floral (pollen) analyses. Three distinct aminozones are recognized in the subsurface section based upon D-alloisoleucine/L-isoleucine (A/I) values in each of the molluscan species Mulinia lateralis and Mercenaria sp. Ostracode zonations in the subsurface section are based on percentages of 80 thermophilic and cryophilic species (those living today south and north of Cape Hatteras) and the percentages of brackish water species. Five assemblage zones are delineated. Six pollen assemblage zones are also delineated within the subsurface section based upon study of 48 sediment samples. The subsurface record at Stetson Pit is interpreted to represent portions of four interglacials based upon the combined faunal, floral and aminostratigraphic data. The two younger aminozones, with amino acid age estimates of 100,000±20,000 yr (−7.2 to −11.2 m MSL) and 300,000–500,000 yr (−13 to −14.2 m MSL), represent portions of middle/late Pleistocene interglacials. The lower aminozone (−17.4 to −33 m MSL) spans an interval that probably includes at least two interglacials (based upon faunal and floral records) and has an age estimated to be between 800,000 and 1,300,000 yr. Boundaries delineated by faunal, floral, and amino acid methods do not always coincide, due to sampling constraints and phase lags between the different records. One major unconformity (at −17.4 m MSL) in the Stetson Pit section is easily recognized from lithologic characteristics and may represent a hiatus of as much as 800,000 yr. Lithologic changes associated with all other zone boundaries are subtle and would probably not be considered significant in the absence of faunal, floral, or amino acid data.

Theoretical correlations and lateral discontinuities in the Quaternary aminostratigraphic record of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain

Abstract Aminostratigraphic correlations of emergent Quaternary deposits along the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain have employed independent radiometric data, regional temperature history models, and assumptions regarding the nature of the preserved late Quaternary sea-level record on this passive margin. A substantial “aminostratigraphic offset” is required if regional aminozones are rigorously constrained by all available Th U data. New insights regarding the relation of this offset to subsurface stratigraphy in the Cape Fear region of southeastern North Carolina can explain these conflicts as consequences of the highly incomplete post-Cretaceous depositional record of the region. Southward projection of theoretical aminostratigraphic correlation trends suggests that stage 5 correlative marine units are rarely preserved on the emergent portion of the Coastal Plain between Cape Lookout and central South Carolina and that samples of this age would be most frequently found in this region only as fragmentary (and/or reworked) deposits on the inner shelf or in the subsurface of modern barrier islands. If this hypothesis is correct, then the accuracy of several Th U coral dates from the South Carolina Coastal Plain must be questioned, along with sea-level, tectonic, and paleoclimatic conclusions derived from these dates.

Aminostratigraphic results from Cape Lookout, N.C., and their relation to the preserved Quaternary marine record of SE North Carolina

Abstract Aminostratigraphic data were obtained for Mulinia lateralis samples from closely spaced drillholes on the Cape Lookout, North Carolina barrier islands. Two major aminozones are recognized in the subsurface section based upon D-alloisoleucine/L-isoleucine (A/I) values. These major aminozones can each be subdivided into two additional aminozones based upon direct comparisons with Mulinia A/I data from other North Carolina localities. Correlation of the Cape Lookout Mulinia aminostratigraphy with U-series calibrated A/I data in N.C. indicates that the sampled units represent deposition during the middle to late Pleistocene. The four Cape Lookout aminozones may be assigned to late and early stage 5 (or possibly stages 5 and 7), a portion of the interval during stages 17–19, and at least one interglacial in stages 25–31 of the oxygen isotope record based on correlation to calibrated sites and kinetic model extrapolation. The aminostratigraphic data obtained from the Cape Lookout barrier islands and nearby areas indicate that there are significant differences in the extent of preservation of the Pleistocene sedimentary record to the southwest of Cape Lookout compared with that to the north-northeast. All four of the recognized Cape Lookout aminozones are present in the subsurface section to the north-northeast of Cape Lookout. In contrast, the two late Pleistocene aminozones are almost completely absent in the subsurface of the barrier islands, and in Onslow Bay, to the southwest of Cape Lookout. These aminostratigraphic interpretations are consistent with the incomplete stratigraphic record recognized by previous investigators for the Cape Lookout-Onslow Bay area. The calibrated kinetic model age estimates for the Cape Lookout aminostratigraphic data now permit quantification of these stratigraphic gaps. The detailed aminostratigraphic results from Cape Lookout also have significant consequences for regional aminostratigraphic correlations on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and provide valuable information with which to test contrasting models proposed for regional correlation within the context of the preserved stratigraphic record.