Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins
Abstract Nonsorted polygons in the uppermost 2 to 3 m beneath Pleistocene surfaces indicate permafrost at 1340 m and higher elevations in the intermontane and piedmont plains of Wyoming during the Wisconsin, and perhaps earlier, glacial maxima. The polygons, as much as 10 m in diameter, are delineat...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1981
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crcambridgeupr:10.1016/0033-5894(81)90103-4 2024-06-09T07:46:40+00:00 Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins Mears, Brainerd 1981 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(81)90103-4 http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589481901034?httpAccept=text/xml http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589481901034?httpAccept=text/plain https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400016082 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Quaternary Research volume 15, issue 2, page 171-198 ISSN 0033-5894 1096-0287 journal-article 1981 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(81)90103-4 2024-05-15T12:58:12Z Abstract Nonsorted polygons in the uppermost 2 to 3 m beneath Pleistocene surfaces indicate permafrost at 1340 m and higher elevations in the intermontane and piedmont plains of Wyoming during the Wisconsin, and perhaps earlier, glacial maxima. The polygons, as much as 10 m in diameter, are delineated by wedges that vary in depths, range from narrow to moderately flared forms, and deform host materials. The wedges have silty fine-to-medium sand matrices (largely eolian) with pebbles or clasts from hosts of gravel or bedrock. Some wedges may reflect seasonal cracking in a periglacial active zone, but most are either permafrost sand-wedge relics or, less commonly, ice-wedge casts. Alternative explanations are rejected largely because similar features are apparently lacking in the lower and warmer plains from eastern Colorado southward. The wedges suggest an arid, windy, periglacial environment whose mean-annual temperatures are conservatively estimated as some 10° to 13°C colder than those at present. Although late Wisconsin-early Holocene floral and faunal evidence indicates lowered montane biotic zones, the eolian and periglacial features indicate a lack of extensive forest cover on the basin floors. In conjunction with vertebrate-fossil associations of grazing and tundra animals, the wedges may provide a parallel line of evidence for a former periglacial steppe, or “steppe-tundra”, in the Wyoming basins. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice permafrost Tundra wedge* Cambridge University Press Quaternary Research 15 2 171 198 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
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English |
description |
Abstract Nonsorted polygons in the uppermost 2 to 3 m beneath Pleistocene surfaces indicate permafrost at 1340 m and higher elevations in the intermontane and piedmont plains of Wyoming during the Wisconsin, and perhaps earlier, glacial maxima. The polygons, as much as 10 m in diameter, are delineated by wedges that vary in depths, range from narrow to moderately flared forms, and deform host materials. The wedges have silty fine-to-medium sand matrices (largely eolian) with pebbles or clasts from hosts of gravel or bedrock. Some wedges may reflect seasonal cracking in a periglacial active zone, but most are either permafrost sand-wedge relics or, less commonly, ice-wedge casts. Alternative explanations are rejected largely because similar features are apparently lacking in the lower and warmer plains from eastern Colorado southward. The wedges suggest an arid, windy, periglacial environment whose mean-annual temperatures are conservatively estimated as some 10° to 13°C colder than those at present. Although late Wisconsin-early Holocene floral and faunal evidence indicates lowered montane biotic zones, the eolian and periglacial features indicate a lack of extensive forest cover on the basin floors. In conjunction with vertebrate-fossil associations of grazing and tundra animals, the wedges may provide a parallel line of evidence for a former periglacial steppe, or “steppe-tundra”, in the Wyoming basins. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mears, Brainerd |
spellingShingle |
Mears, Brainerd Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins |
author_facet |
Mears, Brainerd |
author_sort |
Mears, Brainerd |
title |
Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins |
title_short |
Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins |
title_full |
Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins |
title_fullStr |
Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins |
title_full_unstemmed |
Periglacial Wedges and the Late Pleistocene Environment of Wyoming's Intermontane Basins |
title_sort |
periglacial wedges and the late pleistocene environment of wyoming's intermontane basins |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
1981 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(81)90103-4 http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589481901034?httpAccept=text/xml http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:0033589481901034?httpAccept=text/plain https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400016082 |
genre |
Ice permafrost Tundra wedge* |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost Tundra wedge* |
op_source |
Quaternary Research volume 15, issue 2, page 171-198 ISSN 0033-5894 1096-0287 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(81)90103-4 |
container_title |
Quaternary Research |
container_volume |
15 |
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2 |
container_start_page |
171 |
op_container_end_page |
198 |
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1801376618197811200 |