Radiocarbon Analyses from Cincinnati, Ohio, and Their Implications for Glacial Stratigraphic Interpretations

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Lowell, Thomas V., Savage, Kevin M., Scott Brockman, C., Stuckenrath, Robert
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1990
• Subjects: Stump; The Stump; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0033-5894(90)90068-v; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:003358949090068V?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:003358949090068V?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400020755

Abstract Detailed analysis of a site near Cincinnati, Ohio, shows that 14 C ages of samples in a single geologic unit can have a range of several thousand years and ages from different stratigraphic units can overlap. At the Sharonville site, four 14 C samples from organic silt below glaciogenic deposits have an inverted chronologic sequence, suggesting contamination, but nevertheless they indicate the silt was deposited before 27,000 yr B.P. A stump cluster in growth position, wood fragments, and moss from the upper surface of the silt may differ by as much as 2300 14 C yr. Five ages from the stump cluster constrain the timing of a glacier advance of the Laurentide ice sheet to its southern limit in the Cincinnati area at 19,670 ± 68 yr B.P. Overlying glaciogenic sediments contain transported wood that may be as much as 3200 yr older than the advance. This range of ages points out that, for a given site, several age measurements are required to determine when a glacier advance occurred. Because the measured ages in this study span the entire interval suggested for a twofold sequence of advance, retreat, and readvance of the margin of the Miami sublobe, we suggest a single advance to its terminal position in the Cincinnati area as an alternate hypothesis for testing.