A Sedimentary Investigation of Lineation Patterns Found in the Pinelands of New Jersey

• Main Author: Lapoma, Jennifer Lynn
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Montclair State University Digital Commons 2009
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Environmental Sciences; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1188; https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/context/etd/article/2190/viewcontent/Lapoma_Thesis_2009_Redacted.pdf

Late Pleistocene (-15,000 years ago) geomorphic processes in the Pinelands of southern New Jersey were investigated after odd lineations were found on an Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) survey during the construction of a runway expansion at Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station. These lineations roughly matched up with alternating high and low albedo lineations identified on a 1931 aerial photomosaic approximately 17 kilometer (km) south of Lakehurst Navy Base in Davensport Branch, New Jersey. These lineations were initially hypothesized to be relicts from strong katabic winds flowing off the Laurentide Ice Sheet that would have been capable of winnowing magnetic sands from nearby sediments, which contain -2% of Ti-Fe oxide-rich minerals. Other processes such as fire were also considered in the formation of the lineations. Soil sample locations were mapped at contrasting bright (high albedo)/dark (low albedo) and magnetic/non-magnetic lineation locations. Samples were collected at 25 cm increments from the surface until reaching 75 cm and were analyzed to determine differences in mineralogy, particle size, and magnetic susceptibility between lineations at both sites. All sample locations verified bulk mineralogy of quartz on an X-Ray Diffractometer with no differences seen between lineations at either site. Soil sample measured on a laser particle size exhibited a bimodal and unimodal distribution for a majority of samples with the largest concentration of particle size as the sand (100 to 1000 um, 0.1 to 1.0 mm) size fraction and the secondary concentration silt from the 10 to 100 um (0.01 to 0.1 mm). The statistical testing, cluster analysis, was performed based on the distribution curves and was moderately successful (between 50% and 90% of the cases) in classifying samples into lineation groups (magnetic/non- magnetic, or low/high albedo), though always with exceptions and outliers that defied explanation. Bulk magnetic susceptibility and magnetic behavior analysis determined the samples o were weakly ...