Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T05:24:33.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deglacial Flood Origin of the Charleston Alluvial Fan, Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Donna A. Porter  and
Margaret J. Guccione
Donna A. Porter
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
Margaret J. Guccione
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Large-magnitude flooding of the Mississippi River from proglacial lakes Agassiz and Superior most likely occurred between 11,300 and 10,900 and 9900 and 9500 yr B.P. The Charleston alluvial fan, a depositional remnant of one of these floods, is located at the head of a wide alluvial plain near Charleston, Missouri. The fan is an elongate, convex-up sand body (16 × 24 km) composed of medium- and fine-grained sand at least 8 m thick. This sand contrasts with the older coarse-grained sand of the braided stream surface to the west and south and younger silty clay of the meandering stream level to the north and east. A weakly developed soil separates the underlying braided steam deposits from the alluvial fan. A bulk-soil radiocarbon date of 10,590 ± 200 yr B.P. from the contact between the fan and clays of the meandering stream system indicates that the Charleston fan was deposited near the end of the early interval of flooding from Lake Agassiz about 10,900 yr B.P. If the Charleston fan is the last remnant of deglacial flooding in the lower Mississippi Valley, then deposition of significant quantities of sediment from largemagnitude floods between 10,000 and 9500 yr B.P. did not extend into the lower Mississippi Valley through Thebes Gap.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , May 1994 , pp. 278 - 284
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aharon, Paul, (1992). History of meltwater events during the last deglaciation: A perspective from the Gulf of Mexico based on new isotope data. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 29, A244.Google Scholar
Autin, W. J. Bums, S. F. Miller, B. J. Saucier, R. T., and Snead, J. I. (1991). Quaternary Geology of the Lower Mississippi Valley. In“Quaternary Nonglacial Geology: Conterminous U.S.” (Morrison, R. B., Eds.), pp. 547–582. Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America, K-2.Google Scholar
Brown, B. L. (1977) “Soil Survey of New Madrid County. Missouri.” Soil Conservation Service.Google Scholar
Clayton, L. (1983). Chronology of Lake Agassiz drainage to Lake Superior. In “Glacial Lake Agassiz” (Teller, J. T. and Clayton, L., Eds.), Geological Association of Canada Special Paper, Vol. 26, pp. 291–307.Google Scholar
Clayton, L., and Moran, S. R. (1982). Chronology of Late Wisconsinan glaciation in middle North America. Quaternary Science Reviews 1, 55–82.Google Scholar
Day, P. R. (1965). Particle fractionation and particle size analysis. In“Methods of Soil Analysis.” (Black, C. A., Ed.), Part I pp. 552–562. Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Ellet, C. Jr., (1853). “The Mississippi and Ohio Rivers: Containing Plans for the Protection of the Delta from Inundation; and Investigations of the Practicality and Cost of Improving the Navigation of the Ohio and Other Rivers by Means of Reservoirs.” Lippincott, Gambo, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Festervand, D. F. (1981). “Soil Survey of Cape Girardeau, Mississippi, and Scott Counties, Missouri.” Soil Conservation Service.Google Scholar
Gramly, R. M., and Funk, R. E. (1989). Olive Branch: A large Dalton and pre-Dalton Encampment at Thebes Gap, Alexander County, Illinois. In “The Archaic Period in the Mid-South” (McNutt, C. H., Ed.), Proceedings of the 1989 Mid-South Archaeological Conference, Memphis, TN, July 15, 1989. Occasional papers 16, Anthropological Research Center, Memphis State University, 1991, pp. 23–33.Google Scholar
Hajic, E. R. (1991). Terraces in the central Mississippi Valley. In “Quaternary Deposits and Landforms, Confluence Region of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers, Missouri and Illinois: Terraces and Terrace Problems” (Hajic, E., Ed.), Midwest Friends of the Pleistocene Guidebook, 38th Field Conference, Illinois Geological Survey, pp. 1–30.Google Scholar
Hansel, A. K. Mickelson, D. M. Schneider, A. F., and Larsen, C. E. (1985). Late Wisconsinan and Holocene history of the Lake Michigan Basin. In “Quaternary Evolution of the Great Lakes” (Karrow, P. F. and Calkin, P. E., Eds.), Geological Association of Canada Special Paper, Vol. 30, pp. 39–53.Google Scholar
Leventer, A. Williams, D. F., and Kennett, J. P. (1982). Dynamics of the Laurentide ice sheet during the last deglaciation: Evidence from the Gulf of Mexico. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 59, 11–17.Google Scholar
McKay, E. D. (1979). Stratigraphy of Wisconsinan and older loess in southwestern Illinois. In “Tri-state Geological Field Conference, Illinois State Geological Survey Guidebook,” Vol. 14, pp. 37–67.Google Scholar
Porter, D. A. (1991). “The Quaternary Geology of the Charleston, Missouri Area.” Unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Arkansas.Google Scholar
Ray, L. L. (1964). “The Charleston, Missouri, Alluvial Fan.” U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 501-B, pp. B130–B134.Google Scholar
Saucier, R. T. (1964). “Geological Investigation of the St. Francis Basin, Lower Mississippi Valley,” U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station Technical Report 3-659. Vicksburg, MS.Google Scholar
Smith, D. G., and Fisher, T. G. (1993). Glacial Lake Agassiz: The northwestern outlet and paleoflood. Geology 21, 9–12.Google Scholar
Soil Survey Staff (1981). Examination and description of soils in the field. Draft revision of Chapter 4, “Soil Survey Manual,” Agricultural Handbook No. 18. U.S.D.A., U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Teller, J. T. (1987). Proglacial lakes and the southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. In “North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation” (Ruddiman, W. F. and Wright, H. E., Eds.), pp. 39–69. Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America.Google Scholar