The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate, contracting on behalfof the University of Colorado at Boulder for the benefit of INSTAAR

The Last Interglacial-Glacial Transition in North America by Peter U. Clark; Peter D. LeaReview by: Parker E. CalkinArctic and Alpine Research, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Aug., 1993), pp. 259-260Published by: INSTAAR, University of ColoradoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1551826 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 14:40

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

INSTAAR, University of Colorado and The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate,contracting on behalf of the University of Colorado at Boulder for the benefit of INSTAAR are collaboratingwith JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Arctic and Alpine Research.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:40:27 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

view them properly. However, a separate set of the stereopairs, at original size, is included as an erratum.

I recommend these papers to all geologists and geographers interested in the Laurentide Ice Sheet. They contain a wealth of information about the Quaternary geology of Prince of Wales Island, one of the remotest areas on the continent. More im- portantly, they are excellent examples of quality science. The observations are sound, and the ideas, although in many in- stances unconventional, are well argued and have implications far beyond the study area. Finally, they illustrate the value of Quaternary mapping. Mapping is eschewed by many geologists because of the large investment in time and resources that must be made and because it is perceived by some as an antiquated or mundane scientific activity. However, it is careful mapping such as this, conducted over a period of many years, that has provided Arthur Dyke and his colleagues with the big-picture perspective necessary to make contributions on subjects as di- verse as bowhead whales, subglacial thermal regime, and crustal deformation.

Reference Cited Tozer, E.T. and Thorsteinsson, R., 1964: Western Queen Eliz-

abeth Islands, Arctic Archipelago. Geological Survey of Can- ada Memoir, 332. 242 pp.

JOHN J. CLAGUE

Geological Survey of Canada 100 West Pender St. Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6B IR8

THE LAST INTERGLACIAL-GLACIAL TRANSITION IN NORTH AMERI- CA. Edited by Peter U. Clark and Peter D. Lea. (Geological Society of America Special Paper 270.) Boulder, Colo: Geological Society of America, 1992. vi+ 317 pp. $62.50. ISBN 0-8137- 2270-5.

The major focus of this volume is the interglacial-glacial transition of about 122 to 64 ka as recorded by landforms and sediments of former ice sheets or alpine glaciers from the Great Basin through the Canadian Arctic and from the Olympic Moun- tains to New England (14 chapters). Reviews of pluvial lake formation in the southwest also add an important climatic base- line (2 chapters) as do introductory reviews and papers on the marine record and on climate modeling (5 chapters). The volume is an outgrowth of a symposium of similar name convened by Clark and Lea at the 1988 Annual (Centennial) Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver, Colorado.

Perhaps more than anything else, this contribution as com- pared to others (e.g., Sibrava et al., 1986) helps summarize and upgrade existing knowledge of a geographically diverse set of North American continental records for a critical interval of geologic time. For the most part, the interval covered is one where great precision in chronological dating of the transition to Earth's ultimate glaciation has been elusive. Special Paper 270 is dedicated by its editors to Richard Goldthwait, a pioneer Friend of the Pleistocene. His view of some Upper Pleistocene stratigraphies and the concept of the early Wisconsin was com- pleted for this volume before his death in 1992. It follows a brief introduction to Special Paper 270 by Clark.

The marine oxygen isotope record, the Milankovitch orbital cycles and, to a lesser extent, uranium-series dating of coastal deposits help form the major framework for the timing and extent of glacier growth on continents; hence they form appro- priate background chapters for this volume. Mix assures us that

the astronomically tuned marine isotope ages given for stages 5e through stage 4 are within a few thousand years of true ages; however, he notes that the state of 80 understanding does not yet allow us to distinguish differences in the magnitude of ice growth events at stages 5e/5d and 5/4. So too, Muhs concedes that whether the "Sangamon" interglacial extends through sub- stage 5e or the whole of stage 5 is still unsettled. Peteet et al. emphasize the frustration of trying to model the initiation of late Wisconsin ice sheets through Milankovitch forcing. They note that resolution of the response of the atmosphere-ocean-bio- sphere-cryosphere to orbital forcing awaits improvement in the chronological resolution of the paleoclimate record.

And what of the main focus of Special Paper 270 - the North American glacial record? A theme recurring through most papers is a skepticism with radiocarbon ages beyond five or six half- lives. However, the resulting frustrations due to a lack of precise numerical dating methodology for the last interglacial to glacial transition has been partly compensated for by a wider use of aminostratigraphy, U/Th disequilibrium dating, thermolumi- nescence, electron spin resonance, or just more sophisticated relative dating techniques. For example, see Canadian studies in chapters by Stea et al., Lamothe et al., or Thorleifson et al. These techniques, when applied to the stratigraphic record be- yond the limit of late Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet in the continental United States, indicate that most deposits once as- signed early or middle Wisconsin ages (isotope stages 5 or 4; e.g., see Black et al., 1973 ) are probably of Illinoian or late Wisconsin age. Chapters by Curry and Follmer, Miller et al., Szabo, Dreimanis, Eyles and Williams, and Oldale and Colman include such revised correlations. That alpine glaciers react dif- ferently to temperature signals is shown by the data of Coleman and Pierce. In half of the areas studied by them in the western United States, early Wisconsin glaciers were more extensive than those of the late Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, little is known of the early Wisconsin mountain glaciation in the arid Great Basin reviewed by Oviatt and McCoy. In more maritime areas of northern Washington and in British Columbia reviewed by Cla- gue et al., the early advances of the Cordilleran ice tongues have at least equaled those of late Wisconsin time. The proposed extent of the late Sangamon-early Wisonsin ice sheet in western Arctic Canada areas studied by Vincent, as well as the early ice sheet extent in the east Canadian Arctic and northwest Green- land, covered by Miller et al., far exceeded the glacier area of the acknowledged late Wisconsin in these locations. For the Baffin Bay areas, Miller et al. note that the warmer and wetter land and warmer sea surface temperatures in late stage 5 fostered ice sheet growth, while the ice was limited by the colder and drier climate of stage 2.

Is there more to Special Paper 270? Yes, there is. For ex- ample, the clear (albeit brief) revision of the classic Willman and Fry (1970) Sangamon-Wisconsinan and Wisconsinan/Farmda- lian-Woodfordian successions of Illinois by Curry and Follmer and the careful field definition of till in the Sunnybrook drift of Toronto by Hicock and Dreimanis. There are the paleoecological analyses of Clague et al. and of Bachhuber, and the detailed directional analysis of glacier movements in the Hudson Bay lowland by Thorleilson et al. to mention but a few examples. The brief update of paleolimnologic records of the Great Basin by Oviatt and McCoy and more detailed account from Estancia Valley, New Mexico by Bachhuber certainly help to round out the varied climate and atmospheric changes encountered in North America during this critical Wisconsinan transitional interval.

Is the material presented in Special Paper 270 covered in other volumes? Yes, some of the work presented in these papers

BOOK REVIEWS / 259

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:40:27 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

is found in other volumes, particularly in Sibrava et al. (1986) or Fulton (1989). However, the papers of Special Paper 270 are mostly well focused and many articles such as that by Dreimanis present major revised stratigraphies or correlations. The authors are to be commended for their brief but professionally organized papers and also Clark and Lea for assembling and editing such a reasonably concise and geographically encompassing compen- dium for the last interglacial-glacial transition.

References Cited

Black, R. F., Goldthwait, R. P., and Willman, H. B. (eds.), 1973: The Wisonsinan Stage. Geological Society of America Mem- oir 136. 334 pp.

Fulton, R. J., 1989: Quaternary Geology of Canada and Green- land. Geological Survey of Canada. 839 pp.

Sibrava, V., Bowen, D. Q., and Richmond, G. M., 1986: Qua- ternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere. Quaternary Science Reviews, 5: 1-249.

Willman, H. B. and Frye, J. C., 1970: Pleistocene Stratigraphy of Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey Bulletin 94. 204 pp.

PARKER E. CALIGN Department of Geology University at Buffalo Buffalo, New York 14260

FIELD AND LABORATORY STUDIES OF PATTERNED GROUND IN A

COLORADO ALPINE REGION. By James B. Benedict. University of Colorado, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Occasional Paper No. 49, 1992. 38 pp. $10. ISSN 0069-6145.

J. B. Benedict's research on geomorphological periglacial processes conducted in the Indian Peaks section of the Colorado Front Range since 1960 is known worldwide. The paper under review is the summing up the author's very useful activities in the 1960s and, at the same time, it supplements his other pub- lications. In the preface to Benedict's paper, Nel Caine writes: "This work ... forms a foundation on which geomorphologists working in the Front Range have based their later work and has survived remarkably well the testing which later work implies."

Benedict's research deals with such problems as downslope soil movement, patterned ground, sorted nets and stripes, par- ticularly in shallow ponds and on snowbank floors. The author pays particular attention to forms known as "earth hummocks and frost boils." In addition to field observations, Dr. Benedict did laboratory experiments based chiefly on methods applies in Poland (first by S. Dzulynski in 1963), especially the effect of shock movement in materials of different densities, which results in spontaneous liquefaction. The author maintains that "most of the patterns formed rapidly, up upward mass displacement of plugs of fine earth in response to density imbalances in the

thawing soil." The author's main thesis is that frost is an active factor and

its action is differentiated according to density imbalances in the thawing soil. The thesis seems to combine two different and even controversial theories: a climatic theory referring to processes and a sedimentological theory referring to the kind of material.

The second major conclusion pertains to the age of the forms. The author has proved that the formation and the de- velopment of the patterned ground in the Front Range above treeline is related to cooling and amelioration phases of the climate in the Pleistocene and the Holocene. Even the contem- porary active frost processes change their intensity in relation to recent climate variations. The evidence is provided by rev-

egetation process of patterned grounds at many localities, which is due to climatic amelioration following the Little Ice Age.

Dr. Benedict's synthesis, adequately illustrated with dia- grams, photographs, and maps, represents a major achievement in the science of periglacial phenomena in the high mountains, the science we owe primarily to Carl Troll's 1944 paper.

ALFRED JAHN Geographical Institute University of Wroclaw pl. Uniwersytecki 1 50-137 Wroclaw, Poland

MODERN AND ANCIENT CONTINENTAL SHELF ANOXIA. Edited by R. V. Tyson and T. H. Pearson. (Geological Society of London Special Publication No. 58.) London: The Geological Society, 1991. vi + 470 pp. ?75/$125. ISBN 0-903317-67-2.

Severe oxygen depletion in continental shelf waters is both a fact of several modem systems and of great importance in the geological record. In fact, as stated by Tyson and Pearson in their overview, "perhaps 80% of the world's petroleum has been generated from ancient organic-rich sediments whose sedimen- tological, geochemical, and paleontological characteristics in- dicate formation in a regime where oxygen-depleted of oxygen- free conditions prevailed at the sediment-water interface" (p. 1).

In terms of polar research, it important to note that anoxic or near-anoxic conditions can exist in silled basins, especially in fiords, and anoxic conditions might be prevalent in those areas where permanent cover of land-fast ice can develop and extend over several years.

The volume looks at the question of anoxia from these two points of view. The first set of 11 chapters is grouped under the heading "Modern shelf anoxia," whereas the next 16 chapters are listed under "Ancient shelf anoxia." There is a 10-page sub- ject and geographical index that allows searching throughout all the chapters. Each chapter has its own set of references.

It appears that there is an increasing frequency of bottom- water anoxia in coastal waters that has led to summer mass mortalities and thus severe impacts on coastal fisheries around the world. In the first section of the book, there are papers dealing with the modern environments from the Gulf of Mexico, Ches- apeake Bay, the Adriatic Sea, the Peruvian Shield, and other areas. These papers establish the environmental conditions that led to various anoxic events and to the consequences on the biota. Sedimentary and geochemical expressions of the anoxia are noted.

The chapters on the evidence of anoxic conditions from ancient shield sediments are broadly based and cover general principles as well as regional examples. For those wishing for a comprehensive overview, the chapter by Savrda and Bottjer en- titled "Oxygen-related biofacies in marine strata: an overview and update" is highly readable and is well illustrated and ref- erenced.

This volume is thus highly recommended for science li- braries (both biological and earth science oriented) and for in- dividuals who deal with current issues of shelf anoxia or who are interested in interpreting rock sequences in terms of changing bottom-water conditions. the book is well edited.

JoHN T. ANDREWS Department of Geological Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450

260 / ARCTIC AND ALPINE RESEARCH

This content downloaded from 62.122.76.45 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 14:40:27 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions