38 D3. Quaternary Geology, Geomorphology, Paleoclimate, and Limnogeology (Posters)

Wednesday, 27 March 2019
8:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Big Basin/Kaw Nation Rooms

RECORDS OF LAKE LEVEL CHANGE FROM THREE PONDS IN SE ALABAMA

Paper number: 38-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:30 AM – 11:45 AM

Authors

Abstract

The range of hydroclimate variability in the Southeastern United States through the Holocene remains relatively unquantified due to a dearth of paleoclimate records. Here we present data from a project on three ponds <500 m apart in southeastern Alabama that ultimately aims to characterize changes in lake level over the last several millennia. Preliminary data include sedimentology and stratigraphy, loss-on-ignition, and magnetic susceptibility. At the base of all three lake sediment cores, there is a coarse yellow sand unit that noticeably fines upward. Subsequently there is a gradational transition to dark brown peat that dominates in the uppermost sediments. This unit is occasionally interrupted by thin layers of yellowish silty sand. We interpret this sedimentology to represent a period of increasing lake levels, punctuated by occasional drops in lake level. The transition into the dark brown peat unit dates to between 6000 and 8000 years BP, which agrees well with previous work by Watts and others, that suggested an increase in effective moisture around 8500 years BP in the SE US. Future work will include the collection of transect cores to further quantify lake levels as well as expanding core collection to other lakes in the southeast.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 2

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019SC-325801

© Copyright 2019 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.