The middle Miocene thermal maximum (~16 Ma) was a period of global climate unusually warm and wet for the Neogene and is of interest as a paleo-analog for future climate change from anthropogenic global warming. In Australia, paleosols of the Oligocene-Miocene Etadunna and Pliocene Tirari Formations formed in arid palaeoclimates and include pedogenic gypsum. The Middle Miocene paleosol has shallow calcareous nodules and stout root traces suggesting vegetation like dry woodland. Comparable mallee vegetation now grows no closer than 1200 km to the southwest, so middle Miocene warm-wet climate enabled range extension of mallee and woody thickening of plants in the Australia outback. There is no evidence in the outback of middle Miocene rain forest, which may have expanded its range to form kaolinitic Ultisols near Sydney, Mudgee, and Gulgong, in New South Wales. Nor is there evidence so far inland of swamp woodlands and heaths like those producing brown coals in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria. In Argentina, the Santa Cruz Formation, in addition to its rich fossil vertebrate assemblages, contains a similar paleosol record of middle Miocene climate change. The early Miocene in the Santa Cruz Formation is characterized by a thick sequence of weakly to strongly developed grassland paleosols (Orthents and Ustolls) as well as paleosols with root traces and profile forms of open shrubland vegetation (Cambid). The middle Miocene thermal maximum is characterized by paleosols (Udepts, Udalfs) developed under open woodland-shrubland vegetation, during a period of climatic warmth and humidity. The late middle Miocene is characterized by a greater diversity of pedotypes, all suggestive of an arid and cooler environment (Argids, Cambids, and Ustepts). Middle Miocene soil maps compiled for this study show extension of tropical soils (Oxisols, Ultisols) into northern and southern mid-latitudes, accompanied by thermophilic flora and fauna. Peats, lignites, and Histosols of wetlands are also more abundant at higher latitudes, especially in the northern hemisphere, during the middle Miocene. The expansion of such soils is an expected result of greater precipitation associated with higher water vapor content of a warmer atmosphere during the Middle Miocene. This dissertation includes previously published co-authored material in chapter II.

No description available.

In order to better understand the interactions between climate change, landscape erosion and sedimentation, a detailed study was conducted on Plio-Pleistocene non-marine deposits of the Palm Spring Group in the Fish Creek-Vallecito basin, California, USA. Three inter-related studies focused on (1) local response to global climate change in late Pliocene-early Pleistocene time, (2) large-scale evolution of lithofacies architecture, and (3) climate modulation of late Pliocene sediment flux on Milankovitch time scales. Stable isotopes and paleosol classification reveal that between ~4.0 and 0.75 Ma, aridity increased in the study area concurrent with a shift towards a less intense and more winter-dominated precipitation regime. These changes are interpreted to reflect the long-term waning of summer monsoon precipitation in southern California. A dramatic and enigmatic reorganization of basin strata occurred at 2.9 Ma. Detailed basin analysis shows that locally-derived sediment was supplied by the predecessors of two modern drainages, Vallecito and Carrizo creeks. Initial progradation of alluvial deposits from these two sources across the Colorado River delta plain began between 4.0-3.4 Ma. At 2.9 Ma, rapid progradation of these two deposystems was coeval with emplacement of a megabreccia and transgression of Borrego Lake. My data indicate that tectonic realignments at both local and regional scales drove this reorganization. Time series analysis of rock magnetic data from a densely-sampled stratigraphic section of the lacustrine Tapiado Formation reveals that between 2.9 and ~2.75 Ma landscape denudation in the Carrizo Creek catchment was partly modulated by orbital obliquity. Peaks in landscape denudation implied by my data correspond to obliquity highs. More frequent high intensity precipitation events (i.e. monsoons and tropical storms) probably drove increased erosion during these time periods relative to obliquity lows. The breakdown of this relationship at around 2.75 Ma corresponds to a dramatic increase in northern hemisphere glaciation and may reveal a reduction in monsoonal influence in southern California. A geologic map of the Fish Creek-Vallecito basin is included as a supplemental file to this dissertation. This dissertation contains previously published and unpublished coauthored material.

Soil development on upland landscapes in east-central Iowa Peoria Loess deposits has been occurring for approximately the last 12,500 years. Weathering zone and pedogenic processes depend on environmental factors such as climate, precipitation, time, parent material, biota, and topography, among others. Analyzing the weathering zones of modern and paleosol profiles provides insight into current and paleo-environmental processes. This study employs several bulk geochemical analytic techniques (XRF, pXRF, LIBS, ICP-MS) to examine the weathering profiles formed in modern Peoria Loess deposits and underlying weathering profiles formed during the Farmdale Interstadial and the Sangamon Interglacial. Results indicate advanced weathering occurred in the paleosol sequences of the Farmdale and Sangamon compared to the modern weathering zone, based on depletion and enrichment of elemental concentrations. The interstadial/last interglacial paleosol weathering profiles exhibit increased depletion in CaO, MgO, Na2O, and K2O compared to the Holocene weathering profile formed in Peoria Loess. Enrichment of CaO and MgO in non-pedogenically altered Peoria Loess deposits is a possible indication of rapid loess accumulation, representing insufficient weathering of deposited material synchronous with deposition. Post-depositional weathering and hydrogeological mechanisms may also account for this mid-profile enrichment, providing for some complexity for interpretation. Regional comparison between three sediment cores - an agricultural field, a restored prairie and a pioneer cemetery - exhibit minor land-use influence on geochemical evolution with the agricultural field core exhibiting greater relative depletion in most oxides in the upper one meter, compared to the other sediment cores. However, slight regional heterogeneity in parent material, vegetation cover, and slope position may also account for geochemical variations. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude how the last 150 years of extensive land-use from human activity has impacted weathering and pedogenesis in this region. Additionally, this study validates using pXRF technology on Quaternary weathering profiles, and documents its technological shortcomings which provides essential information for drawing interpretations from these data.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Agronomy / Michel D. Ransom / Upland soils in east central Kansas have a complex genesis, often contain one or more paleosols, and form in multiple parent materials including loess, colluvium, residuum, and alluvium. Quaternary loess/paleosol investigations have largely ignored this region of Kansas, as the total loess thickness on uplands is <2 m thick. In this study, the objectives are to examine the morphology and genesis of the soils of interest and how these characteristics vary within soil profiles, across landscapes, and throughout the current series mapping extent. The series of interest include the Irwin, Konza, Dwight, and Ladysmith soil series. Methods used in this study include field descriptions and sampling, terrain analysis, micromorphological investigations, and laboratory characterization, including silt and clay mineralogy. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) was used for numerical dating and determination of stable carbon isotope values (δ13C) for selected paleosols. Radiocarbon ages ranged from 24,000 to 19,000 yr BP and δ13C values were between -19 and -17 ‰ (PDB), indicating that the paleosols were formed in Gilman Canyon loess or the Severance formation, under a mix of C3 and C4 vegetation. Terrain analysis results illustrated that, in given drainage areas, the soil series were mapped on a wide range of slope positions. Field observations and terrain analysis confirmed no relationships between mollic epipedon thickness, solum thickness, paleosol thickness, or depth to the paleosol with respect to landform. Micromorphological investigations revealed increasing soil development with depth, i.e., the presence of two paleosols beneath the modern soil. Mean particle size and mineralogy vary geographically within individual series. Pedogenic carbonate accumulations and redoximorphic concentrations are common features of the soils of interest, and less common features include sodium and gypsum accumulations, slickensides, and redoximorphic depletions. Results from this study will be provided to the USDA-NRCS for use in future soil survey updates, and will contribute to Quaternary loess/paleosol knowledge in Kansas and the Great Plains.

No description available.

Quaternary magnetic studies have provided the conceptual framework to bridge magnetic studies into ancient systems. In cases where environmental materials have been subjected to diagenetic alteration two questions come to mind: 1) What part of the magnetic signal is preserved in the rocks; and 2) can the preserved signal be used to infer/identify magnetic patterns that are characteristic of the depositional, post-depositional, and/or diagenetic environment. Analyses of multi-parameter magnetic experiments conducted on upper Mississippian and lower Pennsylvanian continental successions reveal that distinct depositional, pedogenic, and diagenetic magnetic patterns can be separated and identified. Evidence for a primary depositional signal in several of the upper Mississippian lithofacies is identified by a detrital remanence component attributed to source-area-derived magnetite/titanomagnetite. Red and gray vertisols preserve a Mississippian pedogenic signal characterized by magnetic enrichment, depletion, and amalgamation patterns that are associated with the removal and transport of Fe-rich clays as well as vertical mixing by shrink-swell mechanisms. These well-developed vertisols are interpreted to reflect significant hiatuses in sedimentation associated with prolonged exposure on interfluve/floodplain surfaces that may correlative with incised valleys (lowstand surface of erosion). Similarly, in lower Pennsylvanian quartz arenite facies, early siderite cementation zones as well as conglomerate lags with distinctive magnetic characteristics are thought to reflect periods of prolonged exposure and to define unconformities within compound valley fills. / Master of Science

No description available.

No description available.

A travers l'étude des Calcisols alluviaux des bassins de Digne-Valensole (SE France) et de Loranca (Espagne centrale), l'objectif de cette thèse est de développer des approches spécifiques à ce type de profils paléopédologiques, et de proposer de nouvelles données paléoenvironnementales et paléoclimatiques pour l'Europe occidentale.Ces paléosols ont été investigués par des méthodes pédologiques, sédimentologiques, minéralogiques et géochimiques, qui mettent en avant la lixiviation et la fersiallitisation comme des processus majeurs dans leur formation, ainsi qu'une influence non négligeable des variations latérales des matériaux parentaux sur leurs caractéristiques. L'étude couplée des paléosols et des dépôts sédimentaires associés permet également d'intégrer les dépôts dans un modèle de stratigraphie séquentielle à haute résolution, et ouvre une discussion sur les biais d'estimation du taux d'aggradation à partir des séries alluviales.De nouvelles climofonctions basées sur les teneurs et distributions des éléments majeurs au sein de ces profils sont proposées à partir de l'analyse d'analogues actuels du Nord-Est de l'Espagne. Celles-ci prennent en compte l'hétérogénéité des dépôts soumis à l'altération, en comparant la composition des horizons de subsurface à celle de la partie superficielle du matériau parental. Elles apparaissent complémentaires des climofonctions précédemment développées pour estimer les précipitations et leur saisonnalité à partir de la morphologie de l'horizon d'accumulation du carbonate de calcium, en apportant la possibilité d'estimer les températures et les précipitations annuelles moyennes, y compris à partir de paléosols tronqués par l'érosion, fréquents dans ces séries.Leur application aux paléosols étudiés permet de mettre en évidence un climat relativement chaud à fort contraste saisonnier en termes de précipitations, similaire au climat méditerranéen actuel. Ces données remettent en cause la vision soutenue par les études paléontologiques d'un climat humide à cette période, et pose la question de l'enregistrement du signal climatique selon l'objet considéré. En effet, si la préservation des fossiles est généralement liée à des conditions humides, les sols se développent sur l'ensemble des parties émergées et enregistrent des conditions et périodes plus sèches, ce qui justifie la nécessité de prendre davantage en compte les paléosols dans ces reconstitutions. / Through the study of alluvial Calcisols from the Digne-Valensole (SE France) and the Loranca (central Spain) basins, the aim of this thesis is to develop specific methods and to propose new paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data for Western Europe.These paleosols were investigated by pedological, sedimentological, mineralogical and geochemical methods. These highlight leaching and fersiallitisation as major processes in the formation of these profiles, and the influence of the lateral variations of parent materials on paleosols features. Moreover, the cross study of paleosols and sedimentary deposits allows their integration in a high-resolution sequence stratigraphy model, and opens a discussion about the estimation of aggradation rate from alluvial successions.New climofunctions based on major elements contents and distributions through these profiles are also proposed from the study of modern analogs from NE Spain. These functions include a ratio between the subsurface horizon and the upper part of parent material to avoid bias due to the strong heterogeneity of the altered deposits. These are complementary to previous methods developed from the morphological study of calcium carbonate accumulation horizon, which permit to estimate mean annual precipitations and their seasonality, bringing the possibility to quantify mean annual temperatures and precipitations even with truncated profiles, frequent in such successions.Their application to the studied paleosols reveals a relatively hot climate with a strong seasonal contrast in terms of precipitations, similar to the modern Mediterranean climate. These data improve our knowledge of this period that paleontological studies qualify as more humid, and raise the question about the recording of climatic signal according to the considered object. Indeed, if the preservation of fossils is usually linked to humid conditions, soils form over the emerged parts of environment and record drier conditions, which justify the need to enhance the use of paleopedological studies in such reconstructions.