Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:50:12.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

U-series isochron dating of immature and mature calcretes as a basis for constructing Quaternary landform chronologies for the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ian Candy ,
Stuart Black  and
Bruce W. Sellwood
Ian Candy*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, UK
Stuart Black
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, Berks RG6 6AB, UK
Bruce W. Sellwood
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Reading, Reading, Berks RG6 6AB, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +44 1509 223930. E-mail address: [email protected] (I. Candy).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Immature and mature calcretes from an alluvial terrace sequence in the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain, were dated by the U-series isochron technique. The immature horizons consistently produced statistically reliable ages of high precision. The mature horizons typically produced statistically unreliable ages but, because of linear trends in the dataset and low errors associated with each data point, it was still possible to place a best-fit isochron through the dataset to produce an age with low associated uncertainties. It is, however, only possible to prove that these statistically unreliable ages have geochronological significance if multiple isochron ages are produced for a single site, and if these multiple ages are stratigraphically consistent. The geochronological significance of such ages can be further proven if at least one of the multiple ages is statistically reliable. By using this technique to date calcretes that have formed during terrace aggradation and at the terrace surface after terrace abandonment it is possible not only to date the timing of terrace aggradation but also to constrain the age at which the river switched from aggradation to incision. This approach, therefore, constrains the timing of changes in fluvial processes more reliably than any currently used geochronological procedure and is appropriate for dating terrace sequences in dryland regions worldwide, wherever calcrete horizons are present.

Keywords

U-seriesIsochronCalcreteAlluvial terrace sequenceSoutheast Spain
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , July 2005 , pp. 100 - 111
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

Bischoff, J., and Fitzpatrick, J.A. (1991). U-series dating of impure carbonates: an isochron technique using total-sample dissolution. Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 543–554.Google Scholar
Candy, I. (2002). Formation of a rhizogenic calcrete during a glacial stage (Oxygen Isotope Stage 12): its palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphic significance. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 113, 259–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candy, I., Black, S., Sellwood, B.W., and Rowan, J.S. (2003). Calcrete profile development in Quaternary alluvial sequences, Southeast Spain: implications for using calcretes as a basis for landform chronologies. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 28, 169–185.Google Scholar
Candy, I., Black, S., and Sellwood, B.W. (2004a). )Quantifying timescales of pedogenic calcrete formation using U-series disequilibria. Sedimentary Geology 170, 177–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candy, I., Black, S., and Sellwood, B.W. (2004b). )Complex response of a dryland river system to Late Quaternary climate change: implications for interpreting the climatic record of fluvial sequences. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 2513–2523.Google Scholar
Fuller, I.C., Macklin, M.G., Lewin, J., Passmore, D.G., and Wintle, A.G. (1998). River response to high frequency climate oscillations in southern Europe over the past 200ky. Geology 26, 3 275–278.Google Scholar
Gile, L.H., Petersen, F.F., and Grossman, R.B. (1966). Morphological and genetic sequences of carbonate accumulation in desert soils. Soil Science 101, 347–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goudie, A.S. (1983). Calcrete.Goudie, A.S., Pye, K. Chemical Sediments and Geomorphology: Precipitates and Residua in the Near Surface Environment Academic Press, London.93–131.Google Scholar
Harvey, A.M. (1987). Patterns of Quaternary aggradational and dissectional landform development in the Almeria region, southeast Spain: a dry-region, tectonically active landscape. Die Erde 118, 193–215.Google Scholar
Harvey, A.M. (2001). Uplift, dissection and landform evolution during the Quaternary.Mather, A.E., Martin, J.M., Harvey, A.M., Braga, J.C. A Field Guide to the Neogene Sedimentary Basins of the Almeria Province, South-East Spain Blackwell Science, Oxford.225–322.Google Scholar
Harvey, A.M., and Wells, S.G. (1987). Response of Quaternary fluvial systems to differential epeirogenic uplift: Aguas and Feos river systems, Southeast Spain. Geology 15, 689–693.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, A.M., Miller, S.Y., and Wells, S.G. (1995). Quaternary soil and river terrace sequences in the Aguas/Feos river systems: Sorbas basin, Southeast Spain.Lewin, J., Macklin, M.G., Woodward, J.C. Mediterranean Quaternary River Environments Balkema, Rotterdam.292 Google Scholar
Ivanovich, M., Latham, A.G., and Ku, T.L. (1992). Uranium-series disequilibrium applications in geochronology.Ivanovich, M., Harmon, R.S. Uranium-Series Disequilibrium: Applications to Earth, Marine and Environmental Science 2nd ed.Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.62–94.Google Scholar
Kelly, M., Black, S., and Rowan, J.S. (2000). A calcrete-based U/Th chronology for landform evolution in the Sorbas basin, Southeast Spain. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 995–1010.Google Scholar
Ku, T.L., Bull, W.B., Freeman, S.T., and Knauss, K.G. (1979). Th230–U234 Dating of pedogenic carbonates in gravelly desert soils of Vidal valley, southeastern California. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 90, 1063–1073.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucchitta, I., Turrin, B., Curtis, G.H., Davis, M.E., and Davis, S.W. (2000). Cyclic aggradation and downcutting, fluvial response to volcanic activity, and calibration of soil-carbonate stages in the Western Grand Canyon, Arizona. Quaternary Research 53, 23–33.Google Scholar
K.R., Ludwig (2001). ISOPLOT/Ex rev. 2.49. United States Geological Survey, .Google Scholar
Ludwig, K.R., and Paces, J.B. (2002). Uranium-series dating of pedogenic silica and carbonate, Crater Flat, Nevada. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 66, 487–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludwig, K.R., and Titterington, D.M. (1994). Calculation of 230Th isochrons, ages, and errors. Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta 58, 5031–5042.Google Scholar
Luo, S., and Ku, T.L. (1991). U-series isochron dating: a generalized method employing total-sample dissolution. Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 555–564.Google Scholar
Machette, M.N., and Weide, D.L. (1985). Calcic Soils of the Southwestern United States. Special Paper-Soils and Quaternary Geology of the Southwestern United States vol. 203, Geological Society of America, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macklin, M.G., Fuller, I.C., Lewin, J., Maas, G.S., Passmore, D.G., Rose, J., Woodward, J.C., Black, S., Hamlin, R.H.B., and Rowan, J.S. (2002). Correlation of fluvial sequences in the Mediterranean basin over the last 200 ka and their relationship to climate change. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1633–1641.Google Scholar
Mather, A.E., and Harvey, A.M. (1995). Controls on drainage evolution in the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain.Lewin, J., Macklin, M.G., Woodward, J.C. Mediterranean Quaternary River Environments Balkema, Rotterdam.292 Google Scholar
Mather, A.E., Harvey, A.M., and Brenchley, P.J. (1991). Halokinetic deformation of Quaternary river terraces in the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain. Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie 82, 87–97.(Suppl.)Google Scholar
Mather, A.E., Martin, J.M., Harvey, A.M., and Braga, J.C. (2001). A Field Guide to the Neogene Sedimentary Basins of the Almeria Province, South-East Spain. Blackwell Science, Oxford.225–322.Google Scholar
Pustovoytov, K. (2003). Growth rates of pedogenic carbonate coatings on coarse clasts. Quaternary International 106–107, 131–140.Google Scholar
Rose, J., and Meng, X.M. (1999). River activity in small catchments over the last 140 ka, northeast Mallorca, Spain.Brown, A.G., Quine, T. Fluvial Processes and Environmental Change Wiley and Sons, Chichester.91–102.Google Scholar
Rose, J., Meng, X.M., and Watson, C. (1999). Palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental responses in the western Mediterranean over the last 140 ka; evidence from Mallorca, Spain. Journal of the Geological Society (London) 156, 435–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, P.J., and Maher, B.A (2000). ‘Cold’ stage formation of calcrete nodules in the Chinese Loess Plateau: evidence from U-series dating and stable isotope analysis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 157, 1–2 109–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwarcz, H.P., and Latham, A.G. (1989). Dirty calcites 1: uranium series dating of contaminated calcites using leachates alone. Chemical Geology. Isotope Geosciences 80, 35–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharp, W.D., Ludwig, K.R., Chadwick, O.A., Amundson, R., and Glaser, L.L. (2003). Dating fluvial terraces by 230Th/U on pedogenic carbonate, Wind River Basin, Wyoming. Quaternary Research 59, 139–150.Google Scholar
Stokes, M., Mather, A.E., and Harvey, A.M. (2002). Quantification of river capture induced base-level changes and landscape development, Sorbas Basin, SE Spain.Jones, S.J., Frostick, L.E. Sediment Flux to Basins: Causes, Controls and Consequences Special Publication-Geological Society of London 191, 23–35.Google Scholar
Wright, V.P., Platt, N.H., Marriott, S.B., and Beck, V.H. (1995). A classification of rhizogenic (root-formed) calcretes, with examples from the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous of Spain and Upper Cretaceous of southern France. Sedimentary Geology 100, 143–158.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Candy et al. Supplementary Material

Table S1

Download Candy et al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 43 KB