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Late Holocene Eolian Activity in the Mineralogically Mature Nebraska Sand Hills

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Daniel R. Muhs ,
Thomas W. Stafford Jr. ,
James B. Swinehart ,
Scott D. Cowherd ,
Shannon A. Mahan ,
Charles A. Bush ,
Richard F. Madole  and
Paula B. Maat
Daniel R. Muhs
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
Thomas W. Stafford Jr.
Affiliation:
Center for Geochronological Research, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Campus Box 450, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309
James B. Swinehart
Affiliation:
Conservation and Survey Division, 113 Nebraska Hall, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68588
Scott D. Cowherd
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
Shannon A. Mahan
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
Charles A. Bush
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
Richard F. Madole
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
Paula B. Maat
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 980, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado, 80225
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Abstract

The age of sand dunes in the Nebraska Sand Hills has been controversial, with some investigators suggesting a full-glacial age and others suggesting that they were last active in the late Holocene. New accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages of unaltered bison bones and organic-rich sediments suggest that eolian sand deposition occurred at least twice in the past 3000 14C yr B.P. in three widely separated localities and as many as three times in the past 800 14C yr at three other localities. These late Holocene episodes of eolian activity are probably the result of droughts more intense than the 1930s “Dust Bowl” period, based on independent Great Plains climate records from lake sediments and tree rings. However, new geochemical data indicate that the Nebraska Sand Hills are mineralogically mature. Eolian sands in Nebraska have lower K-feldspar (and K2O, Rb, and Ba) contents than most possible source sediments and lower K-feldspar contents than dunes of similar age in Colorado. The most likely explanation for mineralogical maturity is reduction of sand-sized K-feldspar to silt-sized particles via ballistic impacts due to strong winds over many cycles of eolian activity. Therefore, dunes of the Nebraska Sand Hills must have had a long history, probably extending over more than one glacial–interglacial cycle, and the potential for reactivation is high, with or without a future greenhouse warming.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , September 1997 , pp. 162 - 176
Copyright
University of Washington

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