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Late Quaternary Stratigraphy, Glacial Limits, and Paleoenvironments of the Marresale Area, Western Yamal Peninsula, Russia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Steven L. Forman ,
Ólafur Ingólfsson ,
Valery Gataullin ,
William Manley  and
Hanna Lokrantz
Steven L. Forman
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60607-7059
Ólafur Ingólfsson
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Center, Göteborg University, Box 460, Göteborg, Sweden S-405 30
Valery Gataullin
Affiliation:
Oil and Gas Research Institutes, Riga, LV, 2006, Latvia
William Manley
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309-0450
Hanna Lokrantz
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Center, Göteborg University, Box 460, Göteborg, Sweden S-405 30
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Abstract

Stratigraphic records from coastal cliff sections near the Marresale Station on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia, yield new insight on ice-sheet dynamics and paleoenvironments for northern Eurasia. Field studies identify nine informal stratigraphic units from oldest to youngest (the Marresale formation, Labsuyakha sand, Kara diamicton, Varjakha peat and silt, Oleny sand, Baidarata sand, Betula horizon, Nenets peat, and Chum sand) that show a single glaciation and a varied terrestrial environment during the late Pleistocene. The Kara diamicton reflects regional glaciation and is associated with glaciotectonic deformation from the southwest of the underlying Labsuyakha sand and Marresale formation. Finite radiocarbon and luminescence ages of ca. 35,000 to 45,000 yr from Varjakha peat and silt that immediately overlies Kara diamicton place the glaciation >40,000 yr ago. Eolian and fluvial deposition ensued with concomitant cryogenesis between ca. 35,000 and 12,000 cal yr B.P. associated with the Oleny and the Baidarata sands. There is no geomorphic or stratigraphic evidence of coverage or proximity of the Yamal Peninsula to a Late Weichselian ice sheet. The Nenets peat accumulated over the Baidarata sand during much of the past 10,000 yr, with local additions of the eolian Chum sand starting ca. 1000 yr ago. A prominent Betula horizon at the base of the Nenets peat contains rooted birch trees ca. 10,000 to 9000 cal yr old and indicates a >200-km shift northward of the treeline from the present limits, corresponding to a 2° to 4°C summer warming across northern Eurasia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 57 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 355 - 370
Copyright
University of Washington

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