Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:40:36.835Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pleistocene Stratigraphy of the Boston Harbor Drumlins, Massachusetts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

William A. Newman ,
Richard C. Berg ,
Peter S. Rosen  and
Herbert D. Glass
William A. Newman
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 USA
Richard C. Berg
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, Illinois 61820 USA
Peter S. Rosen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 USA
Herbert D. Glass
Affiliation:
Illinois State Geological Survey, Champaign, Illinois 61820 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Evidence from the Boston Harbor drumlins indicates that two superposed tills were deposited during glacier advances which were separated by a long nonglacial interval. At Long and Peddocks Islands, argillans and truncated clay-filled fractures, along with discontinuities in clay-mineral composition, define the till contacts. Physical indicators separating the tills are not apparent at other exposures, where till boundaries were defined solely by discontinuities in clay-mineral composition. The weathering profile in the upper part of the lower till indicates extensive weathering under a climate similar to that of today, and probably similar to that of the Sangamon Interglaciation. The depth of the weathering profile, the sequence of clay-mineral alteration products, and the presence of pedogenic features in the upper part of the lower till are comparable to Sangamonian weathering profiles in the midwestern United States, implying that the lower till is Illinoian or older.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , September 1990 , pp. 148 - 159
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

Belknap, D.K., (1979). Application of Amino Acid Geochronology to Stratigraphy of Late Cenozoic Marine Units of the Atlantic Coastal Plain Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation University of Delaware Google Scholar
Belknap, D.F., (1980). Amino acid geochronology and the Quaternary of New England and Long Island American Quaternary Association Abstracts and Program 16–17 Google Scholar
Borns, H.W. Jr. Calkin, P.E., (1977). Quaternary glaciation, west-central Maine Geological Society of America Bulletin 88 1773–1784 Google Scholar
Caldwell, D.W., (1959). Glacial Lake and Glacial Marine Clay in the Farmington Area, Maine Maine Geological Survey Special Geological Studies, Series 3 Google Scholar
Follmer, L.R., (1983). Sangamon and Wisconsinan pedogenesis in the midwestern United States Wright, H.E. Jr. Porter, S.C. Late Quaternary Environments of the Univted States Vol. 1 Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis 138–145 “The Late Pleistocene” Google Scholar
Hallberg, G.R. Lucas, J.R. Goodmen, C.M., (1978). Semiquantitative analysis of clay mineralogy Standard Procedures for Evaluation of Quaternary Materials in Iowa Iowa Geological Survey, Technical Information Series No. 8 5–21 Part I Google Scholar
Heusser, L.E. King, J.E., (1988). North America with special emphasis on the development of the Pacific coastal forest and plain/forest boundary prior to the last glacial maximum Huntley, B. Webb, T. III Vegetation History Kluwer Dordrecht, The Netherlands 193–236 Google Scholar
Judson, S.S. Jr. The Pleistocene stratigraphy of Boston Massachusetts, and its relation to the Boylston Street Fishweir Johnson, F., (1949). The Boylston Street Fishweir II Peabody Foundation Archaeology Papers 4 7–48 (1) Google Scholar
Kaye, C.A., (1961). Pleistocene Stratigraphy of Boston, Massachusetts 73–76 U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 424-B Google Scholar
Kaye, C.A., (1976). Beacon Hill end moraine, Boston: New explanation of an important urban feature Coates, D.R. Urban Geomorphology Geological Society of America, Special Paper 174 7–20 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaye, C.A., (1982). Bedrock and Quaternary geology of the Boston area, Massachusetts Geological Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology 5 25–40 Google Scholar
Kaye, C.A. Barghoorn, E.S., (1964). Late Quaternary sealevel change and crustal rise at Boston, Massachusetts with notes on the autocompaction of peat Geological Society of America Bulletin 75 63–80 Google Scholar
Killey, M.M., (1982). The Dwight Mineralogic Zone of the Yorkville Till Member, Northeastern Illinois Illinois State Geological Survey Circular 526 Google Scholar
Koteff, C. Pessl, F. Jr. Till Stratigraphy in New Hampshire: Correlations with Adjacent New England and Quebec (1985). Geological Society of America 2–4 Special Paper 197 Google Scholar
LaForge, L., (1932). Geology of the Boston area, Massachusetts U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 839 50–56 Google Scholar
Mickelson, D.M. Newman, W.A., (1987). Till drumlins in the Boston Basin formed by subglacial erosion Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 19 771–772 Google Scholar
Munsell Soil Color Charts (1954). Munsell Color Company Baltimore, MD Google Scholar
Newton, R.M., (1978). Stratigraphy and Structure of some New England Tills Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation University of Massachusetts Google Scholar
Oldale, R.N., (1962). Surficial Geology of the Reading Quadrangle, Massachusetts U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-168 Google Scholar
Oldale, R.N. Eskenasy, D.M., (1983). Regional significance of pre-Wisconsinan till from Nantucket Island, Massachusetts Quaternary Research 19 302–311 Google Scholar
Oldale, R.N. Cronin, T.M. Valentiane, P.C. Spiker, E.C. Blackwelder, B.W. Belknap, D.F. Wehmiller, J.F. Szaba, B.J., (1982). The stratigraphy, structure, absolute age, and paleontology of the upper Pleistocene deposits at Sankaty Head, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts Geology 10 246–252 Google Scholar
Schafer, J.P. Hartshorn, J.H., (1965). The Quaternary of New England Wright, H.E. Jr. Frey, D.J. The Quaternary of the United States Princeton Univ. Press Princeton, NJ 113–128 Google Scholar
Stone, B.D., (1975). The Quaternary Geology of the Plainfield and Jewett City Quadrangles, Central and Eastern Connecticut Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation The Johns Hopkins University Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. Deevey, E.S. Gralenski, J.L., (1960). Yale natural radiocarbon measurements V Radiocarbon 2 49–61 Google Scholar
Upham, W., (1879). Glacial drift in Boston and its vicinity Boston Society of Natural History Proceedings 20 220–234 Google Scholar
Upham, W., (1889). The structure of drumlins Boston Society of Natural History Proceedings 24 228–242 Google Scholar
Upham, W., (1889). Marine shells and fragments of shells in the till near Boston American Journal of Science 37 359–372 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weddle, T.K., (1986). The New Sharon organic-bearing horizon: Re-examining a significant section of Quaternary stratigraphy in New England Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 18 75 Google Scholar
Weddle, T.K., (1988). AMQUA 10th Biennial Meeting, Abstracts with Programs 160 Google Scholar