High-Resolution Seismic Reflection Evidence for Middle Holocene Environmental Change, Owasco Lake, New York

Datos Bibliográficos

ID24085487
AutoresHenry T Mullins (Syracuse University), John D Halfman (0000-0002-0529-8825, Hobart and William Smith Colleges)
Año2001
Volumen55
Número3
Páginas322-331
Fecha de publicación2001-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQuaternary Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0033-5894 • E-ISSN: 1096-0287
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1006/qres.2001.2232
OpenAlexW2118003462
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas20

Approximately 70 km of new decimeter-resolution seismic reflection profile data from Owasco Lake, New York define a middle Holocene (∼4600 14 C yr B.P.) erosion surface in the north end of the lake at water depths as great as 26 m. Beneath the lake, post-glacial sediments are up to 9 m thick and represent about 10% of the total sediment fill. Early to middle Holocene sediments, ∼6 m thick, contain biogenic gas at the south end of the basin and a large (4 km × 300 m × 15 m) subaqueous slide deposit along the east-central portion of the lake. Late Holocene sediments are thinner or absent, particularly at the north end of the lake. The middle Holocene erosion surface may have been produced by a drop in lake level. Alternatively, it may represent a change in climate during the transition between the relatively warm Holocene hypsithermal and cool neoglacial. At this time (∼4600 14 C yr B.P.) circulation in Owasco Lake appears to have evolved from sluggish to active. The increased circulation, which persists today, probably resulted from atmospheric cold fronts with strong southwesterly winds that piled up water at the north end of the lake. The increased water circulation may have been ultimately driven by decreasing insolation, which produced an increased pole-to-equator thermal gradient and thus, stronger global winds that began at the transition between the hypsithermal and neoglacial.

Geomorphology · Holocene · Holocene climatic optimum · Physical geography · Sediment · earthquake and tectonic studies · Geological formations and processes · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Oceanography