South Texas Quaternary karst: Paleoclimatic implications
- Corpus Christi State Univ., TX (United States)
- W. Palm Beach Atlantic Coll., FL (United States)
A beachrock correlative with the Ingleside complex of the late Pleistocene Beaumont Formation crops out discontinuously along the mainland shore of Laguna Madre, extending approximately 10 km southward from Baffin Bay, Texas. Carbon-14 dating yields ages of 23, 430 to 33,390 yrs. B.P.; the beachrock formed along a Gulf shoreline in a zone of converging longshore currents during the last sea level highstand of the late Wisconsinan. The beachrock shows intense karstification. Vertical, steep-walled solution pipes penetrate the outcrops, and reddish-brown laminated caliche crusts coat outcrop surfaces and solution-pipe walls in many places. These karst features probably formed by subaerial exposure and weathering of the beachrock during the latest sea level lowstand. Today in semiarid South Texas, rainfall averages only 28 inches per year. Local features of late Pleistocene age include river gravels coarser than modern loads of those same rivers, and relict drainage networks far denser than modern ones. Such features indicate that during the late Pleistocene this region was more humid than now. Karst is typical of humid to subhumid climates, also suggesting that during karstification of the beachrock wetter climates prevailed.
- OSTI ID:
- 5976270
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303212-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:1; Conference: 27. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) South-Central Section meeting, Fort Worth, TX (United States), 15-16 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
TEXAS
CARBON 14
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CLIMATE MODELS
DISSOLUTION
ISOTOPE DATING
PLEISTOCENE EPOCH
AGE ESTIMATION
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBON ISOTOPES
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USA
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
580000* - Geosciences