From Saline to Freshwater: The Diversity of Western Lakes in Space and Time
Beginning with the nineteenth-century territorial surveys, the lakes and lacustrine deposits in what is now the western United States were recognized for their economic value to the expanding nation. In the latter half of the twentieth century, these systems have been acknowledged as outstanding examples of depositional systems serving as models for energy exploration and environmental analysis, many with global applications in the twenty-first century. The localities presented in this volume extend from exposures of the Eocene Green River Formation in Utah and Florissant Formation in Colorado, through the Pleistocene and Holocene lakes of the Great Basin to lakes along the California and Oregon coast. The chapters explore environmental variability, sedimentary processes, fire history, the impact of lakes on crustal flexure, and abrupt climate events in arid regions, often through the application of new tools and proxies.
Lake Andrei: A Pliocene pluvial lake in Eureka Valley, eastern California
†Current address: Department of Geology, Pomona College, 333 N. College Way, Claremont, California 91711, USA.
§Current address: Ramboll, 3441 Sausalito Street, Los Alamitos, California 90720, USA.
#Current address: Orange County Water District, 18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley, California 92708, USA.
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Published:August 12, 2021
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CiteCitation
Jeffrey R. Knott*, Elmira Wan, Alan L. Deino, Mitch Casteel, Marith C. Reheis, Fred M. Phillips, Laura Walkup, Kyle McCarty†, David N. Manoukian§, Ernest Nunez Jr.#, 2021. "Lake Andrei: A Pliocene pluvial lake in Eureka Valley, eastern California", From Saline to Freshwater: The Diversity of Western Lakes in Space and Time, Scott W. Starratt, Michael R. Rosen
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ABSTRACT
We used geologic mapping, tephrochronology, and 40Ar/39Ar dating to describe evidence of a ca. 3.5 Ma pluvial lake in Eureka Valley, eastern California, that we informally name herein Lake Andrei. We identified six different tuffs in the Eureka Valley drainage basin, including two previously undescribed tuffs: the 3.509 ± 0.009 Ma tuff of Hanging Rock Canyon and the 3.506 ± 0.010 Ma tuff of Last Chance (informal names). We focused on four Pliocene stratigraphic sequences. Three sequences are composed of fluvial sandstone and conglomerate, with basalt flows in two of these sequences. The fourth sequence, located ~1.5 km south of the Death Valley/Big Pine Road along the western piedmont of the Last Chance Range, included green, fine-grained, gypsiferous lacustrine deposits interbedded with the 3.506 Ma tuff of Last Chance that we interpret as evidence of a pluvial lake. Pluvial Lake Andrei is similar in age to pluvial lakes in Searles Valley, Amargosa Valley, Fish Lake Valley, and Death Valley of the western Great Basin. We interpret these simultaneous lakes in the region as indirect evidence of a significant glacial climate in western North America during marine isotope stages Mammoth/Gilbert 5 to Mammoth 2 (MIS MG5/M2) and a persistent Pacific jet stream south of 37°N.
- absolute age
- Ar/Ar
- basalt flows
- California
- Cenozoic
- chemical composition
- clastic rocks
- conglomerate
- dates
- Death Valley
- drainage basins
- electron probe data
- fluvial environment
- glaciation
- igneous rocks
- lacustrine environment
- mapping
- Neogene
- paleoclimatology
- Pliocene
- pyroclastics
- rhyolites
- sandstone
- sedimentary rocks
- tephrochronology
- Tertiary
- tuff
- United States
- volcanic rocks
- eastern California
- Last Chance Range
- pluvial lakes
- Eureka Valley
- Hanging Rock Canyon
- Zabriskie Wash
- Lake Andrei
- Hunt Canyon