Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
Publications
100-kyr paced climate change in the Pliocene warm period, Southwest Pacific
The mid to late Pliocene (~4.2-2.8 Ma.) represents an experiment in climate sensitivity to orbital pacing in which nearly all continental ice was confined to the Southern Hemisphere. Most studies have emphasized the dominant role of obliquity in determining changes in ice volume and temperature at this time, although most records come from the...
Caballero-Gill, Rocio; Herbert, Timothy D.; Dowsett, HarryNorth American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature Note 69 – Application for addition of subseries/subepoch to the North American Stratigraphic Code
Consistency in stratigraphic nomenclature enables communication among scientists both regionally and globally, thus requiring the North American Stratigraphic Code, as presented by the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, to follow international convention. The ratification of three subseries of the Holocene by the...
Aubry, Marie-Pierre; Fluegeman, Richard H.; Edwards, Lucy E.; Pratt, Brian R.; Brett, Carlton E.Widespread global peatland establishment and persistence over the last 130,000 y
Glacial−interglacial variations in CO2 and methane in polar ice cores have been attributed, in part, to changes in global wetland extent, but the wetland distribution before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 ka to 18 ka) remains virtually unknown. We present a study of global peatland extent and carbon (C) stocks through the last glacial...
Treat, Claire C.; Kleinen, Thomas ; Broothaerts , Nils ; Dalton , April S. ; Dommain, Rene; Douglas, Thomas A.; Drexler, Judith Z.; Finkelstein, Sarah A; Grosse, Guido; Hope , Geoffrey ; Hutchings , Jack ; Jones, Miriam C.; Kuhry, Peter; Lacourse, Terri; Lähteenoja, Outi ; Loisel, Julie; Notebaert , Bastiaan; Payne, Richard; Peteet, Dorothy M.; Sannel , A. Britta K. ; Stelling , Jonathan M. ; Strauss , Jens; Swindles, Graeme T.; Talbot, Julie ; Tarnocai, Charles; Verstraeten, Gert ; Williams , Christopher J. ; Xia , Zhengyu ; Yu, Zicheng; Väliranta, Minna ; Hättestrand, Martina ; Alexanderson, Helena ; Brovkin , VictorAn assessment of plant species differences on cellulose oxygen isotopes from two Kenai Peninsula, Alaska peatlands: Implications for hydroclimatic reconstructions
Peat cores are valuable archives of past environmental change because they accumulate plant organic matter over millennia. While studies have primarily focused on physical, ecological, and some biogeochemical proxies, cores from peatlands have increasingly been used to interpret hydroclimatic change using stable isotope analyses of cellulose...
Jones, Miriam; Anderson, Lesleigh; Keller, Katherine; Nash, Bailey; Littell, Virginia; Wooller, Matthew J.; Jolley, ChelseaLithologies, ages, and provenance of clasts in the Ordovician Fincastle Conglomerate, Botetourt County, Virginia, USA
The Fincastle Conglomerate is an Ordovician polymictic, poorly sorted, matrix- and clast-supported cobble to boulder-rich conglomerate located just north of Fincastle, Botetourt County, VA. At least nine other cobble and boulder conglomerates are located in a similar stratigraphic position from Virginia to Georgia west of the Blue Ridge structural...
Belkin, Harvey E.; Repetski, John E.; Dulong, Frank T.; Hickling, Nelson L.The mighty Susquehanna—extreme floods in Eastern North America during the past two millennia
The hazards posed by infrequent major floods to communities along the Susquehanna River and the ecological health of Chesapeake Bay remain largely unconstrained due to the short length of streamgage records. Here we develop a history of high‐flow events on the Susquehanna River during the late Holocene from flood deposits contained in MD99‐2209, a...
Toomey, Michael; Cantwell, Meagan; Colman, Steven; Cronin, Thomas M.; Donnelly, Jeffrey P.; Giosan, Liviu; Heil, Clifford; Korty, Robert L.; Marot, Marci E.; Willard, Debra A.Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum prolonged by fossil carbon oxidation
A hallmark of the rapid and massive release of carbon during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum is the global negative carbon isotope excursion. The delayed recovery of the carbon isotope excursion, however, indicates that CO2 inputs continued well after the initial rapid onset, although there is no consensus about the source of this...
Lyons, Shelby L.; Baczynski, Allison A.; Babila, Tali L.; Bralower, Timothy J.; Hajek, Elizabeth A.; Kump, Lee R.; Polites, Ellen G.; Self-Trail, Jean M.; Trampush, Sheila M.; Vornlocher, Jamie R.; Zachos, James C.; Freeman, Katherine H.The planktonic foraminiferal response to the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum on the Atlantic coastal plain
Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages in two cores from Maryland and New Jersey show evidence for significant changes in surface ocean habitats on the continental shelf during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). At both sites, significant assemblage shifts occur immediately before the onset of the event. These changes...
Livsey, Caitlin M.; Babila, Tali; Robinson, Marci M.; Bralower, Timothy J.Chesapeake Bay impact structure—Development of "brim" sedimentation in a multilayered marine target
The late Eocene Chesapeake Bay impact structure was formed in a multilayered target of seawater underlain sequentially by a sediment layer and a rock layer in a continental-shelf environment. Impact effects in the “brim” (annular trough) surrounding and adjacent to the transient crater, between the transient crater rim and the outer margin,...
Dypvik, Henning; Gohn, Gregory; Edwards, Lucy; Horton, J. Wright; Powars, David; Litwin, RonaldEvidence for shelf acidification during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
A transect of paleoshelf cores from Maryland and New Jersey contains a ~0.19 m to 1.61 m thick interval with reduced percentages of carbonate during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Outer paleoshelf cores are barren of nannofossils and correspond to two minor disconformities. Middle paleoshelf cores contain a mixture of...
Bralower, Timothy J.; Kump, Lee R.; Robinson, Marci M.; Self-Trail, Jean M.; Lyons, Shelby L.; Babila, Tali; Ballaron, Edward; Freeman, Katherine H.; Hajek, Elizabeth A.; Rush, William; Zachos, James C.Appalachian Basin stratigraphy, tectonics, and eustasy from the Blue Ridge to the Allegheny Front, Virginia and West Virginia
This guide is from a two-day field trip in western Virginia and eastern West Virginia held before the 2015 Geological Society of America annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The field trip examines exposures of Paleozoic sedimentary strata in the Appalachian Basin starting in the Blue Ridge physiographic province, going through the Valley and...
Haynes, John T.; Pitts, Alan D.; Doctor, Daniel H.; Diecchio, Richard J.; Blake, Mitchell B.The impact of late Holocene land-use change, climate variability, and sea-level rise on carbon storage in tidal freshwater wetlands on the southeastern United States Coastal Plain
This study examines Holocene impacts of changes in climate, land use, and sea-level rise (SLR) on sediment accretion, carbon accumulation rates (CAR), and vegetation along a transect of tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) to oligohaline marsh along the Waccamaw River, South Carolina (4 sites) and along the Savannah River, Georgia (4 sites)....
Jones, Miriam; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Krauss, K.W.; Noe, Gregory B.