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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Special Volumes

Abstract


Pub. Id: A114 (1991)

First Page: 603

Last Page: 616

Book Title: M 47: The Gulf and Peninsular Province of the Californias

Article/Chapter: Reconstruction of a 20th Century Varve Chronology from the Central Gulf of California: Chapter 29: Part V. Physical Oceanography, Primary Productivity, Sedimentology

Subject Group: Geologic History and Areal Geology

Spec. Pub. Type: Memoir

Pub. Year: 1991

Author(s): Tim R. Baumgartner, Vicente Ferreira-Bartrina, James Cowen, Andy Soutar

Abstract:

The retrieval of useful environmental information from the annual layers of natural high-resolution records such as tree rings, coral banding, or marine varves first requires reconstruction and validation of the chronological sequence in which this information has been preserved. This chapter describes the detailed reconstruction of a varve chronology from the central Gulf of California which encompasses most of the 20th century. The chronology was developed from a set of five box cores taken from the anaerobic slope off Guaymas, Sonora, and consists of a unique sequence of lamina couplets identifiable throughout the study area stretching more than 20 km along the slope. The reconstruction was initially hampered by the fact that each core site has suffered a history of sm ll-scale mass movement that has disrupted the stratigraphic continuity of its lamina sequence. Because these breaks generally do not occur at the same level in all of the cores, a continuous varve stratigraphy could be developed by piecing together short lamina sequences from four of the five box cores available. The chronostratigraphy commences with the winter/spring lamina of the year 1908. This lower boundary is imposed by a stratigraphic discontinuity that cuts across all five

End_Page 603------------------------

core sites and is inferred to be a sediment gravity flow triggered by a nearby large-magnitude earthquake in the autumn of 1907. The surface lamina is dated from the time of collection in 1978. Independent 210Pb dating of specific lamina intervals indexed to the lamina stratigraphy from all five cores strongly supports our interpretation that the reconstructed varved interval represents 70.5 years of continuous sedimentation.

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