A COMPILATION OF BASAL RADIOCARBON AGES FROM POST-GLACIAL LAKES AND BOGS IN WESTERN NEW YORK

In eastern New York, recent work has revealed a gap in time between initial ice sheet deglaciation and when the first organic matter is deposited in lakes and bogs (Peteet et al., GRL, v. 39, 2012); such an age gap is not apparent in Ohio (K.C Glover et al., Quaternary Research, v. 76, 2011). We hypothesize that the northeastern US seaboard was chilled, with active permafrost, during the first millennia following deglaciation. We aim to investigate this time period in western New York (WNY), which lies between Ohio and eastern New York. Multiple lakes and bogs have been cored in western New York. We compile sediment core basal radiocarbon ages from a large pool of published literature. The radiocarbon ages are calibrated using the Calib 7.1 program and reported with two sigma uncertainty. We are awaiting new basal ages from a site that lies immediately inboard of the Laurentide Ice Sheet terminal moraine, which will be key for testing the eastern New York vs. Ohio models of post-glacial sediment history. At our new field location in southern WNY, sediment cores were extracted from Allenberg Bog just inside the margin of southernmost extent of the Laurentide ice sheet. Allenberg Bog is just south of New Albion, New York, in Cattaraugus County. A 14.6 meter long sediment core was recovered using a Livingstone piston corer and consists of tightly packed gray glacial sediment overlain by organic-rich lacustrine sediments that we targeted for radiocarbon dating. Once the ages are returned we will compare it with the dates compiled from literature. Results will be presented at the conference.