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Northeastern Section - 54th Annual Meeting - 2019

Paper No. 13-3
Presentation Time: 2:10 PM

CORRELATION OF THE EASTERN MAINE PINEO RIDGE SYSTEM TO MORAINES ON MOUNT DESERT ISLAND THROUGH LIDAR IMAGERY AND 10BE SURFACE EXPOSURE AGES


BRAUN, Duane D.1, THOMPSON, Woodrow B.2, DAVIS, P. Thompson3, SHAKUN, Jeremy D.4, BIERMAN, Paul R.5 and CORBETT, Lee B.5, (1)Environmental Geographical and Geologic Sciences, Bloomsburg University (Professor Emeritus), 240 Beech Hill Rd, Mount Desert, ME 04660, (2)Maine Geological Survey, 171 Lord Road, Wayne, ME 04284, (3)Department of Natural & Applied Sciences, Bentley University, 175 Forest St, Waltham, MA 02452, (4)Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, (5)Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Delehanty Hall, 180 Colchester Ave, Burlington, VT 05405

The Pineo Ridge system (PRS) of glaciomarine deltas and moraines lies about 75 km to the northeast of Mount Desert Island (MDI). Thompson used LiDAR imagery and field work to trace the Pineo-equivalent ice margins SSW toward MDI. The LiDAR imagery shows the center of the PRS moraine complex trends SW to the center of MDI.

The correlation of the PRS to MDI is further supported by 10Be surface exposure dating (Koester and others, 2017; Hall and others, 2017; Braun and others, 2018). The mean 10Be age from the Hall and others (2017) boulders (14970 +/-550 yr BP) is about 500 years older than the mean 10Be age from the Koester and others (2017) boulders (14480 +/- 490 BP). Although the mean ages barely overlap at 1 standard deviation, Hall and others (2017) correctly note that the Koester and others (2017) ages are from boulders that lie a few km south of and should be older than the Hall and others (2017) boulder ages. In essence, surface exposure dating of boulders is not precise enough to distinguish ages on this time frame over such short geographic distances.

New 10Be surface exposure ages (Braun and others, 2018) from six boulders on the Jordan Pond moraines on MDI (14630 +/- 1100 BP) are on average over 1000 years older than the five exposure ages from boulders along the south shore of Jordan Pond published by Koester and others (2017), and statistically indistinguishable from the surface exposure ages on boulders at Pineo Ridge. The mean 10Be age for these six new boulders is also statistically indistinguishable from the mean 10Be age of 16 boulder and bedrock samples along two altitudinal ridgeline transects on MDI (Koester and others, 2017). The ridgeline boulder 10Be ages suggest that ice sheet surface lowering between 460 and 170 m a.s.l. occurred rapidly at about 15.2 ka, followed soon thereafter by deposition of the Jordan Pond moraines.

Previous workers on the PRS (Miller, 1986; Ashley and others, 1991) have concluded that the feature represents a period of slow retreat of the glacier rather than a significant re-advance. That slow retreat coincided with the ice front reaching MDI where the glacier became “banked” against the north side of the mountain range and formed distinct lobes in the intervening glacial troughs.

Handouts
  • Braun - PINEO RIDGE to MDI talk.pdf (8.0 MB)

    • Session No. 13

    S2. Late Wisconsinan Deglaciation of Northern New England and Adjacent Canada: A Session to Honor the Career and Contributions of Woodrow (Woody) B. Thompson
    Sunday, 17 March 2019: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM
    Vermont Room (Holiday Inn - Portland by the Bay)
    Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 1
    doi: 10.1130/abs/2019NE-328006
    © Copyright 2019 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
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