Quaternary Marine Terraces, South-Central Coastal California: Implications for Crustal Deformation and Coastal Evolution

Hanson, Kathryn L.; Lettis, William R.; Wesling, J.R.; Kelson, Keith I.; Mezger, Lili

doi:10.2110/pec.92.48.0323

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Thus, flights of marine terraces from place to place could indeed have formed during the same succession of interglacial high sea stands, but differ in their elevations because of differing local uplift rates. Research conducted in the past three decades has confirmed Alexander's (1953) general model (Anderson & Menking, 1994;Grant et al, 1999;Hanson et al, 1992;Kelsey, 1990;Kelsey & Bockheim, 1994;Kelsey et al, 1996;Kern & Rockwell, 1992;Lajoie et al, 1979Lajoie et al, , 1991Merritts & Bull, 1989;Muhs et al, 1990Muhs et al, , 1992aMuhs et al, , 2002bRockwell et al, 1989Rockwell et al, , 1992Wehmiller & Belknap, 1978;Wehmiller et al, 1977).…”

Section: Introduction: the Nature Of The Pacific Coast Recordmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Plots showing elevations of ∼80,000-yr-old marine terraces or coral reefs as a function of uplift rate derived from ∼120,000-yr-old marine terraces or reefs for four regions with differing uplift rates. Pacific Coast age and elevation data from Rockwell et al (1989), Hanson et al (1992), Kern & Rockwell (1992), and Muhs et al (1992aMuhs et al ( , 2002b; New Guinea data from Bloom et al (1974); Barbados data from Broecker et al (1968), Matthews (1973), and Taylor & Mann (1991); Hateruma Island data from Ota & Omura (1992).…”

Section: Mid-pleistocene Sea-level Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quaternary sea-level history of the United States

Muhs

Wehmiller

Simmons

et al. 2003

Developments in Quaternary Sciences

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Section: Introduction: the Nature Of The Pacific Coast Recordmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Mid-pleistocene Sea-level Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Quaternary sea-level history of the United States

Muhs

Wehmiller

Simmons

et al. 2003

Developments in Quaternary Sciences

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“…The ages of marine terraces across the Pacific coast of the United States and Mexico have been determined from a combination of U-series dating (Bradley and Addicott, 1968;Hanson et al, 1992;Grant et al, 1999;Muhs et al, 2002Muhs et al, , 2006Muhs et al, , 2012Muhs et al, , 2014, cosmogenic isotope soil profiles (Perg et al, 2001), radiocarbon dating (Bradley, 1956;Chaytor et al, 2008;Gurrola et al, 2014), amino-acid racemization (AAR; Kennedy et al, 1982;Muhs et al, 1990Muhs et al, , 2014Wehmiller, 1992), warm-versus cold-water fauna (Kennedy et al, 1992;Muhs et al, 2002), optically stimulated luminescence and thermoluminescence dating (Grove et al, 2010;Gurrola et al, 2014), and relative age assignments based on soil development (Merritts et al, 1991;Kelsey et al, 1996;Rockwell et al, 1994). Of these methods, U-series dating of isolated corals provides the most robust estimates of pre-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) -aged terraces, although problems dealing with open-system ages must be dealt with (see discussion in Muhs et al, 2012).…”

Section: Ages Of Marine Terraces Along the Us And Northern Mexico Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These uplift rates have provided important insights into the behavior of major tectonic features, including the Cascadia subduction zone (Muhs et al, 1990;James et al, 2009), the Mendocino triple junction (Merritts and Bull, 1989), the San Andreas fault zone (Anderson and Menking, 1994;Grove et al, 2010), and seafloor spreading centers in the Gulf of California (Mueller et al, 2009), as well as the many local faults and folds along the Pacific coast of central North America ( Fig. 1; Rockwell et al, 1989;Hanson et al, 1992;Kelsey et al, 1996;Grant et al, 1999). However, factors other than tectonics contribute to local sealevel change, and one important, yet often overlooked, contribution is the earth-ocean response to the changing distribution of surface loads of ice and water, often referred to as glacio-hydroisostatic adjustment or glacial isostatic adjustment ( glacio-isostatic adjustment).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine terraces and rates of vertical tectonic motion: The importance of glacio-isostatic adjustment along the Pacific coast of central North America

Simms

Rouby

Lambeck

2015

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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Differences in marine terrace elevations across the Pacific coast of North America have long been assumed to be a result of differences in the rates of tectonic motion. However, other processes, particularly glacio-isostatic adjustment, lead to regional variations in sea levels. In this study, we compiled the ele va tions of marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e (ca. 119-129 ka), 5c (ca. 106 ka), and 5a (ca. 84 ka) terraces across the Pacific coast of central North America and compared these regional variations in elevation with model predictions of glacio-isostatic adjustment after correcting for tectonics. These predictions are generally consistent with the observed trends in the elevations of the terraces and show that this process created up to 20 m of coeval variation in local sea levels along the Pacific coast of central North America (between 20°N and 45°N) during MIS 5c and MIS 5a, but less, ~4 m, during MIS 5e. Accounting for glacio-isostatic adjustment reduces the variability in uplift rates calculated at individual locations using different-aged terraces as datums. Ignoring glacio-isostatic adjustment leads to overestimated uplift rates by an average of 40%, but up to 72%, across the Pacific coast of central North America. An understanding of regional variations in glacioisostatic adjustment-corrected sea levels also contributes to the correct identification of marine terraces with mistaken ages.

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“…The topographic relief of Rancho Marino probably relates to block uplift between the San Gregorio-Hosgri and Cambria faults. Evidence for regional late Quaternary block uplift is derived from the marine terrace record where the widespread 125 ka marine terrace has been used to calculate differential uplift rates along the coast at San Simeon (<0.27 m ka À1 ) and Cayucos (0-0.14 m ka À1 ) Hanson et al, 1992Hanson et al, , 1994Orme, 1998). Block uplift is accommodated along range front bounding faults (e.g.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Quaternary landscape development along the Rancho Marino coastal range front (south‐central Pacific Coast Ranges, California, USA)

Stokes

Díaz

2008

J Quaternary Science

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Late Quaternary landscape development along the Rancho Marino coastal range front in the central‐southern Pacific Coast Ranges of California has been documented using field mapping, surveying, sedimentary facies analysis and a luminescence age determination. Late Quaternary sediments along the base of the range front form a single composite marine terrace buried by alluvial fans. Marine terrace sediments overlie two palaeoshore platforms at 5 m and 0 m altitude. Correlation with the nearby Cayucos and San Simeon sites links platform and marine terrace development to the 125 ka and 105 ka sea‐level highstands. Uplift rate estimates based on the 125 ka shoreline angle are 0.01–0.09 m ka−1 (mean 0.04 m ka−1), and suggest an increase in regional uplift along the coast towards the NW where the San Simeon fault zone intersects the coastline. Furthermore, such low rates suggest that pre‐125 ka uplift was responsible for most of the relief generation at Rancho Marino. The coastal range front landscape development is, thus, primarily controlled by post 125 ka climatic and sea‐level changes. Post 125 ka sea‐level lowering expanded the range front piedmont area to a width of 7.5 km by the 18 ka Last Glacial Maximum lowstand. This sea‐level lowering created space for alluvial fan building along the range front. A 45 ± 3 ka optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age provides a basal age for alluvial fan building or marks the time by which distal alluvial fan sedimentation has reached 300 m from the range front slope. Fan sedimentation is related to climatic change, with increased sediment supply to the range front occurring during (1) glacial period cold stage maxima and/or (2) the Late Pleistocene–Holocene transition, when respective increases in precipitation and/or storminess resulted in hillslope erosion. Sea‐level rise after the 18 ka lowstand resulted in range front erosion, with elevated localised erosion linked to the higher relief and steeper slopes in the SE. This study demonstrates that late Quaternary coastal range front landscape development is driven by interplay of tectonics, climatic and sea‐level change. In areas of low tectonic activity, climatic and sea‐level changes dominate coastal landscape development. When the sea‐level controlled shoreline is in close proximity to the coastal range front, localised patterns of sedimentation and erosion are passively influenced by the pre‐125 ka topography. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Quaternary Marine Terraces, South-Central Coastal California: Implications for Crustal Deformation and Coastal Evolution

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Quaternary sea-level history of the United States

Quaternary sea-level history of the United States

Marine terraces and rates of vertical tectonic motion: The importance of glacio-isostatic adjustment along the Pacific coast of central North America

Late Quaternary landscape development along the Rancho Marino coastal range front (south‐central Pacific Coast Ranges, California, USA)

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