The Stanley unconformity in Lake Huron basin: evidence for a climate-driven closed lowstand about 7900 <Superscript>14</Superscript>C BP,with similar implications for the Chippewa lowstand in Lake Michigan basin

J.L. Hough in 1962 recognized an erosional unconformity in the upper section of early postglacial lake sediments in northwestern Lake Huron. Low-level Lake Stanley was defined at 70 m below present water surface on the basis of this observation, and was inferred to follow the Main Algonquin highstand and Post-Algonquin lake phases about 10 ¹⁴C ka, a seminal contribution to the understanding of Great Lakes history. Lake Stanley was thought to have overflowed from the Huron basin through the Georgian Bay basin and the glacio-isostatically depressed North Bay outlet to Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers. For this overflow to have occurred, Hough assumed that post-Algonquin glacial rebound was delayed until after the Lake Stanley phase. A re-examination of sediment stratigraphy in northwestern Lake Huron using seismic reflection and new core data corroborates the sedimentological evidence of Hough’s Stanley unconformity, but not its inferred chronology or the level of the associated lowstand. Erosion of previously deposited sediment, causing the gap in the sediment sequence down to 70 m present depth, is attributed to wave erosion in the shoreface of the Lake Stanley lowstand. Allowing for non-deposition of muddy sediment in the upper 20 m approximately of water depth as occurs in the present Great Lakes, the inferred water level of the Stanley lowstand is repositioned at 50 m below present in northwestern Lake Huron. The age of this lowstand is about 7.9 ± 0.3¹⁴C ka, determined from the inferred ¹⁴C age of the unconformity by radiocarbon-dated geomagnetic secular variation in six new cores. This relatively young age shows that the lowstand defined by Hough’s Stanley unconformity is the late Lake Stanley phase of the northern Huron basin, youngest of three lowstands following the Algonquin lake phases. Reconstruction of uplift histories for lake level and outlets shows that late Lake Stanley was about 25–30 m below the North Bay outlet, and about 10 m below the sill of the Huron basin. The late Stanley lowstand was hydrologically closed, consistent with independent evidence for dry regional climate at this time. A similar analysis of the Chippewa unconformity shows that the Lake Michigan basin also hosted a hydrologically closed lowstand, late Lake Chippewa. This phase of closed lowstands is new to the geological history of the Great Lakes. This is the ninth in a series of ten papers published in this special issue of Journal of Paleolimnology. These papers were presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Great Lakes Research (2004), held at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. P.F. Karrow and C.F.M Lewis were guest editors of this special issue.     

Upper tertiary rocks from the continental shelf and slope off Southern Hawkes Bay

Sixteen rock samples were collected from the continental shelf and slope between Napier and Cape Turnagain, southern Hawkes Bay, most coming from offshore anticlinal ridges. Nine of the samples have a foraminiferal fauna of Upper Miocene and Pliocene age. The remainder cannot be dated, but most are probably of similar age. The foraminiferal. faunas are considered to have lived at depths ranging down to at least 1600 m deeper than the depth from which they were collected. Thus, the post‐depositional history of the samples includes tectonic uplift of similar magnitude since Upper Tertiary times. Because most of the samples arc very fine grained, unlike Recent sediments from ridges, it is suggested that the present regime of folding is largely post‐Pliocene in age.     

Biogeography and Genetic Diversity of Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) from Sahelian Africa

Sahelian Africa makes up the native range of pearl millet and the impact of domestication on the genetic diversity of wild, intermediate, and cultivated subspecies is still poorly understood. Wild populations are known to spontaneously germinate throughout this range and hybridize with cultivated material. To investigate genetic structure, populations of pearl millet from several African countries were analyzed at the morphological and molecular levels for diversity. Results demonstrate how little differentiation there is between subspecies and populations. It appears that pearl millet throughout the Sahel remains a metapopulation with large hybrid zones. These results have important implications for conservation of pearl millet.     

Simulation of Soil Erosion and Sedimentation in Small River Basins

Potential erosion and sedimentation for three small stream basins near Dodoma, Tan-zania are simulated using SOILCART, a computer program recently developed to assist in the investi-gation of soil erosion problems. Using only widely available generalized data, the predicted values of soil erosion and sedimentation derived from SOILCART compare favorably to measured values which required a 2-year field investigation. Potential areas of high erosion are identified that could be amelio-rated with proper management. The potential use of SOILCART in preliminary evaluation of erosion and sedimentation problems promises useful results, especially in areas where small dams are proposed.     

A finite-element study of fold propagation in a viscous layer

A finite-element model of a viscous layer contained in a viscous matrix and undergoing layer-parallel compression is used to examine the hypothesis that a long chain of folds, as found in real rocks, can originate from one initial perturbation to the layer geometry. This hypothesis is tested by determining the velocity with which a perturbation spreads along layers of various viscosities.An insight is gained into the roles played by local strain and local layer strength in the folding mechanism. The results show that for layers with viscosity ratios comparable with those of real rocks it is impossible for long chains of folds to originate from one perturbation. The authors conclude that rock layers contain many initial perturbations and folding originates at all perturbation sites simultaneously. The growth of such folds depends on the amplitude and shape of the initial perturbation and on subsequent interference between folds.