A Sociodemographic and Partisan Analysis of Voting in Three Anti-Gay Rights Referenda in Oregon

Since 1988, three separate anti-gay rights referenda have been placed on the ballot in the state of Oregon. While in 1988 Oregon voters passed the first measure (subsequently found unconstitutional), they rejected similar referenda in 1992 and 1994. This paper examines the electoral geography of these three referenda both cartographically and quantitatively. It finds patterns of support for the referenda were closely associated with voting patterns for the Republican Party in gubernatorial and presidential elections, and with sociodemographic indicators reflective of traditionalist areas.     

The Taconite Inlet Lakes Project: a systems approach to paleoclimatic reconstruction

A comprehensive study of meteorological, hydrological, limnological and sedimentological conditions in the watersheds of density-stratified (meromictic) lakes around Taconite Inlet, Northern Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., Canada was carried out from 1990–1992. Lakes C1 and C2 contain seawater trapped by isostatic uplift as the former embayments became isolated from the sea. These lakes, and Lake C3, contain varved sediments which provide an annually resolvable paleoclimatic record. By studing the major systems influencing sedimentation in one of these lakes (Lake C2) a better understanding of the climatic controls on varve formation, and hence on the paleoclimatic signal in the varved sediment record, was obtained. The varves of Lake C2 provide a proxy record of summer temperature for the region.This is the first in a series of papers published in this issue on the Taconite Inlet Lakes Project. These papers were collected by Dr R. S. Bradley.     

Holocene lake-level fluctuations and beach-ridge development along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, USA

Geomorphology of a beach-ridge complex and adjacent lake basins along the northern shore of Lake Michigan records fluctuations in the level of Lake Michigan for the last 8000 to 10 000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. (radiocarbon years Before Present). A storm berm at 204.7–206 m (671.6–675.9 ft) exposed in a sandpit provides evidence of a pre-Chippewa Low lake level that is correlated with dropping water levels of Glacial Lake Algonquin (c. 10 300–10 100 ¹⁴C yr B.P.). Radiocarbon dates from organic material exposed in a river cutbank and basal sediments from Elbow Lake, Mackinac Co., Michigan, indicate a maximum age of a highstand of Lake Michigan at 6900 ¹⁴C yr B.P., which reached as high as 196.7 m (645 ft), during the early-Nipissing transgression of Lake Michigan. Basal radiocarbon dates from beach swales and a second lake site (Beaverhouse Lake, Mackinac Co.) provide geomorphic evidence for a subsequent highstand which reached 192.6 m (632 ft) at 5390±70 ¹⁴C yr B.P.Basal radiocarbon dates from a transect of sediment cores, along with tree-ring data, and General Land Office Surveyor notes of a shipwreck, c. A.D. 1846, reveal a late-Holocene rate for isostatic rebound of 22.6 cm/100 radiocarbon years (0.74 ft/100 radiocarbon years) for the northern shore of Lake Michigan, relative to the Lake Michigan-Lake Huron outlet at Port Huron, Michigan. Changes in sediment stratigraphy, inter-ridge distance, and sediment accumulation rates document a mid- to late-Holocene retreat of the shoreline due to isostatic rebound. This regression sequence was punctuated by brief, periodic highstands, resulting in progressive development over the past 5400 ¹⁴C yr of 75 pairs of dune ridges and swales each formed over an interval of approximately 72 years. Times of lake-level fluctuation were identified at 3900, 3200, and 1000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. based on changes in inter-ridge spacing, shifts in the course of Millecoquins River, and reorientation of beach-ridge lineation. Soil type, dune development, and selected pollen data provide supporting evidence for this chronology. Late-Holocene beach-ridge development and lake-level fluctuations are related to a retreat of the dominant Pacific airmass and the convergence of the Arctic and Tropical airmasses resulting in predominantly meridional rather than zonal air flow across the Great Lakes region.This is the 13th in a series of papers published in this special AMQUA issue. These papers were presented at the 1994 meeting of the American Quaternary Association held 19–22 June, 1994, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Linda C. K. Shane served as guest editor for these papers.     

Ccte d'Ivoire-Ghana margin: seismic imaging of passive rifted crust adjacent to a transform continental margin

During May 1990 and January-February 1991, an extensive geophysical data set was collected over the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana continental margin, located along the equatorial coast of West Africa. The Ghana margin is a transform continental margin running subparallel to the Romanche Fracture Zone and its associated marginal ridge—the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana Ridge. From this data set, an explosive refraction line running ∼ 150 km, ENE-WSW between 3°55'N, 3°21'W and 4°23'N, 2°4'W, has been modelled together with wide-angle airgun profiles, and seismic reflection and gravity data. This study is centred on the Côte d'Ivoire Basin located just to the north of the Côte d'Ivoire-Ghana Ridge, where bathymetric data suggest that a component of normal rifting occurred, rather than the transform motion observed along the majority of the equatorial West African margin.
Traveltime and amplitude modelling of the ocean-bottom seismometer data shows that the continental Moho beneath the margin rises in an oceanward direction, from ∼ 24 km below sea level to ∼ 17 km. In the centre of the line where the crust thins most rapidly, there exists a region of anomalously high velocity at the base of the crust, reaching some 8 km in thickness. This higher-velocity region is thought to represent an area of localized underplating related to rifting. Modelling of marine gravity data, collected coincident with the seismic line, has been used to test the best-fitting seismic model. This modelling has shown that the observed free-air anomaly is dominated by the effects of crustal thickness, and that a region of higher density is required at the base of the crust to fit the observed data. This higher-density region is consistent in size and location with the high velocities required to fit the seismic data.     

Strontium isotopic geochemistry of the Devils Lake drainage system, North Dakota: a preliminary study and potential paleoclimatic implications

A series of water samples (precipitation, surface water and ground water) from the Devils Lake drainage basin in central North Dakota have been analyzed for their ¹⁸O and D and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr. The ¹⁸O and D of snow and most ground water samples fall near the meteoric water line, with the ground water being isotopically heavier than the snow, indicating that a portion of the recharge must come from non-winter precipitation events. One ground water and all the surface water samples fall below the meteoric water line, demonstrating extensive evaporation. The 87Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of the snow is more radiogenic than those of the ground water samples, indicating that the ground water has increased its ⁸⁶Sr content by the dissolution of mafic rock in the aquifer. Stump Lake has a much more radiogenic Sr isotopic ratio than the waters of Devils Lake suggesting a source of water different from that of Devils Lake. The East Stump Lake water, on the other hand, appears to be either a mix of Devils Lake and Stump Lake waters, or Devils Lake water diluted with precipitation.     

The glacilacustrine sedimentary environment of Bowser Lake in the northern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada

Bowser Lake, a fiord lake in the northern Coast Mountains of British Columbia, contains a thick Holocene fill consisting mainly of silt and clay varves. These sediments were carried into the lake by proglacial Bowser River which drains a high-energy, heavily glacierized basin. Sedimentation in the lake is controlled by seasonal snow and ice melt, by autumn rainstorms, and by rare, but very large jökulhlaups from glacier-dammed lakes in the upper Bowser River basin which complicate environmental inferences from the sedimentary record. Sediment is dispersed through the deep western part of the lake by energetic turbidity currents. The turbidity currents apparently do not overtop a sill that separates the western basin from much shallower areas to the east. Large amounts of silt and clay are deposited from suspension in the eastern part of the lake, but sediment accumulation rates there are much lower than to the west. Several strong acoustic reflectors punctuate the varved fill in the western basin; these may be thick or relatively coarse beds deposited during jökulhlaups or exceptionally large storms. The contemporary sediment yield to Bowser Lake, estimated from sediments in the lake, is about 360 t km^-2a^-1. This is a relatively high value, but it is less than yields insome other, similar montane basins with extensive snow and ice cover.The most likely explanation for the difference is that large amounts of sediment have been, and continue to be, stored on the Bowser delta andin small proglacial lakes.     

A record of accelerated erosion in the recent sediments of Blelham Tarn in the English Lake district

Two frozen cores from Blelham Tarn were subsampled and measured using mineral magnetic, loss-on-ignition (LOI), radiometric, granulometric and diatom analyses. A detailed chronology was established using varves, radioisotopes and diatoms. This has enabled an accurately dated reconstruction of sedimentation over the past forty years. Despite a large increase in lake productivity, evidence suggests that the observed exponential increase in sedimentation rates can be attributed to erosion within the catchment. The predominant sediment source has been identified as surface soil. A comparison between the trend of accelerated sedimentation and the record of increased sheep stocking density for the area within which the most of the catchment lies, as well as observations of contemporary surface processes within the catchment, both suggest that much of the recent erosion is a direct response to increased pressure from sheep grazing.     

A high resolution proxy-climate record from an arctic lake with annually-laminated sediments on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada

Sediments from a 3 ha lake (75 °34.34N, 89 °18.55W) from the coastal region of northern Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada, contain discrete laminations in the deepest part of the basin. The laminations are varves as indicated by the correspondence between counts and thickness measurements of the couplets and ²¹⁰Pb dating. A 14 cm core representing 150 years of sedimentation contained laminated couplets consisting of a lighter inorganic layer with a higher percentage of calcium and magnesium, alternating with fine darker bands, typically more cohesive, and comprising higher proportions of silica and carbon. A reddish oxidation zone with higher iron and aluminum frequently separates the laminations. The dark layer represents a biogenic component deposited in summer and is made cohesive by bacterial filaments among the other particles. The light inorganic layer represents clastic deposition from allochthonous sources. Deposition rates were relatively consistent through the core with an increase in varve thickness in the 1950s. Diatom concentrations in the sediments increased by two orders of magnitude in this century, with major increases in the 1920s and 1950s. The increase in varve thickness and diatom abundance coincides with an increase in summer melt percentage in an ice core from the Devon Island Ice Cap (Koerner, 1977). The relatively high sedimentation rate (0.15 cm yr^-1) coupled with the consistency of deposition makes this lake a significant indicator for recent climate changes of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.