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Th230-U234 Dating of Pedogenic Carbonates in Gravelly Desert Soils of Vidal Valley, Southeastern California

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Th230-U234 Dating of Pedogenic Carbonates in Gravelly Desert Soils of Vidal Valley, Southeastern California Th230-U234 dating of pedogenic carbonates in gravelly desert soils of Vidal Valley, southeastern California TEH-LUNG KU Department of Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90007 WILLIAM B. BULL Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 S. THOMAS FREEMAN Woodward-Clyde Consultants, 4000 W. Chapman Avenue, Orange, California 92668 KEVIN G. KNAUSS Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, California 94550 ABSTRACT serve as a basis for further research into the a time span of about 350,000 yr, which is absolute dating of various types of impure considerably longer than the applicable Radioactive disequilibrium relationships carbonates of late Quaternary origin. range of C14. l1; among Th230, U234, and U238 can be used to date pedogenic carbonates formed in re- INTRODUCTION GEOMORPHIC SETTING gions of arid to semiarid climate. Samples suitable for dating consist of dense carbon- The time required to accumulate the The study area is located on the arid ate rinds around pebbles from the Cca soil pedogenic calcium carbonate in the soils of piedmont of Vidal Valley south of the horizon. Analytically, the method involves arid and semiarid regions has been sought Whipple Mountains in southeastern leaching the samples with dilute hydro- by several workers in order to estimate the California (Fig. 1). Mean annual precipita- chloric acid and measuring U238, U234, ages of geomorphic surfaces. Gile (1975) in tion of the area is 90 to 100 mm, two-thirds Th230, and Th232 in both the leachate and his work with the soils of the Rio Grande of which occurs during the winter. Gently residue fractions. As the soil carbonate River Valley determined the approximate sloping geomorphic surfaces have been dis- commonly incorporates silicate mineral- times necessary to develop morphologic sected by desert washes that drain into the bearing detritus, corrections are made to stages (Gile and others, 1966) of pedogenic Colorado River. An alluvial geomorphic account for possible introduction of detrital calcium carbonate development in southern surface is a mappable landform, formed Th230 and LP34 into the acid leachate. The New Mexico. He accomplished this with during a given time span and having dis- corrections are based on the assumptions some of the more common methods of dat- tinctive topographic, pedologic, and strat- that (1) the carbonate initially contains ing. Unfortunately, it is generally difficult to igraphic-sedimentologic characteristics. 232 230 negligible amounts of Th and Th , or find material such as charcoal, fossils, or Climatic changes during the Quaternary 230 232 has a Th /Th ratio similar to that in igneous rocks to date Quaternary deposits have resulted in two distinctly different 238 234 230 detrital minerals, (2) U , U , and Th in and soils in deserts. Radiometric dating of modes of operation of the fluvial systems of the detrital silicate phase are in secular pedogenic calcium carbonate using radio- the piedmont streams — the arid and equilibrium with each other, and (3) the carbon" methods has been attempted (for semiarid modes. The semiarid mode of the thorium isotopes in the detrital phase are example, Williams and Polach, 1971), but latest Pleistocene was followed by the much not fractionated by the acid leaching. Ap- with only marginal success. dryer and/or warmer mode of the Holocene. plication of the method to calcareous soils We present here the results of an investi- Dramatic contrasts between the two developed on upper Quaternary alluvial gation using the disequilibrium relationship climate-controlled modes are reflected in deposits of the eastern Mojave Desert in between Th230, U234, and U238 to assess ages the vegetation associations that grew on the southern California gives ages that are in- of the pedogenic carbonates deposited in hillslopes (Van Devender, 1977), the size ternally consistent and that agree with the gravelly desert soils of southeastern and stratigraphy of sediment derived from geomorphic and stratigraphic relative age California. We show that with judicious the hillslopes, and the thicknesses and dom- relationships. Fourteen samples from an selection of samples, this Th230-U234 method inant processes of soil-profile formation on upper Pleistocene geomorphic surface, gives highly consistent results. The method the alluvial geomorphic surfaces (Bull, Q2b, yielded an average age of 83,000 ± differs markedly from the C'4 technique in 1974). During the latest Pleistocene, soil 10,000 yr. This age is confirmed by a differ- principles and assumptions. Therefore, it carbonate accumulated beneath an argillic ent assessment of the data independent of can complement the C14 methodology and horizon and at depths of 0.3 to 0.5 m. Dur- the aforementioned assumptions. On one at the same time circumvent problems such ing the dryer mode of the Holocene, soil- specimen two different layers of a pebble as source(s) of carbon in C14 dating of profile development has been minimal and coating were dated, and a carbonate ac- pedogenic carbonate. Furthermore, owing carbonate accumulation has been restricted cumulation rate of about 1 mm/8,000 yr to the long half-life of Th230 (75,000 yr), to the upper 20 cm of most geomorphic sur- was obtained. It is hoped that this study will dating using this nuclide potentially covers faces. Geological Society of America Bulletin, Part I, v. 90, p. 1063-1073, 6 figs., 7 tables, November 1979, Doc. no. 91108. 1063 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/90/11/1063/3444279/i0016-7606-90-11-1063.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 T _ UJA_H _ ARIZONA LAS „VE6A8 -N- COLORADO \ \ \ ® 1 •ARSTOW ® 10 15 20 25 30 SCALE IN KILOMETERS Figure 1. Location map of Vidal study area. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/90/11/1063/3444279/i0016-7606-90-11-1063.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 DATING OF PEDOGENIC CARBONATES, VIDAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 1065 The Colorado River also went through subsequent to its formation, the carbonate nosilicate minerals. Because these minerals repeated periods of downcutting and acts as a closed system with respect to the are always much older than the carbonate backfilling that changed the base levels of uranium and thorium isotopes. With these matrix, elimination or correction for this its tributary fluvial systems. The changes in assumptions, the age (t) of the carbonate "detrital contamination" is necessary. river levels, together with the climate- can be derived from the relationship. Complete separation of the carbonate ma- controlled changes of the piedmont stream 230 238 trix from the silicate component through Th = U [1 - exp(-\„f)l, (1) systems, resulted in the formation of seven mechanical means has proven to be diffi- distinct geomorphic surfaces on the Vidal where k„ is the decay constant of Th230 cult. We subjected one sample to the follow- piedmont. The geomorphic surfaces of (9.22 X 10~6 yr"1), and notations of nu- ing mechanical separation steps: (a) pul- Table 1 can be recognized in many other clides refer to their activities. verized in an agate mortar, (b) passed areas along the Colorado River in Arizona Because in natural solutions U2 : often through a 125-/am sieve and then a magnet- and California (W. B. Bull, in prep.). found to be in excess of U238 (that is, activ- ic separator, (c) hand-picked free of visible Several of the geomorphic surfaces of the ity ratio U234/U238 > 1.00), the decay of this noncalcareous grains, (d) heated in a fur- 234 Vidal area have widespread (extending for excess U requires that equation 1 be nace to convert CaC03 to CaO, and (e) 3 to 5 km) varnished desert pavements un- modified to CaO concentrated by heavy-liquid density derlain by well-developed argillic and calcic separation. Although these treatments in- 230 238 soil horizons. These features indicate that Th = U [1 - exp(-Xof)] creased the CaC03 content of the sample + 234 _ U238 _ the undissected parts of these geomorphic (U )[Xo/(Xo À4)] from 45% to 88%, direct application of [1 - exp(\4i - V)], (2) surfaces are pre-Holocene in age and have equation 2 to the whole sample was still not 234 warranted. We have, therefore, adopted a undergone little erosion since their forma- where X4 is the U decay constant (2.79 x tion. The Th230-U234 dating technique was 10"6 yr-1). The modification necessitates combined chemical leaching and correction used mainly on the carbonate in soil profiles measurement of U234 in addition to U238 procedure to cope with the detrital con- of the Q2b geomorphic surface of late Pleis- and Th230 in the sample. The unknown t in tamination problem. The procedure is de- tocene age. Younger and older units also equation 2 can be computed iteratively or scribed later. were dated. through a graphic approach such as the one 2. Validity of the assumptions stated used by Kaufman and Broecker (1965). above. The first assumption is consistent Th230-U234 METHOD with current knowledge concerning the so- Application to Pedogenic Carbonate lution chemistry of uranium and thorium. The Th230-U234 method is a modification In natural solutions, uranium is rather sol- of the Th230-U238 geochronometer first In applying the Th230-U234 method to uble because of the formation of stable ura- 4 applied to coralline material by Potratz and pedogenic carbonate, two important con- nylanionic complexes such as U02(C03)3~ others (1955) and Barnes and others siderations must be made. (McKelvey and others, 1955; Starik and (1956). These workers assumed that (1) 1. Purity of the carbonate analyzed. Kolyadin, 1957), whereas the thorium carbonate when formed incorporates in it a Pedogenic carbonates are seldom pure; they isotopes are highly insoluble, owing to easy few parts per million of uranium, but neg- contain various amounts of detrital mate- hydrolysis of the Th+4 ions.
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