GEOLOGICAL SURVEY RESEARCH 1972
LATE PLEISTOCENE GLACIATION AND POLLEN STRATIGRAPHY IN NORTHWESTERN NEW JERSEY
l By lESLIE A. SIRKIN , and JAMES P. MINARD, Garden City, long Island, N.Y., Washington, D.C.
Abstract.-Study of pollen from a peat bog on Kittatinny Mountain, York, and Jack R Epstein, U.S. Geological Survey, for their Sussex County, NJ., allows correlation of the late Pleistocene pollen assistance in coring the hog and to Meyer Ruhin, U.S. stratigraphy of the bog with that of the Wallkill Valley to the north, New England to the northeast, and Long Island to the east. The bog Geological Survey, for the radiocarbon dates. (here called Saddle Bog) is in a saddle in the summit ridge of the mountain and is partly dammed by an end moraine of late Wisconsin PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS age. Radiocarbon dating gives an age of 12,300 years B.P. at a depth of 5.50-5.65 m, The bog was cored to a depth of 7.65 m; commercial quality peat extends from near the surface to a depth of 4.75 m. The Studies of the glacial geology of this area have been made by lower peat of the bog contains spruce, pine, and birch pollen, and Minard (1961, 1969) and Minard and Rhodehamel (1969). willow, alder, grass, sedge, and composite pollen, which may represent Minard's (1961) description of end moraines across Kittatinny park-tundra vegetation, that is, the herb pollen zone (T). The spruce Mountain filled the previous gap between mapped moraines in maximum occurs in the Al subzone, even though pine is more the valleys to the east and west (fig. 1). A detailed map of the abundant. Pine pollen peaks in the Bl subzone, accompanied by abundant birch, and oak pollen rises in the B2 subzone. Oak-hemlock moraines was prepared hy Minard (1969), and the moraines and oak-hickory-hemlock pollen associations characterize the Cl and were described and two radiocarhon dates were cited by C2 subzones, whereas both spruce and birch pollen rise in the C3 Minard and Rhodehamel (1969, p. 283, 297, 299, fig. 22). subzone. Sedimentation ill the bog may have begun sometime between One sample from a depth of 3 m, about 30 m from the 15,000 and 18,300 years ago as deglaciation of the area began. southeast edge of the hog, was dated at 6,260±300 years RP. (Meyer Ruhin, written commun., 1968, U.S. Geo!. Survey radiocarhon lah. sample W-2200). A second sample, taken The area of study, here called Saddle Bog, is on Kittatinny within 16.5 m of the core described in this report and from a Mountain in the north-central part of Sussex County, N.J., at depth of 5.5 m, was dated at 7,800±650 years (Meyer Rubin, 41°14'08" N. and 74°42'10" W. (fig. 1). The bog is about 200 written commun., 1968, U.S. Geo\. Survey radiocarhon lab. m wide (northwest-southeast) and about 300 m long sample W-2236). (northeast-southwest) and amounts to ahout 10 acres in surface extent. PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GLACIAL HISTORY Samples of peat from Saddle Bog have been studied for pollen and dated hy radiocarbon techniques to learn more The hog is in a saddle in the summit ridge of Kittatinny about the time and duration of withdrawal of the ice sheet Mountain. This ridge is underlain by the resistant quartzite from this area. The location of the bog is significant in conglomerate of the Shawangunk Formation of Ordovician(?) reconstruction of late Pleistocene deglaciation in the north- and Silurian age. The hog occupies a depression as much as 8 eastern United States, specifically as related to the recession of m deep. The lower part of the depression is a bedrock basin in the Wallkill Valley-Hudson Valley glacial lohe (Connally and the quartzite; the upper part isdammed by the end of one of Sirkin, 1970, 1972). Pollen stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates the recessional moraines lying across the westward drainage- of hog sediments provide additional detail on late-glacial way from the saddle. The relationship between bedrock and environments in the vicinity of the end moraine of Wisconsin drift was recently revealed in a drainage ditch. The ditch cut age in northwestern New Jersey. through several feet of moraine and several feet of the Acknowledgments.- The authors are indebted to Dr. G. underlying quartzite. The hog had previously been partly Gordon Connally, Staten Island Community College, New drained hy an old hand-dug ditch which is still evident on the northwest side. That ditch dates from near the end of the 19th 1 Adelphi University. century when the hog had heen partly cleared for farming.
051 U.S. GEOL. SURVEY PROF. PAPER soo-n, PAGES D51-D56
I .,
D52 PALEONTOLOGY
o 5 10 MILES LI__ L--L __ L--L __ LI ~I .
NEW YORK
" <, 41" " 15'
PENNSYLVANIA
Highland th, ,', Lake fI
Swart8w()('~ Laker::JJ
E W Y
EXPLANATION
n5 41" Nepheline syenite 00'
Previously mapped moraines D Devonian rocks
S , Newly discovered moraines Silurian rocks Letters refer to -individual segment.s OC Ordovician and ~ Cam brian rocks Esker pC Contact Precambrian rocks
75'00' 74"30'
Figure I.-Map of Sussex County, NJ., showing location of end moraines and eskers on Kittatinny Mountain and their relationship to moraines in the valley on either side. Saddle Bog (X) is at the north end of moraine D. After Minard (1961).
The basin may have been initially scoured in bedrock by a occupied the intermontane valley just west of Kittatinny tongue of ice which flowed westward from the main ice lobe Mountain and had deposited moraines A and E (fig. 1). A in Kittatinny Valley through the saddle and down the slope of steep-sided arcuate end moraine (C, fig. 1) was subsequently the intermontane valley (fIg. 1). The end of the tongue came deposited by the ice tongue on top of moraine B (Minard, to rest on an end moraine (B, fig. 1) which had been deposited 1969; Minard and Rhodehamel, 1969, p. 297, 299, fig. 22). at the base of the slope by a prior ice lobe. That lobe had The lithology of the underlying moraine (B) is that of the SIRKIN AND MINARD D53 ridge and intermontane valley (Silurian quartzite, sandstone, percent of the pollen at 6.12 m lends further support for and shale), whereas the upper moraine (C) includes these placing the basal part of the core in the late Pleistocene herb lithologies plus rocks from Kittatinny Valley, such as nephe- pollen zone. line syenite and Ordovician Martinsburg Shale (fig, 1). During and after withdrawal of the ice tongue, a lateral Spruce pollen zone A moraine was deposited by the edge of the ice lobe in Kittatinny Valley as a narrow ridge along the crest of The spruce pollen rise occurs rather abruptly at 6.0 m and is Kittatinny Mountain (fig. 1, moraine D). The north end of this accompanied by increases in pine and alder and by decreasing moraine dammed the west side of the bedrock basin (Minard but still significant NAP. The spruce maximum occurs at 5.75 and Rhodehamel 1969, P: 299, and fig. 22) and provided m, even lhough pinc is the most abundant pollen in this zone. additional closure. The origin of moraine D is similar to that of The abundance of NAP in lower z~ne A (subzone AI) suggests moraine F which also was deposited along the ridge crest and the presence of a spruce park, whereas the subsequent spmce across a saddle by the main ice lobe (fig. 1). maximum and NAY decline (subzone A4) might signify forest conditions. Oak is also abundant in the UPIJer subzone, which CHRONOLOGY AND STRATIGRAPHY has been dated at 12,300±300 years B.P. (Meyer Rubin, written commun., 1971, U.S. Geo!. Survey radiocarbon lab. Samples for pollen analysis were retrieved by a Davis-type sample W-2562). The incursion of oak into the pollen record peat sampler from a core hole in the bog (Saddle Bog core hole may indicate the proximity of the oak forest to the spruce 3) after probing had located the deepest sedimentary section. forest at that time. Sediments from tbe base of the organic section at 5.50-5.65 m were submitted for radiocarbon dating (table 1 and fig. 2). Pine pollen zone B Relative pollen frequencies for dominant forms are shown as percentages except between 6.37 and 7.37 m where bars The percentage of pine pollen increases substantially in indicate the actual number of pollen grains counted (fig. 2). subzone A4 and peaks in the lower B zone (subzone Bi) at Absolute pollen data are shown as pollen per gram of sediment nearly 75 percent. Birch and alder pollen are also relatively in a curve superimposed on the arboreal pollen (AP) curve. abundant. Oak pollen increases markedly in subzone B2, whereas pine and birch 'pollen decrease. The NAP decreases to Herb pollen zone T less than 1.0 percent of the pollen in this zone.
Although pollen is sparse in the lower 1.50 In of thc core. Oak pollen zone C the basal samples (7.50, 7.65 rn) contain significant amounts of pine, spruce, and birch pollen, including possible shrub The oakpo\len rise continues in this zone until the oak varieties of pine and birch, and pollen of willow, alder, grass, pollen represents 80 percent of the total pollen. Subzone ci sedge, and the composites. A few pollen grains of Thalictrum, contains an oak-hemlock association, whereas C2 is composed Shepherdia, Ranuculaceae, and Dryas, and other rosaceous of oak, hickory, and hemlock. In both the B zone and forms, occur in the general pollen assemblage which may be suhz ones Cl and C2, NAP represents less than 6 percent of the traced from 7.65 m up. to 6.12 m. This association of pollen pollen. Pollen of beech, hickory, and elm also appear in forms, and by inference, plants, many of which have cold or subzone Cl , and the pollen of these trees and that of the boreal affinities, may have been derived from a tnndraLil e Ericaceae increase in subzone C2. Chestnut pollen appears laLe vegetation. The nonarboreal pollen (NAP) maximum of 52 in that subzone. Subzone C3 is marked by both spruce arrd composite pollen rises, the birch maximum, increases in pine and alder, and decreases in oak and hemlock .. Table I.-Sedimentary log of Saddle Bog core hole 3
Depth (em) Jliaterial REGIONAL CORRELATIONS
0-25 Peat, rich in coarse forest humus. 25-175 Peat, rich ill sphagnum fibers. The pollen stratigraphy in this bog correlates closely with F~=225 P~at, ver: .wet, top of water table. that of areas studied in southern New York, particularly to the _2;, 250 Woody layer III peat. :;~0-2?5 Peat, rich in ~phagnum fibers. north in the Wallkill Valle, (Connally and Sirkin, 1970) and to _ 5-4::.0 Peat, fine-grained. the east in Long Island (Sirkin, 1967 a,b). The herb pollen 452-~ 75 Peat, very fine !irained, cohesive: 47::.-,,65 Peat, silty, grayish-green to grayish- zone, although not consistently well represented in numbers of brown. pollen grains, compares favorably in taxa with herb and shrub 56~-6~5 Clay, gray, silty at base. 62;>-6;>0 Clay bluish-gray. pollen represented elsewhere in this zone. The pollen assem- 650-725 Clay: bluish.gray, cohesive but con lain- blages reinforce the inferred existence of late Pleistocene ?~ _ _ ing thin sand lay~rs. . 7 _J ~60 S311dand day, bluish-gray, banded. tundra vegetation as described in the Wallkill and Long Island 760-f65 Silt, medium-gray. studies (table 2). ARBOREAL POLLEN (AP) NONARBOREAL POLLEN t::J
~ 452 + 438 C2 484 ..J c( OAK 2 436 (3 l 866 :5 + ('J + 1008 ~ + 785 o 0.. Cl 3 + 1304 + 1264 + 1262 1230 4 1596 IINW I B2 + 1289 ~ t'l PINE + 1453 o :2 1078 >-'l B1 o -m~5 I +- 1061 r -A4 958 o SPRUCE 12,300oi·300 744 ~ years B. P. 808 d!1 I Al 186 U ------11,"""',)". 51 ..-cJ "".--. [] o n IV" .. ]~~ w o I T c:::J ill n ClV hS I~ HERB 51 o o NUMBER 01' 5 o n ID o CJ POLLEN 18 a o CJ ClV 38 =o 0_ o _ .• 0 IV _ 12 G::.,. V j~~ D. I'__-",--,,~~::;::::::==- ~ e::,.n t1~ t~v· ..~~~~~,,:t2.;:5.:tZ",~:il:~ ~
L. I ! J 020406080 i I I ..J PERCENT TOTAL POLLEN o .5 1 1.5 +. 1 PERCENT OR LESS POLLEN GRAINS (103) (Excludlne bracketed interval on NAP cur.•.es PER GRAM for which a separate scale is given) EXPLANATION
00 I ALDER (Aln'lIs) <=TO"" =-'7"" mJ--'--- III ~ ~'(.!"Jc:1c. ~:±=;: =~ II DRYAS Rich in coarse Richmin sphag . Fine- WOOD SILT CLAY SAND III HICKORY (Carya) \ forest humus nu~ers grained J IV SEDGE PEAT SEDIMENT V THALlCl'IWM:
Figure 2.-Polkn diagram for Saddle Bog core hole 3, Kittatirmy Mountain, Sussex County, N.J. 1
SIRKIN AND MINARD D55
Table 2.-Correlation of late Pleistocene and Holocene radiocarbon-doted pollen stratigraphy, pollen assemblages, and inferred vegetation from northwestern New Jersey, upper Wallkill VaUey, N. Y., southern New England, western Long Island, and central New Jersey
[Compiled from Connally and Sirkin (1970); Deevey (1958); Davis (1969); Sirkin and others (1970)]
Age Pollen Northwestern U-QperWallkill Southern Western Central Zonation (yrs B.P., New Jersey alley, N.Y. New England Long Island, N.Y. New Jersey approx)
C3 C3, Birch, oak, C3, Oak, hemlock, C3, Spruce rise, C3, Oak, chestnut, C3, Oak, chestnut, spruce rise chestnut oak birch, hemlock, alder Oak holly C2 C2, Oak, hickory , C2, Oak, hemlock, C2, Oak, hickory, C2, Oak, hickory C2, Oak, hickory } hemlock hickory, elm C1 C1, Oak, hemlock C1, Oak, hemlock C1, Oak, hemlock Cl, Oak, hemlock CI, Oak, hemlock
B2, Pine, oak B2, Pine 'c B2 Pine 7,000 B2, Pine, oak 82, Pine, oak "'"' B1 } B1, Pine, birch B1, Pine A4, Spruce returns BI, Pine B, Pine ].>, 10,000 p0.. A4 A3, A4, Pine, A3, A4, Spruce A3, Pine, spruce, A4, Spruce, pine spruce, oak returns, pine, oak A3 Spruce (I2,300±300 spruce, oak AI, A2, Birch, yrs B.P.) (I2,8S0±2S0 spruce } yrs B.P.) (I2,ISO yrs B.P.) AI,A2 AI, A2, Pine, AI, A2, Pine, T3, Birch, park A1-A3, Pine, AI, A2, Pine, spruce s~ruce, NAP spruce tundra spruce ( pruce park)
T3, pine, spruce, T3, Pine, spruce, "'c' birch T2, S~ruce, park NAP '" tun ra •.....•,. T T2, Spruce, pine, Tl, Tundra T2, Spruce rise T, Pine, spruce '" fir (14,300 yes B.P.) ~ Herb IS,OOO 'I'I, Pine, birch, Glaciated TI, Park tundra ] tundra W } 17,000 W, Park tundra Glaciated W, Tundra W, Park tundra '" c:s Glaciated 20,000 Glaciated
It may also be significant that this record persists through sediments in the New Hampton bog (Connally and Sirkin, the basal 1.65 m (6.0-7.65 m) of the core. On the basis of a 1970, p. 3302). The age of 18,600 years for the end moraine sediment column of 2.15 m (5.5-7.65 m), deposition rates of and the persistence of the glacier within 25 miles of the study 0.036 cm/year and 0.08 em/year for fine clastic sediments in a site for a minimum of 2,100 years (the minimum duration of late-glacial lake sequence (Davis and Deevey, 1964, p. 1293; tundra at this site) is in keeping with the age of 16,700 years Davis, 1969, p. 411, respectively), and on the mean radio- for park-tundra vegetation in the Delaware Valley south of the carbon age of 12,300 years B.P. at a depth of 5.50--5.65 m, terminal moraine (Sirkin and others, 1970, p. D83-D84, figs. sedimentation in Saddle Bog could have begun between about 2-4). This age was previously used as a minimum age for the 18,300 and 15,000 years ago. Accordingly, the period repre- establishment of the tundra in the end moraine region. The age sented by herb pollen zone T (6.0-7.65 m) would have lasted also serves to substantiate the "rate of glacial recession" curve about 4,600 to 2,100 years. The older and longer age range in which deglaciation of the Hudson-Wallkill lobe from the would be in keeping with the greater age of the more southerly western Long Island-Staten Island-New Jersey terminus is moraines and would provide a tentative maximum age of postulated to have begun prior to 17,000 years B.P. (Connally about 18,600 years B.P. (18,300+300) for the Ogdensburg- and Sirkin, 1972). Culvers Gap moraine more than 12 miles south of the bog site. Thus, the bog site could have been ice free and occupied by ECONOMIC ASPECTS tundra vegetation at the latest about 15,000 years ago. An age of 18,600 years B.P. for the Ogdensburg-Culvers Gap As a conservative estimate, Saddle Bog has an average moraine would provide a closer correlation between the time thickness of 10 feet (3 m) of commercial quality peat over a of emplacement of the moraine and the readvance of the ice surface area of 10 acres (40,050 m2); this constitutes a sheet in southern New England and New York, and the time probable economic deposit. Use of the term "commercial when the Roslyn till was deposited 'on Long Island (Sirkin, quality peat" is in accordance with the standard classification 1971). This age would also bracket the age of the New of the American Society for Testing and Materials (1969). On Hampton moraine in the Wallkill Valley, more than 25 miles the basis of 200 short tons of air-dried peat per acre foot north of the Odgensburg-Culvers Gap moraine. Deposition of (Cameron, 1970b, p. B19) and an average price of $10.73 per the New Hampton moraine has been placed at more than ton (Cameron, 1970a, p. A43), the bog contains about 20,000 15,000 years B.P., the postulated age for the basal bog tons of air-dried peat worth about $214,600.
I D56 PALEONTOLOGY
REFERENCES County, New Jersey: Art. 172 in U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 424-C, p. C61-C64. -- 1969, Geologic map of part of Kittatinny Mountain, Sussex American Society for Testing and Materials, 1969, Standard classifiea- County, New Jersey: U.S. Geo!. Survey open-file rept., scale tion of peats, mosses, humus, and related products, ASTM Designa- 1:24,000. tion D 2607-69; Philadelphia, Pa., 1 p. Minard, J. P., and Rhodehamel, E. C., 1969, Quaternary geology of part Cameron, C. C., 1970a, Peat deposits of northeastern Pennsylvania: of northern New Jersey and the Trenton area, in Subitzky, U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1317·A, 90 p. Seymour, ed., Geology of selected areas in New Jersey and eastern -- 1970b, Peat deposits of southeastern New York: U.S. Ceol. Pennsylvania and guidebook of excursions: New Brunswick, N.J., Survey Bull. 1317.B, 32 p. Rutgers Univ. Press, p.279-313. Connally, G. G., and Sirkin, L. A., 1970, Late glacial history of the Sirkin, L. A., 1967a, Correlation of late glacial pollen stratigraphy and upper Wallkill Valley, New York: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 81, environments in the northeastern United States: Rev. Palaeobotany no. 11, p. 3297-3305. and Palynology, v. 2, nos. 1-4, p. 205-218. -- 1972, Wisconsinan history of the Hudson-Champlain lobe: Geol. -- 1967b, Late-Pleistocene pollen stratigraphy of western Long Soc. America Mem. 136 [In press] Island and eastern Staten Island, New York, in Cushing, E. J., and Davis, M. B., 1969, Climatic changes in southern Connecticut recorded Wright, H. E., Jr., eds., Quaternary paleoecology-Internat. Assoc. by pollen deposition at Rogers Lake: Ecology, v. 50, no. 3, p. Quaternary Research, 7th Cong., 1965, Proc., v. 7: New Haven, 409-422. Conn., Yale Univ. Press, p. 249-274. Davis, M. B., and Deevey, E. S., Ir., 1964, Pollen accumulation -- 1971, Surficial glacial deposits and postglacial pollen stratigraphy rates-Estimates from Iate-glacial sediment of Rogers Lake: Science, in central Long Island, New York: Pollen et Spores, v. 13, no. 1, p. v. 145, no. 3638, p, 1293-1295. 93-100. Deevey, E. S., Jr~ 1958, Radiocarbon-dated pollen sequences in eastern Sirkin, L.- A., Owens, J. P., Minard, J. P., and Rubin, Meyer, 1970, North America: Zurich, Geobot, Inst. RUbel Verofi., no. 34, p. Palynology of some upper Quaternary peat samples from the New 30-37. Jersey coastal plain, in Geological Survey Research 1970: U.S. Ceol. Minard, J. P., 1961, End moraines on Kittatinny Mountain, Sussex Survey Prof. Paper, 70()"D, D77-D87.