DISCUSSION
As part of a project that began in November 2005, this preliminary geologic New Quaternary Geologic Mapping and Geochronology of the Corridor Area of the Missouri National Recreational River, Nebraska and South Dakota mapping is based on new mapping of the valley bottom and of the Nebraska uplands, and on integration with existing mapping in South Dakota (Johnson LUNDSTROM, Scott C.,1 PACES, James B.,1 HANSON, Paul,2 COWMAN, Tim,3 HOLBROOK, John M.,4 JACOBSON, R.B.,5 DILLON, Jeremy S.,6 JOECKEL, R.M.,2 OSTERKAMP, W.R.,8 WERKMEISTER, Wayne,7 and McCormick, 2005). A primary purpose of this poster is to promote communication during project development. In addition, the geologic
1U.S. Geological Survey, Box 25046, Denver Federal Center, MS 980, Denver, CO 80225, [email protected] mapping shown here provides hypotheses to be tested by future eldwork and
2 geochronology, and a framework to develop and test relationships between the Conservation and Survey Division, School of Natural Resources, Univ. of Nebraska, 102 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0517 TIMING OF PALEO GROUND-WATER DISCHARGE ASSOCIATED WITH THE JAMES LOBE OF THE LAURENTIDE ICE SHEET 3South Dakota Geological Survey and Missouri River Institute, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069 geology, hydrology, and ecology. Geologic mapping leads to an integrated characterization and visualization of the sur cial and subsurface geologic 4Earth and Environmental Science, Univ. of Texas at Arlington, Box 19049, 500 Yates St., Arlington, TX 76019 Missouri River Basin framework of the river corridor, which is necessary to understand the interaction 5USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center, 4200 New Haven Rd., Columbia, MO 65201 LOCATION AND GEOLOGIC SETTING OF SEES TRAVERTINE of ground water with river hydrology and ecology. Our geologic mapping 6Dept. of Geography and Earth Science, University of Nebraska, Kearney, NE 6858e-0966 • Porous tufa and laminated travertine are poorly exposed along a 97W 1-km-long stretch of the James River Valley marginal scarp provides information that is complementary to ongoing studies of habitat, 7Missouri National Recreational River, National Park Service, O'Neill, NE 68763 oaaloa 43N oa ecology, and geomorphic change [(e.g. Elliott and Jacobson, 2006). wltr wltr 8 wltr oa • Crude bedding appears to drape present hillslope t wlt wlo U.S. Geological Survey, 1675 W. Annklam Road, Tucson, AZ 85745 wltg wlcd wltg wltgw wlo M wlcd wlte e is al wlo t Riv r so wlo i u t • Modern ground-water discharges from contact between underlying our wlts wlte Miss r wlodwlts wlo wlod wltr t2 i wlt wlod wlo t1 C al wlod wltgw o wlo wltre The area of 16 7.5-minute quadrangles includes the most marked expansion t wlod wlo travertine-cemented sandy gravel and overlying clay-rich glacial till e t wltg a wlcd wlod t List of Map Units u wlt t wlcd t wltr in width of the Missouri River valley over its entire course. River valley width t Williston wlcd t wlts t r River (extent of medium stage in 2004) and other open water ABSTRACT wltg wlcdal Basin wlcd t t1 t2 River bars(emergent in 2004 orthophoto, but submerged during average seasonal high stage) expands from 3–6 km upstream of Yankton to 10–16 km downvalley to the east: wloc t TEXTURAL RELATIONS OF HAND SAMPLES al
wltg bs sand largely nonvegetated J oa
a wloc the valley expansion is coincident with the southern limit of late Wisconsinan
m wlok wlt Prairie Coteau bv e wltg largely vegetated island or annually submerged side bar • Textures consist of calcite-cemented glacial sandy gravel cut by veins of New Quaternary geologic mapping and geochronological research s wlte wlt R wltre glaciation, but this relation is not yet well understood. The map area to date i v wlok ef Engineered and other ll of Gavins Point Dam complex and hatchery wlo micritic to coarse, sparry calcite e wlo wlt o4b r STUDY along the lower Missouri River below Gavins Point Dam provide new V ay Fine alluvium and marsh in yazoo setting covers about the upper half of the 59-mile district of the MNRR. a wltg al Alluvium of local washes l al l e AREA al • Multiple generations of calcite cement, cross-cutting veins and pendular y dy Dune sand insights into the evolution of this critical river corridor. Our methods o4b wloc al wlts wltgs o4 o5 druse in vuggy pores o4a Jp o1 J Former channels/courses of James River o1 J Loess Hills ay The geomorphic patterns within this part of the Missouri River Valley show a include uranium-series and optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) al wltgs rt2 u • Gray-colored concrete-like groundmass contains abundant detritus, but dy wltgs t al t rt1 M contrast between older high-amplitude meander scroll patterns and more o2 u Sand Hills i travertine veins are free of clastic material t dating. Geomorphology and soil characteristics were used to map the s cy u o3 o5 Morphostratigraphic units of Missouri River alluvium MNRR s o1 o3 o wlok u rt1 Jp All except ow have younger bedded mud, silt, and clay of levee, splay, island-braided patterns in younger, crosscutting morphology. This is consistent y y r y i Kp Kn Kp y u overbank, and R Kn ls o4 crosscutting uvial meander belts that cover the 3-12 km wide valley i al yo al v u o2 ef rt1 with results downriver in central Missouri by Holbrook and others (2005), which e ef o1 yh Youngest (late historic) r y yh yh1 yh2 bs Jp bs o2 PRELIMINARY U-SERIES DATING RESULTS ef yh Gg bs yh oor and the glaciated uplands south of the Missouri River valley in bs yh y y1 y3 Younger units of island-braided morphology yh yh y2 they documented and tested by subsurface investigations and geochronology. ef bv yh o3 water yh yh yh ef water • Detritus-free vein material analyzed for U-Th isotopes by thermal dy yo yo1 yo2 gy yh dy yh al Our collaboration will similarly test and contribute to understanding the driven yh o5 Nebraska. In the latter area, contacts approximating the maximum rst ef o1 Knal relative age units of Goat Island not yet ionization mass spectrometry Kn al gi u al u o1 u correlated to relative age units of oodplain y by basin hydrologic and geomorphic response to climate change. yh derivative of slope show a predominantly northwest-southeast Gosu al go al yh o2 yh1 o1 • Calcite contains 3 to 6 µg/g U and <0.05 µg/g Th resulting in high U/Th al yo Ozark Plateau yh bs o3 u o2 o1 and Th/ Th ratios and negligable corrections to Th/U ages Gotv bv orientation of tributary valleys and an anastamozed valley pattern in Gosu yh river u o4 The scope of our work includes study of the signi cance of the remarkable 0 150 300 KILOMETERS o3 Older units of large amplitude meanders Gosu yh2 Gosu Gosu u • Robust Th/U ages for vein material range from 10.5 to 12.5 ka ±~1% (2σ) Gosu which multiple low passes commonly separate adjacent tributary u o4a y u legacy of glacial geology to the modern resources of the river corridor. Glacially yh yhc yh u o4b cy2 cy2 • White pendular calcite in open vugs has younger ages to ~7 ka cy1 watersheds. Erosion by strong periglacial winds has been suggested to yh buried gravels and valleys are signi cant to ground-water ow into the river y3 y2 Gosu yh y2 o5 Limit of Pleistocene ice sheets dy y2 dy y1 • Paragenetically older dark, laminated calcite vein has Th/U age of Gosu y1 dy corridor from both sides of the river valley, though the morphology and age of Mapping of y yh2 form the orientation. However, the common occurrence of Canadian yhc dy ow Glacial gravel – oldest y yh bs Johnson and McCormick, 2005 yh1 yh bs bv 130.4 ±1.1 ka and model U/ U ages of 127 to 132 ka Gosu Knc bs Knc bs go gy u these terrains contrast greatly. The relations between ground-water input, largely Wisconsinan pre-Wisconsinan gi go bsdy Undivided or unknown relative age gy dy bv dy go bv shield-derived glacial gravels and diamicts in both major and minor bv bs Gosu YANKTON GAYVILLE GAYVILLE NE Gosu yh MISSION HILL • Material with ages between 13 and 127 not yet identied (N = 16) sediment type, and river ecology are thought to be highly signi cant but y dy u Gosu yo1 valleys indicates that glacial and uvial erosion and deposition may have North side of Missouri River valley: Wisconsinan and later map units (after Johnson and McCormick, 2005) al generally are not yet adequately understood. The glacial geology is also very al yo followed joint patterns in the Cretaceous and Tertiary sedimentary Gosu rt Fluvial terrace of Missouri River al relevant to river ecology and management because of its controls on uvial MECKLING AGE VERSUS INITIAL U/ U ACTIVITY RATIOS (AR) al ls DAM MENOMINEE ST. HELENA Loess GAVINS POINT oa • Observe systematic linear trend of decreasing U/ U AR in latest sediment types, supply, and spatial distribution. Glacial geology may be bedrock in the uplands. Involuted gravelly sand underlying a few meters al Outwash and alluvium Gosu
Gosu al of silt in lower Bow Creek valley in Nebraska yielded OSL dates of about t (1,2)) Terrace Pleistocene- to Holocene-age calcite from 1.984 to 1.769 particularly relevant in providing stable, hard, spawning substrate for native al OBERT Qwlt Undivided till and colluvium CROFTON FORDYCE WYNOT • Modern discharge from North Sees Spring has high U concentration shes, including the endangered pallid sturgeon (Laustrup et al, 2007). 11-17 ka. The markedly oriented glaciated Nebraska uplands contrast Qwlo Outwash Heterogeneous textures, but well-sorted sand and gravel (30.3 µg/L) and measured U/ U AR of 1.325 — isotopic evolution Qwlot(1,2) Outwash terrace with the younger glaciated terrain in South Dakota is commonly predominant below surface soil of ground water has not been linear over last 7 k.y. Qwloc Outwash, collapsed Loess cover (not shown as a separate map unit in NE), including that on New Mapping COLERIDGE SE HARTINGTON COLERIDGE Qwlok Outwash, kame •130 k.y. calcite has initial U/ U AR (2.36) distinctly higher than younger summits and slopes is discontinuous and highly variable in thickness within the HARTINGTON SW
wlod material A few miles north of the Missouri River, laminated travertine exists on Desintegration ridge map area. As in east-central Nebraska (Mason et al, 2007), components of loess Index to 7.5' quadrangles of map area wlcd Debris, collapsed REFERENCES thickness increase toward the Missouri River, but other trends are apparent in the marginal scarp of the James River Valley within the latest Wisconsin Till—diamicton of heterogeneous texture, but matrix is commonly predominant silty clay loam Bugliosi, E.F., 1986, Water resources of Yankton County, South Dakota: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 84-4241 DISCUSSION wltg(s,w) Till, ground moraine this area that require future testing, including an apparent much greater loess Burchett, R.R., Dreeszen, V.H., Souders, V.L., and Prichard, G.E., 1988, Bedrock geologic map showing con guration of the bedrock surface in the Nebraska part of the Sioux City 1 x 2 degree ground moraine of the James lobe of the Laurentide ice sheet. Robust quadrangle: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map I-1879. Gotv wlts(1,2) Till, stagnation moraine • Sees Travertine preserves a precisely dateable record of ground water thickness in uplands east of the Bow Creek drainage than within the Bow Cr. Christiansen, C.M., 1967, Geology and water resources of Clay County, South Dakota; Part 1: Geology: South Dakota Geological Survey Bulletin 19(1), 46 p. Th/U dates on calcite laminae range from 10.5 ka to 12.5 ka (mean 2σ Condra, G.E., 1908, Geology and water resources of the Missouri River Valley in northeastern Nebraska: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 215, 59 p. wlte(1) Till, end moraine discharge associated with the advance/retreat of Pleistocene ice sheets Basin, especially near the Missouri Valley. Soil survey data and more recent Cowman, T., 2005, River morphology and the dynamic Missouri River: Ninth Annual Missouri River Natural Resources Conference, Pierre, South Dakota. Position of river in 1892 from Missouri River Commission map (1895) Di endal, R.F., Jr., and Di endal, A.P., 2003, Lewis and Clark and the Geology of Nebraska and parts of adjacent States: Nebraska Survey and Conservation Division Educational Circular 18, 32 p. • Discharge may have been related to transistions from glacial to interglacial observations indicate common surface occurrence of gravel, well sorted sand, error of 0.4 ka) and indicate ground-water discharge from glacial aquifers Dillon, J.S., 2004, Geomorphology and late Quaternary stratigraphy of the lower Bow Creek drainage basin, Northeastern Nebraska, in Nebraska Arch. Survey Technical Report 2004-003 Elliot, C. M., and Jacobson, R.B., 2006, Geomorphic classi cation and assessment of channel dynamics in the Missouri National Recreational River, South Dakota and Nebraska: U.S. Geological climate conditions; however, local environmental conditions at the time till and bedrock in summit positions and a surprising lack of loess cover. that closely followed the latest Wisconsin advance of the James lobe. Survey Scienti c Investigations Report 2006-5313 of discharge require further evaluation Ensz, E.H., 1979, Soil Survey of Yankton County, South Dakota: U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, 172 p. Older loess-mantled glacial terrain to south of Missouri River Valley Flowerday, C.F., and Di endal, R.F., Jr., 1997, Geology of Niobrara State Park, Nebraska and adjacent areas: Nebraska Survey and Conservation Division Educational Circular 13, 28 p. Ages of secondary, vug- lling calcite as young as 8.1 ±0.1 ka help de ne Gosu Streamlined upland, includes glacial, interglacial and postglacial gravel, sand, silt, diamict, Hallberg, G.R., 1979, Changes in the channel area of the Missouri River in Iowa, 1879-1976: Iowa Geological Survey Special Report Series Number 1, 32 p. and sparse exposure of underlying bedrock • Evolving ground-water U/ U AR compostions may be related to The pre-loessial Quaternary geology is also complex and has little Holbrook, J., Goble, R., Amadi, F., Nzewunwah, C., and Main, D., 2005, An integrated record for late Holocene climate in the northern U.S. Western Interior from strata of the lower Missouri River: Gotv Valley terrain, includes subglacial, proglacial and postglacial deposits, including gravel, sand, silt, mud, and diamict hydrodynamic and geochemical process in sub- or periglacial aquifer a trend of decreasing initial U/U with age. Modern spring discharge Evidence for a regional climate shift at 3,500 b.p.: Geological Society of America Abstracts, Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah. correspondence with surface morphology. Roadcuts and borrow pits in uplands Joeckel, R.M., Ludvigson, G.A., Witzke, B.J., Kvale, E.P., Phillips, P.L., Brenners, R.L., Thomas, S.G., Howard, L.M., 2005, Palaeogeography and uvial to estuarine architecture of the Dakota Formation Bedrock units apply to mapping on both sides of the valley (Cretaceous, Albian), eastern Nebraska, USA: Special Pubs., International Association of Sedimentologists. • Additional dating and isotope geochemistry (Sr/Sr, δO and δ C) of at one site has a U/U activity ratio of 1.325, which plots near the Kp Pierre Shale include exposures of glacial till; locally thick, (>10m) well- to poorly sorted sand Johnson, G.D., and McCormick, K.A., 2005, Geology of Yankton County, South Dakota: South Dakota Geological Survey Bulletin 34, 46 p. travertine deposits are underway Jorgenson, D.G., 1960, Geology and shallow ground-water resources of the Missouri Valley between North Sioux City and Yankton, South Dakota: South Dakota Geological Survey Report of Kn Niobrara Formation (chalk, limestone, and shale) and gravel with common crystalline Precambrian lithologies including Sioux zero-age end of the trend. The isotopic evolution of discharge, Investigations 86, 54 p. Knc Niobrara Formation and Carlile Shale • These encouraging results provide strong motivation to nd similar deposits Lacelle, D., 2007, Environmental setting, (micro)morphologies and stable C-O isotope composition of cold climate carbonate precipitates – a review and evaluation of their potential as Quartzite; and underlying Cretaceous bedrock including shale and chalk of the considered with quality of nearby ground and surface water, is being paleoclimate proxies: Quaternary Science Reviews 26: 1670-1689 during ongoing mapping in the region to better understand the Laustrup, M.S., Jacobson, R.B., and Simpkins, D.G., 2007, Distribution of potential spawning habitat for sturgeon in the Lower Missouri River: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2007-1192, Carlile, Niobrara, and Pierre. Though geology of valley lls is even more poorly used to improve understanding of geologic and climatic controls on Mason, J.A., Joeckel, R.M., and Bettis, E.A., 2007, Middle to late Pleistocene loess record in eastern Nebraska, USA, and implications for the unique nature of Oxygen Isotope Stage 2: Quaternary 0 2.5 5 MILES hydrogeologic framework of surface-water/ground-water relations in this Science Reviews, 26, p. 773-792 42.5N 0 2.5 5 KILOMETERS exposed than in upland, boreholes and dredge pit exposures indicate a similar Martin, James, E., Sawyer, J.F., Fahrenbach, M.D., Tomhave, D.W., and Schulz, L.D., 2004, Geologic map of South Dakota: South Dakota Geological Survey Map G-10, scale 1:500,000. part of the Missouri River corridor surface/ground water interactions, and their signi cance to adaptive National Research Council, 2002, The Missouri River ecosystem: exploring the prospects for recovery: National Academy of Science Press, Washington, D.C., 175 p. 97W range of materials, with the addition of postglacial (including Holocene) uvial 97.5 W Pabian, R.K., and Lawton, D.R., 1984, Geology of Ponca State Park, Nebraska: Nebraska Survey and Conservation Division Educational Circular 6, 33 p. management of riverine ecosystems Simpson, H.E., 1960, Geology of the Yankton area, South Dakota and Nebraska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 328, 124 p. stratigraphy (Dillon, 2004). Near Wynot and lower Bow Creek, involuted gravelly Swinehart, J.B., Dreeszen, V.H., Richmond, G.M., Tipton, M.J., Bretz, R., Steece, F.V., Hallberg, G.R., and Goebel, J.E., 1994, Quaternary Geologic map of the Platte River 4 x 6 degree quadrangle: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Map I-1420 (NK-14), scale 1:1,000,000. sand that underlies a few meters of silt yielded OSL dates of 11-17 ka, in Tomhave, D.W., and Schulz, L.D., 2004, Bedrock geologic map showing con guration of the bedrock surface in South Dakota east of the Missouri River: South Dakota Geological Survey Map G-09, scale 1:500,000. collaboration with ongoing 7.5’ quad mapping (Nebraska CSD and STATEMAP). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1996, Missouri River Gavins Point dam degradation trends study: Omaha District, 21 p.