AEOLIAN DUNE FIELDS OF KANSAS AND THEIR RESPONSE TO LATE-QUATERNARY DROUGHT
Issue Date
2012-12-31Author
Halfen, Alan Frederick
Publisher
University of Kansas
Format
306 pages
Type
Dissertation
Degree Level
Ph.D.
Discipline
Geography
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
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Aeolian dune fields are ubiquitous features of the North American Great Plains, and contained within their stratigraphy are important records of changes in prehistoric climate. Using absolute dating techniques, researchers can determine the timing of past dune field activity, which in many cases, is the result of drought. Based on a drought-aeolian activity relationship, the timing of past dune activity can, therefore, be used as a proxy for prehistoric drought. This dissertation presents three chronologies of dune activity from understudied dune fields in Kansas. Each chronology has been established using new optically stimulated luminescence ages, which in total account for nearly 25% of the total luminescence ages reported from all U.S. Great Plains dune fields. In general, dune activity in Kansas is coeval with that recorded throughout the Great Plains, but, in particular, Kansas dunes were active during defined periods of drought recorded in other regional proxies.
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