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Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene aeolian deposits of Tasmania and their climatic implications
Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene aeolian deposits of Tasmania and their climatic implications
- Source :
- Quaternary Research. 102:91-114
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2020.
-
Abstract
- Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene aeolian deposits in Tasmania are extensive in the present subhumid climate zone but also occur in areas receiving >1000 mm of rain annually. Thermoluminescence, optically stimulated luminescence, and radiocarbon ages indicate that most of the deposits formed during periods of cold climate. Some dunes are remnants of longitudinal desert dunes sourced from now-inundated continental shelves which were previously semi-arid. Others formed near source, often in the form of lunettes east of seasonally-dry lagoons in the previously semi-arid Midlands and southeast of Tasmania, or as accumulations close to floodplains of major rivers, or as sandsheets in exposed areas. Burning of vegetation by the Aboriginal population after 40 ka is likely to have influenced sediment supply. A key site for determining climate variability in southern Tasmania is Maynes Junction which records three periods of aeolian deposition (at ca. 90, 32 and 20 ka), interspersed with periods of hillslope instability. Whether wind speeds were higher than at present during the last glacial period is uncertain, but shells in the Mary Ann Bay sandsheet near Hobart and particle size analysis of the Ainslie dunes in northeast Tasmania suggest stronger winds during the last glacial period than at present.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
Pleistocene
Continental shelf
Sediment
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
01 natural sciences
Deposition (geology)
law.invention
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
law
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Aeolian processes
Glacial period
Radiocarbon dating
Physical geography
Holocene
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Earth-Surface Processes
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10960287 and 00335894
- Volume :
- 102
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Quaternary Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........c08c7fe68f16e383fa500e8ce945c35e
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2020.83