LongTerm Deformation in the Central U'S' Geomorphology

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Long-Term Deformation in the Central U.S. -
Geomorphology  

• Margaret J. Guccione
• Department of Geosciences
• University of Arkansas

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Need

• Deformation affecting surface
• Driving force must exceed Geomorphic Threshold
• A response or suite of responses that are unique
  to deformation
• Dating technique

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Geomorphic Threshold

• A limit to stability
• If driving force exceeds the limit
• System is in disequilibrium
• A major response will occur
• Driving force does not NEED to be excessive

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Convergent land forms

• Same landform can be caused by a variety
  processes
• e.g. stream sinuosity
• Gradient change due to deformation
• Gradient change due to base level control
• Intrinsic variation cyclic?

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Divergent landforms

• Same process can cause a variety of different
  landforms
• e.g. stream incision
• Uplift
• Reduce sediment load
• Increased discharge
• Base level change

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Central U.S. Geomorphic Processes

• Eolian
• Groundwater
• Glaciers
• Lacustrine
• Denudation/Slopes
• Streams
• Biotic
• Archeologic

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Eolian

• No known response to deformation or cause of
  deformation
• Chronologic limit lt 200 ky

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Deformation and Groundwater/Caves

• Response - Could cause change in the water table
• Response - Could cause change in flow lines/paths
• Can these be identified? perhaps changes in
  speleothem formation such as initiation or
  ceasing of tufa formation, stalgtite/mite
  formation

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Damaged cave deposits(Israel)
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Caves

• Chronologic limit - lt200 ky?

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Glaciers

• Glaciers do cause isostatic deformation
• Depression beneath ice
• Forebulge beyond ice
• Terraces and beaches deformed as forebulge
  collapses

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Isostatic rebound does cause seismicity in
Fennoscandia and it is most frequent during
maximum uplift (9-11 kya)
(Morner, 2003)
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Can glacier recession cause change in stress
field and tectonic deformation? (Kenner and
Segall, 2000)?

• Why didnt earlier Pleistocene glaciers
  (especially Illinoian) cause deformation?
• Why isnt sesimicity most intense during major
  rebound?
• Evidence for a forebulge?
• Chronologic limit 2.2 m

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Lakes

• Deformed Shorelines
• Isostatic?
• Tectonic?
• Submarine slope failures can cause brecciation
  and turbidite deposits
• Tectonic (lacustrine seismites)?
• Storms?
• Instrinsic?

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Submarine slope failures

• Submarine slumps and intraclast breccias in Lake
  Geneva of Alps, (Gorin et al., 2003) and in Dead
  Sea (Migowski et al., 2004) have been tied to
  earthquakes
• Slumps in Lake Superior (Colman, 2007)

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Seismically disturbed lacustrine beds of the Dead
sea
From Migowski et al., 2004
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Lakes

• Chronologic Limit maybe lt100 ky
• preWisconsin slackwater lakes in Uplands and
  Crowleys Ridge
• Chronologic Limit commonly lt12 ky
• age of glacial lakes in central US

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Slopes and Uplands

• Increased altitude, slope angle, or relief
  increases
• erosion
• isostatic rebound
• Decreased altitude, slope angle, or relief
  increases
• sedimentation
• soil formation
• lithostatic pressure

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Denudation
Could Mississippi River Incision and removal of
sediment across the NMSZ cause perturbation in
stress field? (VanArsdale et al., in press)
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Questions

• Is removal of 35-100 m of sediment adequate to
  cause perturbation of stress
• Most of this sediment removed gt100 kya
• Final pulse of sediment emplacement and removal
  20-12 kya (Rittenour et al., 2007)

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Large-Scale Landforms

• Chronologic limit lt 50 my?

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Mass Movements

• Landslides - steep slopes
• Shear strength exceeded during earthquake
• landslide/slump/earthflow may result
• Liquefaction - low slopes ( e.g. Tuttle, 2001)

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1811-1812 Landslides along bluffsextensive
Based on Jibson and Keefer, 1988
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Areas of uplift and depressionaffects water
table, stream flow and impound-ment
Jibson and Keefer, 1988 (from Fuller, 1912)
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Mass Movements

• Chronologic limit - landslides
• Eastern Mississippi River bluff lt10 ky
• Crowleys Ridge lt 100 ky
• Ozark Escarpment lt 100 ky
• Chronologic limit - liquefaction
• In valley lt 100 ky
• In floodplain lt 10 ky

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Streams

• Sensitive to changes in gradient
• Channel path
• Flow direction
• Channel pattern
• Channel cross section
• Longitudinal profile
• Patterns of floodplain aggradation and degradation

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Large Scale Change in Path

• Migration of the Mississippi River to east side
  of valley
• tectonic?
• depositional?

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• Crowleys Ridge is bounded by faults and has been
  uplifted during Tertiary and Quaternary (max 7.5
  m since Eocene).
• Mississippi River moves east
• (Van Arsdale et al., 1995)

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Repeating geomorphic patternsIs there a
significance?
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Large Scale Landforms

• Chronologic limit lt 4 my?

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Small scale change in path Stream is focused
into depression and around uplift
Big Lake
Manila high
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Basin Assymetry and Stream Deviation
Cox, et al., 2001
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Offset channels along Bootheel fault (Guccione et
al., 2005)
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Strati-graphic fill along vertical displace-ment
(Guccione et al, 2005)
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Change in Pattern

• Decreased gradient due to deformation may cause
  straightening (Holbrook et al., 2006),
  anatamosing, ponding (Guccione et al., 2000)
• Increased gradient may cause meandering

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Stream straightening response to intermittent
deformation at 103 ky
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Channel Cross Section

• Uplift may cause channel incision
• Uplift may cause channel widening and shallowing
  Mississippi River (Fischer and Schumm, 1993)
• Depression may cause channel deepening by
  aggradation (Mississippi River)

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Change in Longitudinal Profile

• Anomalous blips
• Older Terraces have different profiles than
  younger terraces and floodplains

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Deformed Longitudinal Profile
Tyronza, AR Area of marked fissuring (Fuller,
1912)
Guccione et al., 2006
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Floodplain aggradation

• Uplifted dome has thin flood deposits
• Depressed basin has thick flood deposits

Reelfoot scarp
Guccione et al, 2002
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Stream Morphology and Deposits

• Chronologic Limit
• Mississippi Meander Belt lt 10 ky
• Mississippi Braid Belts lt 20 ky
• Crowleys Ridge lt 100 ky
• Western Lowlands lt 100 ky
• Uplands lt 4 my?

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Biotics

• Trauma response
• Changes in hydrology response
• Chronologic limit lt1.5 ky

Van Arsdale et al.,1998
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Biotics

• Chronologic Limit of Bald cypress lt 1.5 ky

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Archeology

• Absence or sparse sites in areas now ideal
  (Tiptonville dome)
• Abundant sites in areas that are now poor choices
  (Reelfoot basin)

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Chronologic Limit

• In central US lt 14 ky
• lt age of underlying landform

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ConclusionsUse of Geomorphology to Identify
Deformation in Central US

• Extensive
• Mass movements - liquefaction
• Stream Geomorphology
• Moderate
• Mass movements landslides
• Minimal
• Denudation/large landforms
• Biotics
• Archaeology
• Glaciers
• Potential?
• Lakes
• Groundwater/Caves

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References

• Cox, R.T., Van Arsdale, R.B., and Harris, J.B.,
  2001,
• Identification of possible Quaternary
  deformation in the northeastern Mississippi
  Embayment using quantitative geomorphic analysis
  of drainage-basin asymmetry,
• Geological Soc. of Am. Bull. 113, p. 615-624

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• Fischer, K.J. and Schumm, S.A., 1993,
• Geomorphic evidence of deformationin the
  northern part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone,
• Final Report US Geological Survey
• Guccione, M.J., Van Arsdale, R.B., Hehr, L.H.,
  2000,
• Origin and age of the Manila high and associated
  Big Lake Sunklnds New Madrid seismic zone,
  northeastern Arkansas,
• Geol. Soc. Of Am. Bull. V. 112, p. 579-590

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• Holbrook, J., Autin, W.J., Rittenour, T.M.,
  Marshak, S., Goble R., 2006,
• Stratigraphic evidence for millennial-scale
  temporal clustering of earthquakes on a
  continental-interior fault Holocene Mississippi
  River floodplain deposits, New Madrid seismic
  zone, USA
• Tectonophysics v. 420, p. 431-454.
• Jibson, R.W. and Keefer D.K., 1988 ,
• Landslides Triggered by earthquakes in the
  central Mississippi valley, Tennessee and
  Kentucky,
• U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper
  1336-C.

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• Guccione, M.J., Horn, J.D., Hays, P. and Cothren,
  J. 2006,
• Geomorphology, Stratigraphy, Vegetation, and
  Paleoseismology of the Tryronza Area and
  Archeological sites 3PO608, 3PO610, and
  3CT340/341,
• draft report submitted to SPEARS. Inc.
• Guccione, M.J., Marple, R., Autin, W.J., 2005,
  Evidence for Holocene displacements on the
  Bootheel fault (lineament) in southeastern
  Missouri Seismotectonic implications for the New
  Madrid region,
• Geol. Soc. of Am. Bull., v. 117, p.319-333.

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• Guccione, M.J., Van Arsdale, R.B., and Hehr,
  L.H., 2000,
• Origin and age of the Manila high and associated
  Big Lake Sunklands, New Madrid Seismic Zone,
  northeastern Arkansas,
• Geol. Soc. of Am. Bull., v. 112, p.579-590.

52

• Kagan, E.J Agnon, A. Bar-Matthews, M Ayalon, A.,
  2005,
• Dating large infrequent earthquakes by damaged
  cave deposits,Geology, v. 33, no.4, pp.261-264.
• Kenner, S.J. and Segall, P., 2000,
• A mechanical model for intraplate earthquakes
  Application to the New Madrid seismic zone,
• Science, v. 33, pp. 2329-2332.

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• Migowski, C. Agnon, A., Bookman, R. Negendank,
  J.F.W, Stein, M., 2004,Recurrence pattern of
  Holocene earthquakes along the Dead Sea transform
  revealed by varve-counting and radiocarbon dating
  of lacustrine sedimentsEarth and Planetary
  Science Letters, v. 222, no.1, pp.301-314.
• Morner, N-A., 2003,
• Paleoseismicity of Sweden
• Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics, Stockholm
  University

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• Rittenour, T.M., Blum, M.D., goble, R., 2007,
• Fluvial evolution of the lower Mississippi River
  valley during the last 100ky glacial cycle
  Response to glaciation and sea-level change,
• Geol. Soc. of Am. Bull. v. 119, pp.586-608.
• Tuttle, M.P., 2001
• The use of liquefaction features in
  paleoseismology Lessons learned in the New
  Madrid seismic zone, central United States,
• Journal of Seismology, v. 5, p. 361-380.

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• VanArsdale R.B., Bresnahan R., McCallister, N.,
  and Waldron, B. in press)
• Upland complex of the central Mississippi River
  valley Its origin, denudation, and possible role
  in reactivation of the New Madrid seismic zone,
• Geological Soc. of Am. Sp. Paper 423.
• Van Arsdale, R.B., Stahle, D.W., Cleaveland,
  M.K., and Guccione, M.J., 1998,
• Earthquake signals in tree-ring data from the
  New Madrid seismic zone and implications for
  paleoseismicity,
• Geology, v. 26, no. 6, p. 515-518.