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Aeolian sand depositional records from western Nebraska: landscape response to droughts in the past 1500 years

Luminescence Dating Research Laboratory, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago IL 60607, USA; slf{at}uic.edu

L. Marin

J. Pierson

J. Gomez

Luminescence Dating Research Laboratory, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago IL 60607, USA

G. H. Miller

Department of Geological Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309-0450, USA

R. S. Webb

NOAA-Climate Diagnostic Center, Office of Atmospheric Research, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80305, USA

The Great Plains is dominated by presently stabilized dune fields that are indicators of extreme drought in the late Holocene. This study focused on deciphering the timing of reactivation of dunes in western Nebraska. Stratigraphy adjacent to dune-dammed lakes reveals aeolian sand separated by palaeosols, indicating mobilization of aeolian sand followed by landscape stability. The chronology of aeolian-sand depositional events is constrained using the luminescence-based, single aliquot regeneration method, providing resolution to relate dune movement to tree-ring and palaeolimnologic records of drought. There are at least a six aeolian depositional events in the past 1500 years, with apparent mean ages of 1390+130, 670 +70, 470 +40, 240 +40, 140 +20 and 70+10 yr. All study sites show evidence for aeolian accumulation in the twentieth century, potentially reflecting the 1930s drought. Significant aeolian activity is coincident with the tree-ring-identified sixteenth-century megadrought, indicating widespread landscape impacts.

Key Words: Holocene aeolian activity • dune fields • landscape • palaeodrought • Great Plains • OSL dating • Nebraska • late Holocene

The Holocene, Vol. 15, No. 7, 973-981 (2005)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683605hl871ra


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