LATE QUATERNARY AEOLIAN GEOMORPHOLOGY OF THE DALE LAKE SAND SHEET, SOUTHERN MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA

Abstract

Geomorphological and sedimentological analysis of aeolian deposits, combined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of quartz-grain surface characteristics, suggest six dune-building episodes during late Quaternary time in the southern Mojave Desert, California. The aeolian units accumulated largely in response to the lowering of water levels in lake basins and a consequent increase in fine sediment availability, and to stronger and more persistent winds, associated with rapidly changing environmental conditions. Peak dune deposition is believed to have taken place during the middle Holocene Altithermal between around 7.5 and 5 ka, a period characterized by greater aridity than the present. SEM analysis of the quartz surface textures indicates that mechanical and especially chemical weathering processes play a significant role in the post-depositional modification of aeolian sediments. Such evidence permits paleoenvironmental reconstruction during and since deposition, and a basis for the relative dating of aeolian sequences. Discriminant analysis using grain-size parameters, combined with principal components analysis of the SEM data from quartz-grain surfaces, is an effective analytical tool for distinguishing between spatially and temporally distributed aeolian deposits. [Key words: aeolian geomorphology, granulometry, quartz grain surface microfeatures, scanning electron microscopy, multivariate statistical analysis.]