New Late-Quaternary Records from Two Carolina Bays in North Carolina 31OCT2017

 New Late-Quaternary Records from Two Carolina Bays in North Carolina

There is an interesting new paper in Quaternary Science Reviews. It is:

Spencer, J., Jones, K.B., Gamble, D.W., Benedetti, M.M., Taylor, A.K.
and Lane, C.S., 2017. Late-Quaternary records of vegetation and fire in
southeastern North Carolina from Jones Lake and Singletary Lake.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 174, pp. 33-53.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379117303141

In part the abstract reads;

"We conducted fossil pollen, charcoal, and geochemical analyses of
sediment cores from Jones Lake and Singletary Lake spanning the
last ∼50,000 cal yr BP to examine the linkages between climate,
vegetation, and fire activity on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and
particularly emphasize changes since the Last Glacial Maximum."

There are two interesting aspects of these cores.

1. Nothing special occurs at the beginning of the Younger Dryas
in terms of either changes in lithology, vegetation, or charcoal
influx.

2. The sedimentary and palynological records in both bays extend
past the beginning of the Younger Dryas at least to circa 50,000
years ago.

Thus, contrary to the model of Antonio Zamora, both of these
Carolina Bays are significantly older then beginning of the
Younger Dryas. This raises some obvious problems with his
ideas. In addition, there is complete lack of any abrupt changes
in sedimentation or flora at the beginning of the Younger Dryas
that a person would expect to accompany a truly catastrophic
extraterrestrial event capable of causing a mass extinction.

Just some thoughts.

Yours,

Paul H.