Little islands recording global events: Late Quaternary sea level history and paleozoogeography of Santa Barbara and Anacapa Islands, Channel Islands National Park, California

Western North American Naturalist
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Abstract

Marine terraces are common on the Pacific Coast of North America and record interglacial high-sea stands superimposed on either stable or tectonically rising crustal blocks. Despite many years of study of these landforms in southern California, little work on terraces has been conducted on the two smallest of the California Channel Islands, Santa Barbara Island (SBI) and Anacapa Island (ANA). Presented here are new field and laboratory data on the ages, paleontology, and sea level history of marine terraces of these two islands. On both islands, the lowest marine terraces have shoreline angle elevations of ∼11 m above sea level. Amino acid geochronology shows that terrace deposits on both islands host fossils of two ages, one group dating to the ∼120-ka high-sea stand and the other group likely dating to the ∼100-ka high-sea stand. A mix of fossil ages is consistent with the paleontology as well, with SBI in particular showing a faunal assemblage that includes both extralimital southern and southward-ranging species (inferred to be from the ∼120-ka high-sea stand) and extralimital northern and northward-ranging species (inferred to be from the ∼100-ka high-sea stand). Fossil mixing from these two high-sea stands supports the hypothesis that glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) processes have left a strong imprint on the geologic record of sea level history in southern California. Nevertheless, the elevations of these terraces and that of a low terrace on Santa Cruz Island indicate that modeled GIA estimates of paleo-sea level for the peak of the last interglacial period at ∼120 ka could be too high. Future development of models of GIA effects on the Pacific Coast of North America will need to consider geologic records, such as those from SBI and ANA, in refining reconstructions of sea level history.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Little islands recording global events: Late Quaternary sea level history and paleozoogeography of Santa Barbara and Anacapa Islands, Channel Islands National Park, California
Series title Western North American Naturalist
DOI 10.3398/064.078.0403
Volume 78
Issue 4
Year Published 2018
Language English
Publisher Brigham Young University
Contributing office(s) Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
Description 50 p.
First page 540
Last page 589
Country United States
State California
Other Geospatial Anacapa Island, Channel Islands National Park, Santa Barbara Island, Santa Cruz Island
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