The First Glacial Maximum in North America
Greg Balco,1*
Charles W. Rovey, II,2
John O. H. Stone1
Despite marine evidence for at least 50 Pliocene-Pleistocene ice sheet advances, only the most recent one has been accurately reconstructed from terrestrial evidence, because there are few techniques for dating older glacial deposits. Here we show that the cosmic rayproduced nuclides beryllium-10 and aluminum-26 can be used to date tills that overlie paleosols.
1 Quaternary Research Center and Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98915, USA.
2 Department of Geography, Geology, and Planning, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65804, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: balcs{at}u.washington.edu