Gulf coastal plain evolution in West Louisiana: Heavy mineral provenance and Pleistocene alluvial chronology

Optical and thermal luminescence dating at other Gulf locations [Otvos, E.G. (2005). Numerical chronology of Pleistocene coastal plain and valley development; extensive aggradation during glacial low sea levels. Quaternary Internat., 135 91-113.] supports the pre-Sangamon ages of the Intermediate Pleistocene terraces in the NP area. Sangamon (135-116 ka), Eowisconsin (114-76 ka), and Wisconsin (74-36 ka) dates characterize the four provinces in the low, level northern Gulf Prairie coastal plain. Refuting earlier assumptions that coastal plain aggradation occurred only during marine highstand phases, thermal and optical luminescence dates indicated that, despite the low Eowisconsin and Wisconsin eustatic sea levels of several preglacial and glacial stages and substages, coastal plain alluviation, paradoxically, recurred between 106 and 35 ka BP. An interesting outcome of our heavy mineral study is the recognition and dating of a previously undocumented, rare ash-fall event that originated in Caribbean andesitic volcanoes. It was identified by the presence of a volcanogenic heavy mineral suite, composed of pristine euhedral clinopyroxene, sphene, zircon, apatite, and hexagonal biotite. Unaffected by fluvial reworking, this suite was recovered from a MP sample, dated ca. 86 ka BP.