Buried Soils of Late Pleistocene to Holocene Ages Accented In Stacked Soil Sequences.

The purpose of this study was to identify litho-, pedo-, and chronostratigraphic units located in the Bull Creek Valley and determine environments of deposition, soil forming processes, and past climatic conditions of the area.  Detailed profile descriptions and laboratory data of these units are used to characterize soil and sediments.  Analyses of data obtained from the sites separate the profiles into two distinct groups of similar ages: late Pleistocene and early Holocene; and middle to late Holocene fill.  Late Pleistocene fill of similar litho-, pedo-, and chronostratigraphic units present multiple buried soils found throughout these profiles.  These alluvial sediments filled the valley during the onset of the Holocene.  Several prominent soil forming events occurred including one particularly distinct and laterally continuous buried soil, the Bull Creek Soil.  The Bull Creek Soil is a spatially and temporally important time-marker bed, located at the contact between the late Pleistocene to Holocene transition, which includes the discovery of Paleoindian cultural material as well as extinct mega-faunal remains.