%0 Journal Article %J Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology %D 2011 %T Sequence Stratigraphy and a Revised Sea-level Curve for the Middle Devonian of Eastern North America %A C. Brett %A G.C. Baird %A Bartholomew, A. J. %A DeSantis, M. K. %A C. A. Ver Straeten %K Cyclostratigraphy %K Eastern North America %K eustasy %K Middle Devonian %K Sea-level %K sequence stratigraphy %X

The well-exposed Middle Devonian rocks of the Appalachian foreland basin (Onondaga Formation; Hamilton Group, Tully Formation, and the Genesee Group of New York State) preserve one of the most detailed records of high-order sea-level oscillation cycles for this time period in the world. Detailed examination of coeval units in distal areas of the Appalachian Basin, as well as portions of the Michigan and Illinois basins, has revealed that the pattern of high-order sea-level oscillations documented in the New York–Pennsylvania section can be positively identified in all areas of eastern North America where coeval units are preserved. The persistence of the pattern of high-order sea-level cycles across such a wide geographic area suggests that these cycles are allocyclic in nature with primary control on deposition being eustatic sea-level oscillation, as opposed to autocylic controls, such as sediment supply, which would be more local in their manifestation. There is strong evidence from studies of cyclicity and spectral analysis that these cycles are also related to Milankovitch orbital variations, with the short and long-term eccentricity cycles (100 kyr and 405 kyr) being the dominant oscillations in many settings. Relative sea-level oscillations of tens of meters are likely and raise considerable issues about the driving mechanism, given that the Middle Devonian appears to record a greenhouse phase of Phanerozoic history. These new correlations lend strong support to a revised high-resolution sea-level oscillation curve for the Middle Devonian for the eastern portion of North America. Recognized third-order sequences are: Eif-1 lower Onondaga Formation, Eif-2: upper Onondaga and Union Springs formations; Eif–Giv: Oatka Creek Formation; Giv-1: Skaneateles, Giv-2: Ludlowville, Giv-3: lower Moscow, Giv-4: upper Moscow–lower Tully, and Giv-5: middle Tully–Geneseo formations. Thus, in contrast with the widely cited eustatic curve of Johnson et al. (1985), which recognizes just one major transgressive–regressive (T–R) cycle in the early–mid Givetian (If) prior to the major late Givetian Taghanic unconformity (IIa, upper Tully–Geneseo Shale), we recognize four T–R cycles: If (restricted), Ig, Ih, and Ii. We surmise that third-order sequences record eustatic sea-level fluctuations of tens of meters with periodicities of 0.8–2 myr, while their medial-scale (fourth-order) subdivisions record lesser variations primarily of 405 kyr duration (long-term eccentricity). This high-resolution record of sea-level change provides strong evidence for high-order eustatic cycles with probable Milankovitch periodicities, despite the fact that no direct evidence for Middle Devonian glacial sediments has been found to date.

%B Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology %V 304 %P 21-53 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.10.009 %R 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.10.009 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Archaeological Science %D 2004 %T Can Cucurbita pepo Gourd Seeds be Made Edible? %A J. P. Hart %K Cucurbita pepo %K Eastern North America %K Gourd seed edibility %K Seed crop processing %X

The earliest pre-maize indigenous crop in eastern North America are gourds of the species Cucurbita pepo; C. pepo gourd remains are found on mid-Holocene archaeological sites throughout the East. The C. pepo gourds of modern, natural populations produce high levels of extremely bitter cucurbitacins, chemicals which make both the flesh and the seeds inedible. It is assumed that the fruits and seed coats of the ancient C. pepo gourds were equally bitter and inedible. The major question regarding C. pepo gourds is how they would have been used. A series of recent experiments show that the seeds of dried C. pepo gourds can be processed to make them edible.

%B Journal of Archaeological Science %V 31 %P 1631-1633 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2004.04.004 %R 10.1016/j.jas.2004.04.004 %0 Book Section %B Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science %D 2003 %T Crop Domestication in Prehistoric Eastern North America %A Asch, D. L. %A J. P. Hart %E Goodman, R. M. %K Chenopodium berlandieri %K Cucurbita pepo %K Eastern Agricultural Complex %K Eastern North America %K Helianthus annuus %K Iva annua %K Maize–beans–squash agriculture %K Plant domestication %K Prehistoric agriculture %X

At European Contact, eastern North American Indian agriculture featured the New World cosmopolitan ‘‘three sisters:’’ maize, beans, and squash. Maize and beans had diffused from the tropics as domesticates, as did some squashes. The dominance of this triad in temperate eastern North America was recent. Maize became an important crop only about 1000 years ago, and beans entered the
region at 850 b.p. But before maize became preeminent—as early as 3500 b.p.—there was an ‘‘Eastern Agricultural Complex’’ (EAC), which consisted of several indigenous crops. EAC was largely an indigeneous development; its origins can be traced back at least 7300 years.

%B Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science %I Marcel Dekker, Inc. %C New York, New York %P 304-319 %G eng %U http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/E-EPCS-120017103#.VegsW5eOUXg %R 10.1081/E-EPCS-120017103 %0 Journal Article %J Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences %D 2003 %T Tectonic Setting of Outer Trench Slope Volcanism: Pillow Basalt and Limestone in the Ordovician Taconian Orogen of Eastern New York %A E. Landing %A Pe-Piper, G %A Kidd, W. S. F. %A Azmy, K. %K Eastern North America %K New York. %K pillow basalt %K Stark's Knob %K Taconic orogen %X

The only pillow basalt in synorogenic sedimentary rocks at the exterior margin of the Taconic orogen in eastern North America is at Stark's Knob in eastern New York. Earlier reported as extrusive into allochthonous Ordovician slope and rise facies, this small lens (ca. 125+ m long, 39 m thick) is a fault-bounded block in Upper Ordovician melange under the Taconian frontal thrust. Its N-MORB (normal mid-ocean ridge basalt) basalt geochemistry and spinel composition are characteristic of oceanic ridge settings at a water depth of 2 km or more. Abundant limestone lenses on pillows and lava shelves within pillows yielded a middle Late Ordovician gastropod. The limestones are reconciled with this extrusion depth and with limited early Paleozoic pelagic carbonate production by lime mud transport from the Laurentian platform or abiotic carbonate precipitation with sea-water heating during basalt extrusion. A genetic relationship between the parautochthonous Stark's Knob basalts and the allochthonous Jonestown volcanics in slope and rise facies of the Hamburg klippe, eastern Pennsylvania, is likely. Both are Ordovician MORB basalts that reflect volcanism on the subducting outer trench slope prior to the Taconic arc – Laurentia collision. Taconic orogenesis may have led to basalt production on the subducting plate by (1) the setting up of orogen-parallel, predominantly strike-slip motion on the subducting slab with MORB basalt generated at offsets in a setting analogous to the Gulf of California or (2) development of faults in a flexure-induced extensional regime. By either process, mafic volcanism appears to be a rare but tectonically significant process on outer trench slopes as continental margins or oceanic plates enter subduction zones.

%B Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences %V 40 %P 1773-1787 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e03-076 %R 10.1139/e03-076