Yarmouthian (stage)

The Yarmouthian stage and the Yarmouth Interglacial were part of a now obsolete geologic timescale of the early Quaternary of North America.

This climatic and chronological framework was composed of four glacial and interglacial stages. It was developed between 1894 and 1909 by geomorphologists and Quaternary geologists to subdivide glacial and nonglacial deposits within the United States of America. From youngest to oldest, they were the Wisconsin glaciation, Sangamonian (interglacial), Illinoian Stage (glacial), Yarmouthian, Kansan glaciation, Aftonian (interglacial), and Nebraskan stages. The Yarmouthian (Yarmouth) Interglacial was defined first on the basis of "interglacial" sediments encountered in wells dug in southeasterm Iowa. Later the Yarmouth (Yarmouthian) stage in Illinois was defined on the basis of the Yarmouth Paleosol (Soil) developed in the surface of what were thought at that time to be "Kansan" glacial tills and buried by Illionian glacial tills of the Glasford Formation in southeast Iowa and east-central Illinois. At this time, it was incorrectly presumed that the Yarmouth Paleosol formed during a single interglacial stage that separated a younger glacial stage, the Illinoian Glaciation, represented by the sediments of the Glasford Formation in Illinois and the glacial deposits of an older glacial stage, called the "Kansan Glaciation".

Since the Yarmouthian (Yarmouth) interglacial was named, the stratigraphy of Pleistocene deposits was found to be far more complex than the two glacial tills and one volcanic ash bed on which the Yarmouthian, Kansan, Nebraskan, and Aftonian glacial - interglacial nomenclature was originally based. Detailed research by various geomorphologists and Quaternary geologists demonstrated that the two glacial tills and one ash bed stratigraphic model, on which the Yarmouthian, Kansan, Nebraskan, and Aftonian glacial - interglacial nomenclature was based, was completely wrong. For example, the so-called "Kansan" glacial sediments in which the Yarmouth Soil developed are now known to date to different periods of glaciation depending on where it is examined within the Midwest and other parts of North America. In addition, fission track dating and geochemical analysis demonstrated what was thought to be one volcanic ash layer was actually three separate volcanic ash layers, i.e. the 602,000 year-old Lava Creek B volcanic ash; the 1,293,000 year-old Mesa Falls volcanic ash, and the 2,003,000 year-old Huckleberry volcanic ash. Thus, the basic assumptions, on which the Yarmouthian (interglacial), Kansan (glacial), Aftonian (interglacial), and Nebraskan (glacial) nonmenclature was originally defined was found to be lacking any scientific basis. As a result, the Yarmouthian (interglacial), Kansan (glacial), Aftonian (interglacial), and Nebraskan (glacial) nonmenclature was abandoned by Quaternary geologists North America and merged into the Pre-Illinoian Stage.

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