COSMOGENIC-NUCLIDE AGES FOR NEW ENGLAND COASTAL END
MORAINES, MARTHA'S VINEYARD AND CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS, USA
Greg Balco, John O.H. Stone, Stephen C. Porter, Marc W. Caffee.
Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 21, pp. 2127-2135
Abstract
Cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages for 13 glacially transported
boulders atop the Martha's Vineyard Moraine, MA, USA, indicate that
the southeastern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet reached its
maximum extent during the last glaciation 23,200 ± 500 yr ago.
Another 10 age determinations from the younger Buzzards Bay moraine
near Woods Hole, MA, indicate that this moraine complex was formed
18,800 ± 400 yr ago. These ages correlate approximately with the
terminations of cooling cycles recorded in Greenland ice cores and
coeval ice-rafting events, suggesting that the marginal position of
this sector of the ice sheet was tightly coupled to North Atlantic
climate during the last glacial maximum.
