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Using cave deposits as geologic tiltmeters: Application to postglacial rebound of the Sierra Nevada, California
Author(s) -
Granger Darryl E.,
Stock Greg M.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2004gl021403
Subject(s) - geology , cave , calcite , speleothem , interglacial , stalagmite , geochemistry , geomorphology , glacial period , paleontology , holocene , archaeology , history
Secondary calcite shelfstone deposits in caves can be used to precisely measure tilting over geologic timescales. Calcite deposited along the edges of former pools can be surveyed to within a single millimeter, and can be dated using uranium‐series disequilibrium. Two caves in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, contain tilted calcite deposits of glacial age. A third cave contains a similar but untilted deposit of older interglacial age. The cave deposits record glacio‐isostatic rebound of the Sierra Nevada, following melting of an ice cap ∼15,000 years ago. Models of crustal flexure beneath mapped ice thickness reproduce the observed tilting with an effective elastic thickness (T e ) of approximately 5 km.