Late Quaternary fluvial stratigraphy of the St. Albans archeologic site (46KA27), West Virginia

<p>The St. Albans archeologic site, recognized since 1964, occurs on a low terrace of the Kanawha River. Stratigraphic and magnetic susceptibility studies at the site have lead to the development of a model for predicting artifact recovery potential that is important to planning future excavations at the site.;Charcoal fragments, reddened soils and fire-cracked rocks indicate that most high magnetic susceptibility readings are produced by fire. The association of artifacts in many of these high magnetically susceptible sediments indicates they are cultural fire hearths. When executed early, magnetic susceptibilities studies should help archeologists.;The waxing and waning of late Pleistocene glaciation caused aggradation and incision events in the Ohio River valley. The principal mechanism for the development of two low terraces at St. Albans is base-level adjustments to these preceding Ohio River events.;The St. Albans terrace consists of two landforms of different age. The St. Albans Archeologic Site is located on the younger landform with 8.9 m overbank facies overlying a 7.8 m channel-sand facies. Sedimentation at the site began between 9,900 B.P. and 13,750 B.P. Floodplain sedimentation rates suggest a time closer to 9,900 B.P.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geology and Geography

Year dc:date.available

1998

Author dc:creator

• Nugent, Courtney Andreas

Contributors dc:contributor

• J. Steven Kite.

• Geology
• Physical geography
• Archaeology

Identifier

https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/926

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchrepository.wvu.edu:etd-1929