Doctoral Dissertation Research: Pedology and 10-Beryllium Dating of Colluvial Deposits in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina

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9405198 SCHAETZL As early as the 1880s, geomorphologists like William Morris Davis developed and tested models of landscape change in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. Only recently have new approaches and theories been used to interpret the complex intermixture of landforms in the region, however. New methods for dating materials offer considerable promise for developing a chronology of landforms and materials. This doctoral dissertation research project will elucidate the geomorphic and soils history of the southern Blue Ridge as recorded in colluvial deposits and associated soils from the Little Tennessee River basin of western North Carolina. Sets of colluvium samples drawn from carefully selected series in tributary valleys will be extracted in addition to other data derived in the field. The relative ages of the colluvial samples will be determined by examining soil morphological properties, ratios of iron species, and rations of differentially weatherable minerals. The samples also will be examined using relatively new dating techniques that measure an isotope of beryllium (10-Be). Dates determined using this method should allow identification of a maximum surface exposure age for each sample, thereby enabling examination of the properties and evolutionary histories of these deposits and relative soils in a more quantitative frame of reference. This project will advance knowledge about geomorphological and pedological change in the Blue Ridge province in the southern Appalachians, providing a much firmer chronological context within which to examine processes of landscape and soil evolution. In addition, it will explore the utility of 10-Be dating procedures. As a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.