the Plio-Pleistocene: Sediments, Environments, and Geochronology Along the Karari Escarpment, East Turkana, Kenya

Authors

Carl F. Vondra, Iowa State University
Daniel R. Burggraf Jr., Iowa State University
Howard J. White, Iowa State University

Date of this Version

1978

Document Type

Article

Comments

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences- Volume VI, 1978. Copyright © 1978 Vondra, Burggraf, Jr. and White

Abstract

The sedimentary sequence of East Turkana, Kenya, provides an excellent opportunity to document change contemporary with the Plio-Pleistocene boundary in East Africa. Within exposures along the Karari Ridge, sediments of the Fluvio-lacustrine Koobi Fora Formation record a dramatic change in depositional regime from low to high energy attributable to climate change and/or tectonic activity. The correlation of this abrupt transition with the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch is not without question, but controversy resulting from radiometric dating of volcanic ash units, paleomagnetic zonation, and paleontologic data exists and indicates that resolution of the Plio-Pleistocene boundary at East Turkana will be possible only through additional study.