US Geological Survey
The Frost-Moved Rubbles Of Jumbo Dome And Their Significance In The Pleistocene Chronology Of Alaska
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
3-1949
Citation
The Journal of Geology, Vol. 57, No. 2, Mar., 1949
Abstract
Jumbo Dome, a prominent landmark on the north side of the Alaska Range, is a small body of intrusive andesite surrounded by schist and by poorly consolidated sediments of Tertiary age. Frost-moved rubbles, consisting of coarse andesite blocks, almost completely mantlethe dome and have advanced outward from it across a gently sloping terrain for distances as much as 1 ¼ miles. Several different periods of rubble development are recognized, based on the amount of vegetal covering of the deposits, the preservation of their surface forms, and their degree of erosion by fluvial processes. The rubbles are not now moving and are believed to have originated under the influence of an arctic climate in a manner analogous to rock glaciers. The difference in altitude between presently moving rock glaciers in this region and the rubble deposits of Jumbo Dome corresponds to the difference in altitude between present ice-filled cirques and the lowest cirques of the Wisconsin stage of glaciation. Reasons are given for believing that fluvial weathering and destruction of rock glaciers represent climates at least as mild as the present. On this basis five separate glacial episodes, separated by interglacial and interstadial epochs, are recognized.