Delta Ridge Soil Profile

Fieldwork in Southeastern Alaska, 1979
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The nearest thing we found to peat was the thin lens of organic roughage at the top of this photo. (It turned out to be useless for dating.) Below is gray silt and, at bottom, a lens of coarse sand. We collected samples every 10 centimeters down this whole interval for pollen analyses. Pollen is a record of the local vegetation, a clue to the ancient climate here.

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_{(c) 2004 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc.}