Quaternary Studies: Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Agenbroad, Larry

This preliminary report compiles the field and laboratory research efforts for Phase 111 (October 1986 - September 1987) of National Park Service Contract CX-1200-4-A062. The data presented here are the preliminary results from an interdisciplinary team which is evaluating and interpreting the Quaternary deposits in portions of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Canyonlands National Park. Much of our data are still in analysis stages in local and contract laboratories. Some of the data included in this report reflect the on-going nature of much of our research, in that material collected and submitted for analyses in Phases I and II have just become available for the chronology and interpretation of deposits collected and studied in Phase I & II. The third season of research has extended the absolute chronology of +10,000 years to +37,000 years, in Bowns canyon. In addition, deposits have been discovered, whose surficial dates extend to +28,000 years on dung of extinct fauna . Underlying sediments suggest even greater antiquity, whose range will be probed in the Phase IV research efforts. Support from the National Geographic Society has been provided, to analyze these deposits. The results of Phase I, 11, & 111 research are giving us a model of the Central Colorado Plateau prehistory (paleoenvironment, paleoclimate, paleohydrology, paleontology) that has never been recognized previously. Tied to the archaeological evidence, it can promote an understanding of man's entry into the region and his adaptation to, or modification of, that environment for at least the past 11,000 years.