How a New Cenozoic Geology and Glacial History Paradigm Explains Arkansas-Red River Drainage Divide Area Topographic Map Evidence in and near Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, USA

Abstract

A new Cenozoic geology and glacial history paradigm (new paradigm), fundamentally different from the accepted Cenozoic geology and glacial history paradigm (accepted paradigm), describes a thick North American continental icesheet (located where continental icesheets are usually reported to have been) which by deep erosion and uplift of surrounding regions created and occupied a deep “hole” (the accepted paradigm does not see this thick ice sheet or the deep “hole”). Unusual erosional landform features in the southeast Oklahoma Pontotoc County region including the asymmetric Canadian-Red River drainage divide, a large escarpment-surrounded basin in which most south-oriented Clear Boggy Creek headwaters begin, and a large escarpment-surrounded upland on which the south-oriented Blue River begins, are used to test the new paradigm’s ability to use large and prolonged south-oriented melt water floods to explain previously unexplained or poorly explained detailed topographic map drainage system and erosional landform evidence. Numerous low points (referred to as divide crossings) indicate large and prolonged south-oriented melt water floods did flow across what is now the Canadian-Red River drainage divide (an interpretation also consistent with Clear Boggy Creek escarpment-surrounded basin and Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland shapes). The new paradigm described massive and prolonged melt water floods also account for previously unrecognized deep regional erosion (which is determinable from detailed topographic map evidence). East-oriented Canadian River valley headward erosion (from the Arkansas River valley) diverted the long-lived south-oriented meltwater floods to the Arkansas River valley and to what ultimately became the deep “hole’s” only southern exit. Previous southeast Oklahoma drainage history interpretations (made from the accepted paradigm perspective in which Rocky Mountain glacier melt water flowed to east-oriented rivers) do not provide adequate water volumes or flow directions to explain the detailed topographic map drainage system and erosional landform evidence, which the new paradigm’s massive and prolonged south-oriented melt water floods do explain.