TEXTURAL, GEOCHEMICAL AND MINERALOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE ORIGIN OF PEORIA LOESS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN NEBRASKA, USA

Possible sources of Peoria loess in central Nebraska have been investi gated through the fingerprinting of the textural, geochemical and mine ralogical characteristics of the loess and possible source sediments, with statistical comparison of the textural and compositional fingerpr ints. The results of the investigation contrast with the 'desert loess ' model proposed by Lugn (1960), and are instead consistent with the d erivation of the Peoria loess in Nebraska primarily from fluvio-glacia l outwash sediments carried by the ancestral North and South Platte Ri ver systems from the Rocky Mountain Front Ranges during the late Pleis tocene.