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

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 Cana-dian-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 be-gins, 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 es-carpment-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.


Statement of the Research Question
The Pontotoc County, Oklahoma area Arkansas-Red River drainage divide is located between the east-flowing Canadian River (with water flowing to the Arkansas River) and south-oriented Muddy Boggy Creek and its tributary Clear Boggy Creek (they eventually combine before joining the southeast-oriented Red River) and between north-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek (flowing to the Canadian River) and the south-oriented Blue River and Mill Creek (both flowing directly to the Red River) and south-oriented Rock Creek (flowing to the Washita River which then flows to the Red River). While Canadian River and Red River water eventually ends up reaching the Mississippi River delta, the routes traveled are quite different (see Figure 1). The east-oriented Canadian River flows from the Pontotoc County region before turning in a northeast direction to join the east-oriented Arkansas River which then flows between the Ozark Plateau (north) and Ouachita Mountains (south) to reach the south-oriented Mississippi River valley. South-oriented Clear Boggy Creek headwaters originate at Ada, Oklahoma at a point approximately ten kilometers to the south of the eastoriented Canadian River and soon enter a large escarpment-surrounded basin with floor elevations lower than the nearby Canadian River elevation. Just as intriguing is Muddy Boggy Creek which originates just east of Ada (and north of the large escarpment-surrounded basin rim) and flows for ten kilometers in a northeast direction to a point less than five kilometers from the Canadian River before turning in east and then south directions to eventually reach the southeast-oriented Red River. The Blue River originates on a large escarpmentsurrounded upland (see Figure 2 and Figure 3 and is just west of the Clear Boggy Creek escarpment-surrounded basin and east of the Canadian Sandy Creek-Rock Creek drainage divide). To the west of the Blue River escarpmentsurrounded upland is the somewhat more symmetric drainage divide between north-oriented drainage to the Canadian River and south-oriented Mill and Rock Creeks (both flowing directly to the Washita River which then flows to the Red River). The research question addressed here is how did the asymmetric Canadian-Red River drainage divide, the large escarpment-surrounded basin surrounding most of the Clear Boggy Creek headwaters area, and the large escarpment-surrounded Blue River headwaters area upland originate? Figure 1. Modified map from the USGS National Map website [1] showing the study area (red rectangle), state lines, and major rivers. Letters WR are located where the Washita River flows in a south direction across the Arbuckle Mountains. Top left corner: Latitude 39˚8'N, Longitude 106˚47'W.

Geographic Setting
The red rectangle in Figure 1

The Accepted Paradigm Problems
The accepted paradigm describes a Cenozoic geologic and glacial history during which an extensive north-oriented pre-glacial drainage system [2] developed in regions to the north of Figure 1. Late Cenozoic continental ice sheets blocked this pre-glacial north-oriented drainage system with the Missouri River forming when the north-oriented drainage encountered the ice margins and then was forced to flow along or near those continental ice sheet margins. The most important accepted paradigm interpretation pertinent to this paper is that while accepted paradigm investigators have described multiple Pleistocene continental ice sheets that existed to the north of Figure 1   Geomorphologists who take the time to seriously study Ada, Oklahoma, area detailed topographic maps should find numerous problems with the above- Other accepted paradigm problems include the fact that Clear and Muddy Boggy Creek headwaters now actually begin in locations where the hypothesized Canadian River channel must have been located and the Muddy Boggy Creek headwaters even flow for a short distance along what probably was the hypothesized Canadian River channel location. Further, the Hendricks sequence of capture events responsible for shifting the Canadian River route is complicated at best and improbable at worst.

The New Paradigm Problems
Because the accepted paradigm does not satisfactorily explain most detailed topographic map drainage system and erosional landform evidence the author of this paper spent considerable time using Missouri River drainage basin topo-graphic map evidence to develop a Cenozoic geologic and glacial history paradigm (new paradigm). The new paradigm was specifically designed to explain as much of the Missouri River drainage basin topographic map evidence as possible and when developed did not consider topographic map evidence from other regions (such as the Oklahoma region discussed in this paper). The new paradigm is fundamentally different and incompatible with many accepted interpretations and leads to a Cenozoic geologic and glacial history that is incommensurable with what the accepted paradigm describes [14]. In brief the new paradigm describes a Cenozoic glacial history beginning with a thick continental ice sheet located where most accepted paradigm investigators see ice sheets to have been, but which deeply eroded the continent and which was heavy enough to raise surrounding regions including mountain ranges so as to create and occupy a deep "hole" (accepted paradigm researchers do not recognize comparable ice sheet deep erosion nor do they see a relationship between ice sheets and the surrounding region and mountain range uplift or the existence of an ice sheet created deep "hole"). Immense south-oriented melt water floods initially flowed from this thick ice sheet across the rising deep "hole" rim (including across rising mountain ranges) but were progressively diverted by deep "hole" rim uplift toward the Mississippi River valley which in time became the deep "hole's" only southern exit.
The new paradigm's thick ice sheet eventually decayed with giant ice-walled and ice-floored (and later bedrock-floored) canyons slicing into its surface. Erosional escarpments in North and South Dakota, southwest Minnesota, southwest Manitoba, and southern Saskatchewan are interpreted to be ice-walled and bedrock-floored canyon wall remnants (the accepted paradigm has trouble explaining those escarpments). The giant ice-walled canyons cut into the ice sheet's surface and opened-up space the thick ice sheet had once occupied permitting north-oriented valleys to erode headward from that newly opened-up space into what is now the northern Missouri River drainage basin. The north-oriented valleys captured what by that time had become immense southeast-oriented ice-marginal melt water floods (the accepted paradigm considers those north-oriented valleys to be components of the pre-glacial Bell River drainage system [2] [15] [16]). At first the large and captured meltwater floods moved through the ice-walled canyons to reach the south-oriented Mississippi River valley (near Saint Paul, MN) and the lower Missouri River valley (near Yankton, SD). As ice sheet melting continued the ice-walled and bedrock-floored canyon network expanded and opened-up new and shorter routes across the deep "hole" floor (between what had become detached thick ice sheet remnants) to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The reversal of the large melt water floods from flowing to the Gulf of Mexico to flowing to the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans ended climatic conditions responsible for the ice sheet's decay and plunged North America into what the accepted paradigm considers to be an ice age, which caused the north-oriented drainage to freeze around what were then detached thick ice sheet remnants so as to form a second and much thinner con-tinental ice sheet (which was also responsible for glaciation in the then newly uplifted Rocky Mountains).
The Pontotoc County region from the new paradigm perspective contains significant erosional landform features. Perhaps the most important is the Canadian-Red River drainage divide which includes some of the lowest elevations found along the boundary between east-oriented drainage to the Arkansas River (which flows between the Ozark Plateau (north) and Ouachita Mountains (south) to reach the south-oriented Mississippi River) and the southeast-oriented Red River (flowing more directly and southwest of the Ouachita Mountains to reach the Mississippi River delta in southern Louisiana). This boundary has recently been identified as the new paradigm's deep "hole" rim's probable southern margin [17]. The new paradigm predicts immense south-oriented melt water floods first flowed across the deep "hole" rim before rim uplift caused east-oriented Mississippi River tributary valleys to erode headward, which diverted the enormous south-oriented melt water floods toward the south-oriented Mississippi River valley (which in time became the deep "hole's" only southern outlet). These new paradigm predictions mean detailed topographic maps of the Pontotoc County area Canadian-Red River drainage divide region should show evidence that headward erosion of east-oriented Arkansas River tributary valleys captured massive south-oriented floods that had been flowing toward the Red River valley so as to divert the floodwaters to flow toward the Arkansas River (and Mississippi River) valley.
Assuming the new paradigm does satisfactorily explain the Pontotoc County region drainage system and erosional landform detailed topographic map evidence problems remain. From the new paradigm perspective, the two abovedescribed linked continental ice sheets account for almost all topographic map recorded drainage system and erosional landform evidence (in the lower 48 states of the United States). In other words, the new paradigm leads to a Cenozoic geologic and glacial history needing only two linked North American continental icesheets, yet the accepted paradigm has caused geologists to claim multiple North American Cenozoic continental ice sheets formed and melted [18] and their claim is entrenched in the geologic literature. And the inconsistency gets even bigger because from the accepted paradigm perspective valleys eroded by new paradigm melt water floods contain Oligocene and Miocene (and possibly Eocene) sediments [19]. In brief, the new paradigm leads to a significantly different Cenozoic geologic and glacial history than what geologists working from the accepted paradigm perspective have developed. According to Kuhn [20] the important question is not which paradigm is correct, but instead which paradigm best explains the evidence. The study reported here seeks to determine which of the two paradigms best explains Pontotoc County region detailed topographic map drainage system and erosional landform evidence.

Research Method
The new paradigm was developed by interpreting what accepted paradigm re-searchers consider to be preglacial [2] north-and northeast-oriented valleys in North and South Dakota to have eroded headward from a continental icesheet location across previously unrecognized immense ice sheet-marginal meltwater floods (which had flowed in large southeast-oriented anastomosing channel complexes). The headward erosion of deep valleys across large anastomosing channel complexes was noted to commonly leave what are today asymmetrical drainage divides such as the Little Missouri-Missouri River drainage divide seen in southwest North Dakota and northwest South Dakota which previous new paradigm publications have described [21]. Large escarpment-surrounded basins were noted to sometimes be located a short distance downstream (in the flood flow direction) from north-oriented valleys which had eroded headward across the southeast-oriented floodwaters such as seen at the Jump-Off escarpmentsurrounded basin in Harding County, South Dakota (which is located about 2 kilometers to the east of the north-oriented Little Missouri River-see Figure 3 in reference [22]). Finally, escarpment-surrounded upland drainage basins such as the north-oriented Beaver Creek headwaters drainage basin located along the Montana-North Dakota border between the north-oriented Yellowstone and Little Missouri River drainage basins (see Figure 4 in reference [23]) represented a third distinctive meltwater flood eroded landform feature. Research for this paper consisted of studying Pontotoc County, Oklahoma area detailed topographic maps to identify erosional landforms similar to those seen near the ice sheet margin and then applying what had been learned during the new paradigm development process to interpret the Pontotoc County region geomorphic history.  In addition, abandoned valleys were used to identify former drainage route locations and characteristics (which included consideration of the possibility of massive floods moving across the region in large anastomosing channel complexes).

Canadian-Red River Asymmetric Drainage Divide
The new paradigm predicts large south-oriented melt water floods flowed across the Pontotoc County region before being captured by headward erosion of east-oriented tributary valleys from the south-oriented Mississippi River valley. The Figure 4 map area is between mapped Gerty Sand deposits at the Ada Airport and at the town of Allen [5] (which is approximately 25 kilometers to the east-northeast of Ada). The Gerty Sand deposit located at Gerty in adjacent Hughes County (see Figure 5) is approximately 11 kilometers east of the Pontotoc County line and 12 kilometers southeast of Allen. As seen in Figure 5 the Gerty Sand deposit forms a low upland most of which is located to the south of the Canadian-Red River drainage divide. The marked divide crossings suggest south-oriented streams of water flowed from the Canadian River drainage basin around the Gerty Sand deposit to enter the Red River drainage basin and may have been responsible for the Gerty Sand deposition. To the southeast of Gerty and completely within the Red River drainage basin are other mapped Gerty Sand deposits suggesting the Gerty Sand is not just a Canadian River drainage basin deposit, although the Ada Airport Gerty Sand and mapped Gerty Sand deposits to the west of Ada are located within the Canadian River drainage basin. Mapped Gerty Sand locations west of Ada and east and southeast of Allen are such that it is difficult to see how an east-oriented ancestral Canadian River could have deposited them.

Clear Boggy Creek Escarpment-Surrounded Basin
Southeast-and northeast-facing erosional escarpments ranging from 50 to 100 meters in height surround much of the Clear Boggy Creek headwaters area as seen in Figure 3. what is now the northwest South Dakota Grand River drainage basin [22].
Another new paradigm demonstration paper interprets the Montana Hoskins escarpment-surrounded basin as a giant head-cut abandoned when headward erosion of the northeast-and north-oriented Musselshell River valley captured immense southeast-oriented ice sheet-marginal meltwater floods that had been flowing into the Yellowstone River valley [24]. Also, near the continental ice sheet margin and described in a previously cited paper [21] another large east-oriented escarpment-surrounded basin is located at the North Dakota Russian Springs Escarpment western end and is interpreted to be a flood-formed head-cut abandoned when the north-oriented Little Missouri River valley eroded headward to capture large ice sheet-marginal floods that had been flowing into the developing east-oriented Knife River drainage basin.
Missouri River drainage basin escarpment-surrounded basins (such as the Jump-Off, Hoskins Basin, and Russian Springs Escarpment western end) were used during new paradigm development process to check previously interpreted (by the use of divide crossings along drainage divides) meltwater flood flow directions by assuming (unless there was reason to believe otherwise) each escarpment-surrounded basin opened in the direction a large melt water flood had once flowed. While the "V"-shaped notch at Lawrence suggests large amounts of east-oriented flood water may have entered the Clear Boggy Creek escarpmentsurrounded basin the southeast-orientation of the Clear Boggy Creek drainage system and northeast-facing basin escarpment wall suggest the most intense flood flow was in a southeast direction. If correctly interpreted, the massive southeast-oriented flood flow was eroding the southeast-facing basin wall headward in a northwest direction. Southeast-oriented Canadian River valley segments, southeast-oriented Spring Brook Creek, and southeast-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek segments and tributaries seen in Figure 2 also support a southeast-oriented flood flow direction and suggest headward erosion of the eastoriented Canadian River valley (in the area to the area north of Ada) and of the north-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek valley (to the west of Ada) captured the southeast-oriented flood waters and left the Clear Boggy Creek escarpmentsurrounded basin as a large abandoned head cut similar to previously described Missouri River drainage basin escarpment-surrounded basins.

Blue River Escarpment-Surrounded Upland
The Blue River (as seen in Figure 3 and Figure 6) originates as a north-northeast oriented stream on an escarpment-surrounded upland referred to here as the Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland. After flowing in a north direction near the upland's northwest-facing escarpment the Blue River turns in an east direction just to the north of the town of Roff before turning in southeast and then south-southeast directions to flow near and roughly parallel to the upland's northeast-facing escarpment with all of the upland areas to the north of the Blue River U-turn draining to the Blue River. The V-shaped Blue River escarpmentsurrounded upland points in a northward direction with its 75-to-100-meterhigh northeast-facing wall draining to southeast-oriented Clear Boggy Creek and eventually to the Red River. The 40-to-70-meter-high and somewhat less welldefined northwest-facing wall's northern end drains to north-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek which flows to the east-oriented Canadian River while further to the south the upland's northwest-facing wall drains to south-southwest oriented Rock Creek and the Washita River (which then flows to the Red River). The Canadian-Red River drainage divide extends westward from the Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland and is crossed by many divide crossings as seen in Figure 6.
The Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland is a remnant of the regional erosion surface that must have existed before flood erosion scoured out the Clear Boggy Creek escarpment-surrounded basin (to the east) and lowered the Canadian-Washita (Red) River drainage divide area (to the west,) although geologically much of the upland is underlain by Ordovician bedrock while younger Paleozoic age bedrock is found in lower elevation areas to the east and west [5]. Initially, south-oriented floodwaters flowed from the north into what is now the Blue River drainage basin with south-oriented water on what is now the northoriented Blue River headwaters alignment flowing to either southeast-oriented Little West Creek (which is a Blue River tributary), south-oriented Mill Creek (which like the Blue River flows to the Red River), and/or Rock Creek (which flows to the Washita River). Numbers 1, 2, and 3 in Figure 6 identify divide crossings where water from the north probably flowed onto the upland surface before the surrounding region erosion and number 4 identifies a divide crossing where south-oriented flow from the upland surface probably moved into what is now the north-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek drainage basin (but which at that time may have flowed to the Rock Creek drainage basin). Eventually as southoriented floodwaters continued the southeast-oriented Clear Boggy Creek escarpment-surrounded basin was scoured out to the east while the Canadian-Washita (Red) River drainage divide was lowered to the west which ended all south-oriented flood flow into the present-day Blue River headwaters area. Headward erosion of the east-oriented Canadian River valley subsequently captured the south-oriented floodwaters causing reversals of flow on what are today north-oriented drainage routes. Evidence for those reversals of flow can be seen in the form of southeast-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek segments and barbed (southeast-oriented) tributaries joining north-oriented Canadian Sandy Creek (see Figure 2).
The geologically influenced Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland surface is what remains of a former erosion surface that probably once extended across much or all of the Pontotoc County region. Now much of the Pontotoc County region surface elevation is from 50 to 150 meters lower than the Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland surface suggesting that many hundreds of cubic kilometers of bedrock material have been removed with most of that material eroded from what is now the Red River drainage basin. Vast volumes of water were needed to erode and transport such large amounts of Pontotoc County bedrock material to the Mississippi delta and most of that water had to flow in a south direction across the Pontotoc County region to reach the southeast-oriented Red River. The numerous divide crossings seen on detailed topographic maps further show massive amounts of south-oriented water once flowed across the Pontotoc County area Canadian-Red River drainage divide into what are now the Rock, Clear Boggy, and Muddy Boggy Creek drainage basins (all of which are included in the much larger Red River drainage basin). This major Pontotoc County erosion event must have taken place before Canadian River valley development and prior to formation of what is today the Canadian-Red River drainage divide.

Discussion
The new paradigm interpretation that east-oriented Canadian River valley headward erosion across massive and prolonged south-oriented melt water floods explains Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, region detailed topographic map drainage system and erosional landform evidence much better than the accepted paradigm's more generalized interpretation that Oklahoma's east-oriented rivers are the result of increased Pleistocene precipitation and melt water from Rocky Mountain glaciers. To fully understand the significance of this observation, the Pontotoc County region should be viewed as just one small geographical region in a much larger geographic picture. In the western United States, the deep "hole" rim extends southward along the Montana, Wyoming, Colorado eastwest continental divide and then southward along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains crestline into northern New Mexico before turning in an eastward direction along the divide between drainage flowing to the Arkansas River (via the Canadian River) and drainage flowing more directly to the Gulf of Mexico (via the Rio Grande and Red Rivers). With elevations ranging from about 270 to 400 meters the Pontotoc County region Canadian-Red River drainage divide has some of the lowest elevations (other than in the Mississippi Valley itself) found along the deep "hole" rim's western section. East of the Mississippi River the deep "hole" rim extends eastward and northeastward along the Ohio River-Gulf of Mexico and Ohio River-Atlantic Ocean drainage divides.
The new paradigm's deep "hole" formed when a thick North American continental ice sheet (located where accepted paradigm researchers consider continental ice sheets to have been) deeply eroded the underlying bedrock and due to its weight caused surrounding regions including mountain ranges and plateau areas to rise. The thick continental ice sheet when fully developed contained as much water as a small ocean and stood high enough to attract (at least along its margins) heavy precipitation (snow). Ice flow caused the ice sheet to extend southward into climatic zones where at least during summer months significant melting occurred, although heavy snowfalls occurring at the ice sheet's higher elevations balanced ice sheet margin melting. Ice sheet marginal melting produced gigantic and prolonged melt water floods only able to flow in south directions. These huge melt water floods (while perhaps seasonal) continued year after year and were not short-lived catastrophic floods of types accepted paradigm researchers have described in the Columbia River drainage basin [25]. Initially the new paradigm's massive and prolonged melt water floods flowed in south directions across the still rising deep "hole" rim (including across rising mountain and plateaus), but in time deep "hole" rim uplift and headward erosion of deep valleys diverted the melt water floods to what were still lower elevation deep "hole" rim locations with the south-oriented Mississippi River valley eventually becoming the deep "hole's" only southern exit. However, before headward erosion of the east-oriented Arkansas River valley (between the rising Ozark Plateau to the north and Ouachita Mountains to the south) and headward erosion of its east-oriented Canadian River tributary valley (to the west of the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains) immense melt water floods flowed in south directions from the ice sheet margin across eastern Oklahoma into what is now the Red River drainage basin.
The Canadian River and other Oklahoma rivers according to at least some of accepted paradigm literature developed during the Pleistocene as water from Rocky Mountain glaciers flowed eastward across Oklahoma. How the Canadian and other Oklahoma rivers developed their present-day courses is usually left for future geomorphologists to discover, although further to the west geomorphologists who followed accepted paradigm rules and assumptions tried to reconstruct the Canadian River's late Cenozoic history [26] [27]. These accepted paradigm interpretations suggest most melt water from Pleistocene Southern Rocky Mountain glaciers would have probably flowed to what are now the Rio Grande, Pecos, Cimarron, North Canadian, and Arkansas Rivers with only a limited amount of the alpine glacier melt water flowing to an ancestral Canadian River. Further, Pleistocene Southern Rocky Mountain glaciers as described in the published literature simply were not large enough to account for the amount of Pontotoc County region erosion determinable from topographic maps. In contrast Canadian River valley headward erosion is consistent with new paradigm interpretations of northeastern New Mexico detailed topographic map evidence which show headward erosion of the Canadian River valley and Canadian River tributary valley captured what were multiple south-oriented flood flow channels [18] and is also consistent with new paradigm interpretations of detailed topographic map evidence which was interpreted to show how the east-oriented Sweetwater River valley eroded headward along a high elevation central Wyoming east-west continental divide and deep "hole" rim segment [28].

Conclusions
Pontotoc County, Oklahoma, region detailed topographic map drainage system and erosional evidence can be explained if massive and prolonged south-oriented continental ice sheet melt water floods eroded and helped shape the Clear Boggy Creek escarpment-surrounded basin and Blue River escarpment-surrounded upland and if headward erosion of the east-oriented Canadian River valley (from the Arkansas River valley) across the large and prolonged south-oriented floods created the asymmetric Canadian-Red River drainage divide. Such an interpretation is consistent with new paradigm predictions that prior to deep "hole" rim uplift immense south-oriented melt water floods flowed across eastern Oklahoma and that as deep "hole" rim uplift occurred east-oriented valleys eroded headward from the south-oriented Mississippi River valley so as to divert the enormous south-oriented melt water floods to what ultimately became the deep "hole's" only southern exit. Pontotoc County region drainage system and erosional landform detailed topographic map evidence supports a new paradigm Cenozoic geology and glacial history interpretation and does not support the accepted paradigm's Cenozoic geology and glacial history interpretation.