Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T10:47:47.702Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Correlation of Late-Pleistocene Lake-Level Oscillations in Mono Lake, California, with North Atlantic Climate Events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Larry V. Benson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 3215 Marine Street, Boulder, Colorado, 80303-1066
Steve P. Lund
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089
James W. Burdett
Affiliation:
Cornell Laboratory for Stable Isotope Analysis, 125 Boyce Thompson Institute, Tower Road, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14583
Michaele Kashgarian
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California, 94550
Timothy P. Rose
Affiliation:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California, 94550
Joseph P. Smoot
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 955, Reston, Virginia, 22092
Martha Schwartz
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089

Abstract

Oxygen-18 (18O) values of sediment from the Wilson Creek Formation, Mono Basin, California, indicate three scales of temporal variation (Dansgaard–Oeschger, Heinrich, and Milankovitch) in the hydrologic balance of Mono Lake between 35,400 and 12,900 14C yr B.P. During this interval, Mono Lake experienced four lowstands each lasting from 1000 to 2000 yr. The youngest lowstand, which occurred between 15,500 and 14,000 14C yr B.P., was nearly synchronous with a desiccation of Owens Lake, California. Paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) data indicate that three of four persistent lowstands occurred at the same times as Heinrich events H1, H2, and H4.18O data indicate the two highest lake levels occurred ∼18,000 and ∼13,100 14C yr B.P., corresponding to passages of the mean position of the polar jet stream over the Mono Basin. Extremely low values of total inorganic carbon between 26,000 and 14,000 14C yr B.P. indicate glacial activity, corresponding to a time when summer insolation was much reduced.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antevs, E., 1948. The Great Basin, with emphasis on glacial and post-glacial times—Climatic changes and pre-white man. Bulletin University of Utah Biology Series. 38 168191.Google Scholar
Bard, E., Arnold, M., Fairbanks, R.G., Hamelin, B., 1993. 230 234 14 . Radiocarbon. 35 191199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V., Burdett, J.W., Lund, S.P., Kashgarian, M., Mensing, S., 1997. Nearly synchronous Northern Hemispheric climate change during the Last Glacial Termination?. Nature. 388 263265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V., Smoot, J.P., Kashgarian, M., Sarna-Wojcicki, , Burdett, J.W., 1997. Radiocarbon ages and environments of deposition of the Wono and Trego Hot Spring tephra layers in the Pyramid Lake subbasin, Nevada. Quaternary Research. 47 251260.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Burdett, J.W., Kashgarian, M., Lund, S.P., Phillips, F.M., Rye, O.R., 1996. Climatic and Hydrologic oscillations in the Owens Lake Basin and adjacent Sierra Nevada, California. Science. 274 746749.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Currey, D.R., Dorn, R.I., Lajoie, K.R., Oviatt, C.G., Robinson, S.W., Smith, G.I., Scott, S., 1990. Chronology of expansion and contraction of four Great Basin lake systems during the past 35,000 years. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 78 241286.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Thompson, R.S., 1987. Lake-level variation in the Lahontan Basin for the past 50,000 years. Quaternary Research. 28 6985.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V., Kashgarian, M., Rubin, M., 1995. Carbonate deposition, Pyramid Lake Subbasin, Nevada: 2. Lake levels and polar jet stream positions reconstructed from radiocarbon ages and elevations of carbonates (tufas) deposited in the Lahontan basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 117 130.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., White, D.W., Rye, R., 1996. Carbonate deposition, Pyramid Lake Subbasin, Nevada: 4. Comparison of the stable isotope values of carbonate deposits (tufas) and the Lahontan lake-level record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 122 4576.Google Scholar
Bond, G.C., Broecker, W., Johnsen, S., McManus, J., Labeyrie, L., Jouzel, J., Bonani, G., 1993. Correlations between climate records from north Atlantic sediments and Greenland ice. Nature. 365 143147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, G.C., Heinrich, H., Broecker, W., Labeyrie, L.M., Andrews, J., Huon, S., Jantschik, R., Clasen, S., Simet, C., Tedesco, K., Klas, M., Bononi, G., Ivy, S., 1992. Evidence for massive discharges of icebergs into the north Atlantic ocean during the last glacial period. Nature. 360 245249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, G.C., Lotti, R., 1995. Iceberg discharges into the north Atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation. Science. 267 10051010.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., 1994. Massive iceberg discharges as triggers for global climate change. Nature. 372 421424.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Bond, G., Klas, M., Bonani, G., Wolfli, W., 1990. A salt oscillator in the Glacial Atlantic? The concept. Paleoceanography. 5 469478.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Denton, G., 1989. The role of ocean–atmosphere reorganizations in glacial cycles. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 53 24652501.Google Scholar
Clark, P.U., Bartlein, P.J., 1995. Correlation of late Pleistocene glaciation in the western United States with North Atlantic Heinrich events. Geology. 23 483486.Google Scholar
Gat, J. R, 1981, Lakes, In, Stable Isotope Hydrology—Deuterium and Oxygen-18 in the Water Cycle. 203, 221.Google Scholar
Grootes, P.M., Stuiver, M., White, J.W.C., Johnsen, S., Jouzel, J., 1993. Comparison of oxygen isotope records from the GISP2 and GRIP Greenland ice cores. Nature. 366 552554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grousset, F.E., Labeyrie, L., Sinko, J.A., Cremer, M., Bond, G., Duprat, J., Cortijo, E., Huon, S., 1993. Patterns of ice-rafted detritus in the glacial North Atlantic. Paleoceanography. 8 175192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gwiazda, R.H., Hemming, S.R., Broecker, W.S., 1996. Provenance of icebergs during Heinrich event 3 and the contrast to their sources during other Heinrich episodes. Paleoceanography. 11 371378.Google Scholar
Haskell, B.J., Johnson, T.C., Showers, W.J., 1991. Fluctuations in deep western north Atlantic circulation on the Blake Outer Ridge during the last deglaciation. Paleoceanography. 6 291312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinrich, H., 1988. Origin and consequences of cyclic ice rafting in the northeast Atlantic Ocean during the past 130,000 years. Quaternary Research. 29 142152.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J., Hays, J.D., Pisias, N.G., Prell, W.L., Shackleton, N.J., 1984. The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate: Support from a revised chronology of the marine δ18 . Berger, J.I.A., Hays, J., Kukla, G., Saltzman, B., Mlankovitch and Climate, Part 1. Reidel, Dordrecht, 269305.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D., Jones, G.A., 1989. Glacial–Holocene stratigraphy, chronology, and paleoceanographic observations on some north Atlantic sediment drifts. Deep Sea Research. 36 845867.Google Scholar
Keigwin, L.D., Jones, G.A., 1994. Western north Atlantic evidence for millennial-scale changes in ocean circulation and climate. Journal of Geophysical Research. 96.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Guetter, P.J., 1986. The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions of climate simulations for the past 18,000 years. Journal of Atmospheric Science. 43 17261759.Google Scholar
Lajoie, K. R, 1968, Late Quaternary Stratigraphy and Geologic History of Mono Basin Eastern California, University of California–Berkeley.Google Scholar
Lajoie, K. R., Robinson, S. W., Forester, R. M., Bradbury, J. P, 1982, Rapid climatic cycles recorded in closed-basin lakes. American Quaternary Association.Google Scholar
Lehman, S.J., Keigwin, L.D., 1992. Sudden changes in north Atlantic circulation during the last deglaciation. Nature. 356 757762.Google Scholar
Liddicoat, J. C, 1976, A Paleomagnetic Study of Late Quaternary Dry Lake Sediments from the Western U.S. and Mexico, University of California–Santa Cruz.Google Scholar
Lund, S.P., 1993. Paleomagnetic secular variation. Council of Scientific Research Integration, Trivandrum. 423438.Google Scholar
Lund, S.P., 1996. A comparison of Holocene paleomagnetic secular variation records from North America. Journal of Geophysical Research. 101 80078024.Google Scholar
Lund, S.P., Liddicoat, J.C., Lajoie, K.R., Henyey, T.L., Robinson, S.W., 1988. Paleomagnetic evidence for long-term (104 . Geophysical Research Letters. 15 11011104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacAyeal, D.R., 1993. Binge/purge oscillations of the Laurentide Ice Sheet as a cause of North Atlantic's Heinrich events. Paleoceanography. 8 775784.Google Scholar
Meese, D. A., Alley, R. B., Gow, A. J., Grootes, P. M., Mayewski, P. A., Ram, M., Taylor, K. C., Waddington, I. E., Zielinski, G. A, 1994, Preliminary depth-age scale of the GISP2 ice core, 66.Google Scholar
Negrini, R. M, 1997, Northwestern Great Basin lacustrine history. In, Great Basin Aquatic System History. the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. Google Scholar
O'Neil, J.R., Clayton, R.N., Mayeda, T.K., 1969. Oxygen isotope fractionation in divalent metal carbonates. Journal of Chemical Physics. 51 55475558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyke, C.B., 1972. Some meteorological aspects of the seasonal distribution of precipitation in the Western United States and Baja California. University of California Water Resources Center Contribution. 139.Google Scholar
Rind, D., Peteet, D., Broecker, W., McIntryre, A., Ruddiman, W., 1986. The impact of cold north Atlantic sea surface temperatures on climate: Implications of the Younger Dryas cooling (11–10k). Climate Dynamics. 1 333.Google Scholar
Russell, I. C, 1889, Quaternary History of the Mono Valley, California. Google Scholar
Schwartz, M., Lund, S.P., Johnson, T., 1996. Environmental factors as complicating influences in the recovery of quantitative geomagnetic-field paleointensity estimates from sediments. Geophysical Research Letters. 23 26932696.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M., Lund, S.P., Glasscoe, M., Liddicoat, J., 1996. Normalized NRM intensity for 12-35 kybp from the Wilson Creek Beds, Mono Lake California. EOS. 77 F169.Google Scholar
Starrett, L.G., 1949. The relation of precipitation patterns in North America to certain types of jet streams at the 300-millibar level. Journal of Meteorology. 6 347352.Google Scholar
Stoner, J.S., Channall, J.E.T., Hillaire-Marcel, C., 1996. The magnetic signature of rapidly deposited detrital layers from the deep Labrador Sea: Relationship to North Atlantic Heinrich layers. Paleoceanography. 11 309325.Google Scholar
Stoner, J.S., Channell, J.E.T., Hillarie-Marcel, C., 1995. Late Pleistocene relative geomagnetic paleointensity from the deep Labrador Sea—Regional and Global correlations. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 134 237252.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Grootes, P.M., Braziunas, T.F., 1995. The GISP18 . Quaternary Research. 44 341354.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Benson, L.V., Hattori, E.M., 1986. A revised chronology for the last Pleistocene lake cycle in the central Lahontan basin. Quaternary Research. 25 19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wahrhaftig, C., Birman, J.H., 1965. The Quaternary of the Pacific mountain system. Wright, H.E. Jr., Frey, D.G., The Quaternary of the United States. Princeton Univ. Press 299340.Google Scholar