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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

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