Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T12:04:55.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age and extent of the Ilopango TBJ Tephra inferred from a Holocene chronostratigraphic reference section, Lago De Yojoa, Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Peter J. Mehringer Jr. ,
Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki ,
Lance K. Wollwage  and
Payson Sheets
Peter J. Mehringer Jr.*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, Celestial Horse Ranch, 39400 Rock Creek Lane, Frenchglen, OR 97736, USA
Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Tephrochronology Laboratory, MS 975, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
Lance K. Wollwage
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Payson Sheets
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0233, USA
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail addresses:[email protected], [email protected] (P.J. Mehringer).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Eruption of central El Salvador's Ilopango Volcano early in the first millennium A.D. caused death, cultural devastation, and exodus of southern Mesoamericans. It also left a time-stratigraphic marker in western El Salvador and adjacent Guatemala—the Ilopango Tierra Blanca Joven, or TBJ tephra. Mineral suites and major element abundances identify a silicic volcanic ash in cores from Lago de Yojoa, Honduras, as Ilopango TBJ. This extends its reported range more than 150 km to the northeast. Analyses of glass from the TBJ tephra from the Chalchuapa archaeological site, El Salvador, and from Lago de Yojoa, Honduras, establish the first major element reference fingerprint for the TBJ tephra. The Lago de Yojoa cores also hold two previously undated trachyandesitic tephra layers originating from the nearby Lake Yojoa Volcanic Field. One fell shortly before 11,000 14C yr B.P. and the other about 8600 14C yr B.P.

Keywords

Central AmericaTephrochronologyHoloceneIlopango VolcanoEl SalvadorTBJ tephraChalchuapa, MayaMesoamerican archaeologyLago De YojoaLake Yojoa Volcanic Field
Type
Short Papers
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , March 2005 , pp. 199 - 205
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

Birks, H.H., (2001). Plant macrofossils. Smol, J., Birks, H., Last, W., Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments Vol 3: Terrestrial, Algal, and Siliceous Indicators Kluwer Academic Publishers, , Boston., 49–74.Google Scholar
Borchardt, G.A., Aruscavage, P.J., Mallard, H.P. Jr.,(1972). Correlation of the Bishop Ash, a Pleistocene marker bed, using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 42, 301–306.Google Scholar
Brenner, M., Rosenmeier, M.F., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., (2002). Paleolimnology of the Maya lowlands: long-term perspectives on interactions among climate, environment and humans. Ancient Mesoamerica 13, 141–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dull, R.A., Southon, J.R., Sheets, P.D., (2001). Volcanism, ecology and culture: a reassessment of the Volcán Ilopango TBJ eruption in the southern Maya Realm. Latin American Antiquity 12, 25–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, R.B., Keating, J.P., (2002). Volcanism and Mesoamerican archaeology. Ancient Mesoamerica 13, 125–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, W.J.E. Jr., (1981). The Panchimalco Tephra, El Salvador, Central America.. M.S. thesis (Geology), , Rutgers University., .Google Scholar
Hart, W., Steen-McIntyre, V., (1983). Tierra Blanca Joven Tephra from the AD 260 eruption of Ilopango Volcano. Sheets, P., Archaeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador University of Texas Press, , Austin., 14–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J., Viel, R., (2004). The landscape of early Classic Copan: A view from the Preclassic. Bell, E., Canuto, M., Sharer, R., Understanding Early Classic Copan University of Pennsylvania Museum, , Philadelphia., 17–28.Google Scholar
Honduras Instituto Geograficia Nacional,(1988). Lago de Yojoa Quadrangle, escala 1:50,000.Google Scholar
Leyden, B.W., (2002). Pollen evidence for climatic variability and cultural disturbance in the Maya lowlands. Ancient Mesoamerica 13, 85–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehringer, P.J. Jr.,Wollwage, L.K., Pilz, G., (2003). Holocene environments of Honduras, Chap. 3. Viel, R., El Paleopaisaje de Copan: Asociacion Copan, Ruinas Copan, (CD-ROM) .Google Scholar
Patino, L.C., Carr, M.J., Feigenson, M.D., (1977). Cross-arc geochemical variations in volcanic fields in Honduras, Central America: progressive changes in source with distance from the volcanic front. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 129, 341–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, W.I., Conway, F.M., Pullinger, C.R., Deino, A., McIntosh, W.C., (1999). An improved age framework for late Quaternary silicic eruptions in northern Central America. Bulletin of Volcanology 61, 106–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedat, D., Sheets, P., Sharer, R., (1978). Excavations in the Casa Blanca Mound Group. Sharer, R., The Prehistory of Chalchuapa, El Salvador University of Pennsylvania Press, , Philadelphia., 88–113.Google Scholar
Sheets, P., (1979). Environmental and cultural effects of the Ilopango eruption in Central America. Sheets, P., Grayson, D., Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology Academic Press, , New York., 525–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheets, P., (1983). Archeology and Volcanism in Central America: The Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador. University of Texas Press, , Austin., p. 307.Google Scholar
Sheets, P., (1987). Possible repercussions in Western Honduras of the third-century eruption of Ilopango Volcano. Pahl, G., The Periphery of the Southeastern Classic Maya Realm UCLA Latin American Center Publications, , Los Angeles., 42–52.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughes, K.A., Kramer, B., McCormack, G., van der Plicht, J., Spurk, M., (1998). INTERCAL98 radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000-0 cal B.P. Radiocarbon 40, 1041–1084.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Törnqvist, T.E., De Jong, A.F.M., Oosterbaan, W.A., van der Borg, K., (1992). Accurate dating of organic deposits by AMS 14C measurement of macrofossils. Radiocarbon 34, 566–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, H., McBirney, A.R., (1969). Volcanic History of Honduras. University of California, , Berkeley., .Google Scholar
Zielinski, G.A., (2000). Use of paleorecords in determining variability within the volcanism-climate system. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 417–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar