Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T04:56:01.545Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Freshwater control of ice-rafted debris in the last glacial period at Mono Lake, California, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Susan R. H. Zimmerman ,
Crystal Pearl ,
Sidney R. Hemming ,
Kathryn Tamulonis ,
N. Gary Hemming  and
Stephanie Y. Searle
Susan R. H. Zimmerman*
Affiliation:
Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
Crystal Pearl
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367, USA
Sidney R. Hemming
Affiliation:
Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
Kathryn Tamulonis
Affiliation:
Dept. of Geology, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA 17013, USA
N. Gary Hemming
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY 11367, USA
Stephanie Y. Searle
Affiliation:
Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
*
⁎Corresponding author at: Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550 and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA. Fax: + 1 925 423 7884. E-mail address:[email protected] (S.R.H. Zimmerman).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The type section silts of the late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation at Mono Lake contain outsized clasts, dominantly well-rounded pebbles and cobbles of Sierran lithologies. Lithic grains > 425 μm show a similar pattern of variability as the > 10 mm clasts visible in the type section, with decreasing absolute abundance in southern and eastern outcrops. The largest concentrations of ice-rafted debris (IRD) occur at 67–57 ka and 46–32 ka, with strong millennial-scale variability, while little IRD is found during the last glacial maximum and deglaciation.

Stratigraphic evidence for high lake level during high IRD intervals, and a lack of geomorphic evidence for coincidence of lake and glaciers, strongly suggests that rafting was by shore ice rather than icebergs. Correspondence of carbonate flux and IRD implies that both were mainly controlled by freshwater input, rather than disparate non-climatic controls. Conversely, the lack of IRD during the last glacial maximum and deglacial highstands may relate to secondary controls such as perennial ice cover or sediment supply. High IRD at Mono Lake corresponds to low glacial flour flux in Owens Lake, both correlative to high warm-season insolation. High-resolution, extra-basinal correlation of the millennial peaks awaits greatly improved age models for both records.

Keywords

Mono LakeLate PleistoceneIRDLake levelPaleoclimateIce raftingGreat Basin
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , September 2011 , pp. 264 - 271
Copyright
University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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.)

Footnotes

1 Now at: Schlumberger Carbon Services, Sugar Land TX 77478.
2 Now at: School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ 8140.

References

Altabet, M.A., Higginson, M.J., and Murray, D.W. The effect of millennial-scale changes in Arabian Sea denitrification on atmospheric CO2 . Nature 415, (2002). 159–162.Google Scholar
Anderson, R.Y. Rapid changes in Late Pleistocene precipitation and stream discharge determined from medium- and coarse-grained sediment in saline lakes. Global and Planetary Change 28, (2001). 73–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Assel, R., Cronk, K., and Norton, D. Recent trends in Laurentian Great Lakes ice cover. Climatic Change 57, (2003). 185–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bacon, S.N., Burke, R.M., Pezzopane, S.K., and Jayko, A.S. Last glacial maximum and Holocene lake levels of Owens Lake, eastern California, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews 25, (2006). 1264–1282.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., and Thompson, R.S. Lake-level variation in the Lahontan basin for the past 50,000 years. Quaternary Research 28, (1987). 69–85.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Currey, D.R., Dorn, R.I., Lajoie, K.R., Oviatt, C.G., Robinson, S.W., Smith, G.I., and Stine, S. Chronology of expansion and contraction of four Great Basin lake systems during the past 35,000 years. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 78, (1990). 241–286.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Burdett, J.W., Kashgarian, M., Lund, S.P., Phillips, F.M., and Rye, R.O. Climatic and hydrologic oscillations in the Owens Lake basin and adjacent Sierra Nevada, California. Science 274, (1996). 746–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, L.V., Lund, S.P., Burdett, J.W., Kashgarian, M., Rose, T.P., Smoot, J.P., and Schwartz, M. Correlation of late-Pleistocene lake-level oscillations in Mono Lake, California, with North Atlantic climate events. Quaternary Research 49, (1998). 1–10.Google Scholar
Berger, A.L. Long-term variations of daily insolation and Quaternary climatic changes. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 35, (1978). 2362–2367.Google Scholar
Bischoff, J.L., and Cummins, K. Wisconsin glaciation of the Sierra Nevada (79,000–15,000 yr B.P.) as recorded by rock flour in sediments of Owens Lake, California. Quaternary Research 55, (2001). 14–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bischoff, J.L., Menking, K.M., Fitts, J.P., and Fitzpatrick, J.A. Climatic oscillations 10,000–155,000 yr B.P. at Owens Lake, California reflected in glacial rock flour abundance and lake salinity in Core OL-92. Quaternary Research 48, (1997). 313–325.Google Scholar
Bromwich, D.H., Toracinta, E.R., Wei, H., Oglesby, R.J., Fastook, J.L., and Hughes, T.J. Polar MM5 simulations of the winter climate of the Laurentide Ice Sheet at the LGM. Journal of Climate 17, (2004). 3415–3433.Google Scholar
Brown, L.C., and Duguay, C.R. The response and role of ice cover in lake-climate interactions. Progress in Physical Geography 34, (2010). 671–704.Google Scholar
Burns, S.J., Fleitmann, D., Matter, A., Kramers, J., and Al-Subbary, A.A. Indian Ocean climate and an absolute chronology over Dansgaard/Oeschger Events 9 to 13. Science 301, (2003). 1365–1367.Google Scholar
Bursik, M., and Sieh, K. Range front faulting and volcanism in the Mono Basin, eastern California. Journal of Geophysical Research 94, (1989). 15,587–15,609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cacho, I., Grimalt, J.O., Pelejero, C., Canals, M., Sierro, F.J., Flores, J.A., and Shackleton, N. Dansgaard–Oeschger and Heinrich event imprints in Alboran Sea paleotemperatures. Paleoceanography 14, (1999). 698–705.Google Scholar
Cassata, W.S., Singer, B.S., Liddicoat, J.C., and Coe, R.S. Reconciling discrepant chronologies for the geomagnetic excursion in the Mono Basin, California: insights from new 40Ar/39Ar dating experiments and a revised relative paleointensity correlation. Quaternary Geochronology 5, (2010). 533–543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y., Smith, P.E., Evensen, N.M., York, D., and Lajoie, K.R. The edge of time: dating young volcanic ash layers with the 40Ar–39Ar laser probe. Science 274, (1996). 1176–1178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cruz, F.W. Jr., Burns, S.J., Karmann, I., Sharp, W.D., Vuille, M., Cardoso, A.O., Ferrari, J.A., Dias, P.L.S., Viana, O. Jr. Insolation-driven changes in atmospheric circulation over the past 116,000 years in subtropical Brazil. Nature 434, (2005). 63–66.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Gundestrup, N.S., Hammer, C.U., Hvidberg, C.S., Steffensen, J.P., Sveinbjornsdottir, A.E., Jouzel, J., and Bond, G. Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record. Nature 364, (1993). 218–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J.O. Level of Lake Lahontan during deposition of the Trego Hot Springs tephra about 23,400 years ago. Quaternary Research 19, (1983). 312–324.Google Scholar
Denton, G.H., Alley, R.B., Comer, G.C., and Broecker, W.S. The role of seasonality in abrupt climate change. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, (2005). 1159–1182.Google Scholar
Hajdas, I., Bonani, G., Zimmerman, S.H., Mendelson, M., and Hemming, S. C-14 ages of ostracodes from Pleistocene lake sediments of the western Great Basin, USA—results of progressive acid leaching. Radiocarbon 46, (2004). 189–200.Google Scholar
Heinrich, H. Origin and consequences of cyclic ice rafting in the northeast Atlantic Ocean during the past 130,000 years. Quaternary Research 29, (1988). 142–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendy, I.L., and Kennett, J.P. Latest Quaternary North Pacific surface-water responses imply atmosphere-driven climate instability. Geology 27, (1999). 291–294.Google Scholar
Hendy, I., and Kennett, J.P. Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles and the California Current System: planktonic foraminiferal response to rapid climate change in Santa Barbara Basin, Ocean Drilling Program hole 893A. Paleoceanography 15, (2000). 30–42.Google Scholar
Hostetler, S.W., and Benson, L.V. Paleoclimatic implications of the high stand of Lake Lahontan derived from models of evaporation and lake level. Climate Dynamics 4, (1990). 207–217.Google Scholar
Hostetler, S.W., and Clark, P.U. Climatic controls of western U.S. glaciers at the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews 16, (1997). 505–511.Google Scholar
Jellison, R., and Melack, J.M. Meromixis in hypersaline Mono Lake, California. 1. Stratification and vertial mixing during the onset, persistence, and breakdown of meromixis. Limnology and Oceanography 38, (1993). 1008–1019.Google Scholar
Kent, D.V., Hemming, S.R., and Turrin, B.D. Laschamp excursion at Mono Lake?. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 197, (2002). 151–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lajoie, K.R. (1968). “Quaternary Stratigraphy and Geologic History of Mono Basin, Eastern California.�.� Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Li, H.-C., Bischoff, J.L., Ku, T.-L., and Zhu, Z.-Y. Climate and hydrology of the Last Interglaciation (MIS 5) in Owens Basin, California: isotopic and geochemical evidence from core OL-92. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, (2004). 49–63.Google Scholar
Lin, J.C.-F. (1996). “U-Th, 14C and Sr isotopic studies of late Pleistocene hydrological events in western Great Basin, Nevada and California.�.� Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia.Google Scholar
Peterson, L.C., Haug, G.H., Hughen, K.A., and Rohl, U. Rapid changes in the hydrologic cycle of the tropical Atlantic during the last glacial. Science 290, (2000). 1947–1951.Google Scholar
Phillips, F.M., Zreda, M.G., Benson, L.V., Plummer, M.A., Elmore, D., and Sharma, P. Chronology for fluctuations in late Pleistocene Sierra Nevada glaciers and lakes. Science 274, (1996). 749–751.Google Scholar
Piotrowski, A.M., Goldstein, S.L., Hemming, S.R., and Fairbanks, R.G. Temporal relationships of carbon cycling and ocean circulation at glacial boundaries. Science 307, (2005). 1933–1938.Google Scholar
Russell, I.C. Quaternary History of the Mono Valley, California. (1889). Artemisia Press, Lee Vining, CA.Google Scholar
Schaefer, J.M., Denton, G.H., Barrell, D.J.A., Ivy-Ochs, S., Kubik, P.W., Andersen, B.G., Phillips, F.M., Lowell, T.V., and Schluchter, C. Near-synchronous interhemispheric termination of the Last Glacial Maximum in mid-latitudes. Science 312, (2006). 1510–1513.Google Scholar
Smith, G.I., and Bischoff, J.L. An 800,000-Year Paleoclimatic record from core OL-92, Owens Lake, Southeast California. Geological Society of America Special Paper 317, (1997). Geological Society of America, Boulder. 165 Google Scholar
Tamulonis, K. (2002). “Dropstone provenance and sediment chemistry of the Late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation, Mono Lake, California.�.�Unpublished B.S. thesis, Dickinson College, .Google Scholar
Wang, Y.J., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., An, Z.S., Wu, J.Y., Shen, C.-C., and Dorale, J.A. A high-resolution absolute-dated late Pleistocene monsoon record from Hulu Cave, China. Science 294, (2001). 2345–2348.Google Scholar
Wang, X., Auler, A.S., Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Cristalli, P.S., Smart, P.L., Richards, D.A., and Shen, C.-C. Wet periods in northeastern Brazil over the past 210 kyr linked to distant climate anomalies. Nature 432, (2004). 740–743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zimmerman, S.H. (2006). “Chronology and Paleoclimate Records of the Late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation at Mono Lake, California.�.� Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, S.R.H., Hemming, S.R., Kent, D.V., and Searle, S.Y. Revised chronology for late Pleistocene Mono Lake sediments based on paleointensity correlation to the global reference curve. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 252, (2006). 94–106.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, S.H., Hemming, S.R., Hemming, N.G., Tomascak, P.B., Pearl, C., in press. High-resolution chemostratigraphic record of late Pleistocene lake-level variability, Mono Lake, CA. Geological Society of America Bulletin, Google Scholar