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Geochemical Characterization of Late Pleistocene and Holocene Tephra Layers from the Basin of Mexico, Central Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Beatriz Ortega-Guerrero  and
Anthony J. Newton
Beatriz Ortega-Guerrero
Affiliation:
Instituto de Geofı́sica, UNAM. Cd. Universitaria, 04510, Mexico D.F., Mexico
Anthony J. Newton
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, Scotland, United Kingdom
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Abstract

In order to aid palaeoenvironmental research of Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of central Mexico, tephra layers collected from the sediments of the Texcoco and Chalco sub-basins, in the southern part of the Basin of Mexico, are geochemically characterized and used as stratigraphic markers. The tephra layers range in composition from basaltic andesites to rhyolites and are calc-alkaline. The tephras range in age from >34,000 to ca. 260014C yr B.P. New names are used informally to designate correlated tephras. The Tlahuac tephra is present in Chalco, at a depth of 18 m; in the southeastern part of Texcoco, at a depth of around 10 m; and at the Tlapacoya archaeological site, where it had been mistakenly described as basaltic. This basalt–andesite tephra is dated to at least 34,00014C yr B.P. The Tlapacoya 1 tephra is dated to between 15,020 ± 450 and 14,430 ± 190 yr B.P. and is present in all Chalco sections. The Tlapacoya 2 tephra corresponds to the previously described “pomez gruesa con fragmentos de andesita” (ca. 14,400 yr B.P.) and is present in all Chalco and Texcoco sections. The likely source of these three tephras is the volcano Popocatepetl. Tephra II at Chalco dates to 12,520 ± 135 yr B.P. and correlates with the Upper Toluca Pumice from Nevado de Toluca volcano. These represent the first geochemical glass-shard analysis of tephras from the Basin of Mexico, and so further research is necessary before a reliable tephrochronology can be established.

Keywords

tephrochronology, Basin of Mexico, glass-shard geochemistry
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , July 1998 , pp. 90 - 106
Copyright
University of Washington

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