Paleoclimatic Studies of Closed-Basin Lakes in Great Basin of the Western U.S.

美国西部大盆地第四纪地质。 在陆地上的冰河时代气候记录方面有很多贡献， 中纬度地区 以前的研究表明， 气候可能对天文（轨道）强迫有反应， 这可能与高纬度冰川的方式完全不同。 海洋沉积物中记录的响应。 然而，数据库 陆地上的记录相对于 海洋领域和两个记录之间的严格比较， 是我们理解更新世气候的关键 该项目的目标是重建 古气候变化和西部大开发的水量平衡 在过去的35-40万年盆地。 重建 将利用最近的一些重要发展， 同位素技术和对沉积物的及时地层学研究， 莫诺湖和欧文斯湖 这些发展使我们能够 定量评估古降水/蒸发记录， 前所未有的细节。 使用的同位素工具为10 Be/9 Be 铀系不平衡和稳定同位素818 O和813 C。

The Quaternary geology of the Great Basin of the Western U.S. has much to offer in term of ice age climate records on land in mid-latitudes. Previous works have shown that the continental climate may have responded to astronomical (orbital) forcing in a manner that could be quite different from the high-latitude glacial response recorded in marine sediments. However, the data base for land-based records is rather meager relative to that for the oceanic realm and a rigorous comparison between the two records may hold a key to our understanding of Pleistocene climates. The objective of this project is to reconstruct the paleoclimate variations and water balance of the Western Great Basin during the past 35-40 thousand years. The reconstruction will take advantage of some recent important developments in isotopic techniques and in time stratigraphic work on sediments of the Mono and Owens Lakes. These developments enable us to quantitatively assess the paleoprecipitation/evaporation records in unprecedented detail. The isotopic tools to be used are 10Be/9Be ratios, U-series disequilibrium, and stable isotopes 818O and 813C.