Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:51:58.683Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A 200,000-Year Record of Change in Oxygen Isotope Composition of Sulfate in a Saline Sediment Core, Death Valley, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Wenbo Yang ,
H. Roy Krouse ,
Ronald J. Spencer ,
Tim K. Lowenstein ,
Ian E. Hutcheon ,
Teh-Lung Ku ,
Jianren Li ,
Sheila M. Roberts  and
Christopher B. Brown
Wenbo Yang*
Affiliation:
Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres, Marine Sciences Research Center, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, 11794
H. Roy Krouse
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada
Ronald J. Spencer
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada
Tim K. Lowenstein
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, 13901
Ian E. Hutcheon
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Calgary, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada
Teh-Lung Ku
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089
Jianren Li
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, 13901
Sheila M. Roberts
Affiliation:
Western Montana College of the University of Montana, Dillon, Montana, 59725
Christopher B. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York, 13901
*
1Current address: EPS, Harvard University, 20 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

δ18O values of sulfate minerals from a 186-m core (past 200,000 years) in Death Valley varied from +9 to +23‰ (V-SMOW). Sulfates that accumulated in the past ephemeral saline lake, salt pans, and mud flats have relatively low δ18O values similar to those of present-day local inflows. Sulfates that accumulated during two perennial lake intervals, however, have higher δ18O values, reflecting changes in temperature, lake water levels, and/or sulfur redox reactions. Over the same time interval, the δ18O record for sulfate had excursions that bear similarities to those found for carbonate in the Death Valley core, marine carbonate (SPECMAP), and polar ice in the Summit ice core, Greenland. The δ18O record differed considerably from the records reported for carbonate at Owens Lake and Devils Hole, which probably relates to different water sources. Death Valley, Owens Lake, and Devils Hole are responding to the same climatic changes but manifesting them differently. In Death Valley sediments, the isotopic composition of sulfate may have potential as an indicator of paleoenvironmental changes.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , March 1999 , pp. 148 - 157
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

Bischoff, J.L., Fitts, J.P., Fitzpatrick, J.A., (1997). Responses of sediment geochemistry to climate change in Owens Lake sediment: An 800 ky record of saline/fresh cycles in Core OL-92. An 800,000-Year Geologic and Climatic Record from Owens Lake, California: Core OL-92 p. 37–48.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B., Dahl-Iensen, D., Gundestrup, N.S., Hammer, C.U., Hvidberg, C.S., Steffensen, J.P., Sveinbjornsdottir, A.E., Jouzel, J., Bond, G., (1993). Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record. Nature 364, 218–220.Google Scholar
Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Murrell, M.T., Goldstein, S.J., (1997). Protactinium-231 dating of carbonates by thermal ionization mass spectrometry: Implications for Quaternary climate change. Science 276, 782–786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foote, W.M., (1895). Preliminary note on a new alkali mineral [northupite]. American Journal of Science 50, 480–481.Google Scholar
Friedman, I., Smith, G.I., Gleason, J.D., Warden, A., Harris, J.M., (1992). Stable isotope composition of waters in southeastern California: 1. Modern precipitation. Journal of Geophysical Research 97, 5795–5812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garlick, G. D., (1969). The stable isotopes of oxygen. In Handbook of Geochemistry, K. H. Wedepohl, Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Horibe, Y., Shigehara, K., Takakuwa, Y., (1973). Isotope separation factor of carbon dioxide–water system and isotopic composition of atmospheric oxygen. Journal of Geophysical Research 78, 2625–2629.Google Scholar
Hunt, C.B., Mabey, D.R., Robinson, T.W., Bowles, W.A., Washburn, A.L., (1966). General Geology of Death Valley, California.Google Scholar
IAEA(1995). Reference and intercomparison materials for stable isotopes of light elements .Google Scholar
Kaplan, I.R., Emery, K.O., Rittenberg, S.C., (1963). The distribution and isotopic abundance of sulfur in recent marine sediments off southern California. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 27, 297–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, I.R., Rittenberg, S.C., (1964). Microbial fractionation of sulfur isotopes. Journal of General Microbiology 34, 195–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krouse, H.R., Grinenko, V.A., (1991). Stable Isotopes: Natural and Anthropogenic Sulfur in the Environment (SCOPE 43). Wiley & Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Ku, T. L., Luo, S., Lowenstein, T. K., Li, J., Spencer, R. J., (1994). U-series chronology for lacustrine deposits of Death Valley. California: Implications for late Pleistocene climate changes .Google Scholar
Li, J., (1995). 100 ka Paleoclimate Record from Salt Cores. Death Valley., California, .Google Scholar
Li, J., Lowenstein, T.K., Blackburn, I.R., (1997). Responses of evaporite mineralogy to inflow water sources and climate during the past 100 k.y. in Death Valley, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 109, 1361–1371.Google Scholar
Li, J., Lowenstein, T.K., Brown, C., Ku, T.L., Luo, S., (1996). 100 ka record of water tables and paleoclimates from salt cores, Death Valley, California. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 123, 179–203.Google Scholar
Lloyd, R.M., (1968). Oxygen isotope behavior in the sulfate-water system. Journal of Geophysical Research 73, 6099–6110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, R.M., (1967). Oxygen-18 composition of oceanic sulfate. Science 156, 1228–1231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longinelli, A., Craig, H., (1967). Oxygen-18 variations in sulfate ions in sea water and saline lakes. Science 156, 56–59.Google Scholar
Lowenstein, T. K., Li, J., Brown, C. B., Spencer, R. J., Roberts, S. M., Yang, W., Ku, T. L., Luo, S., (1994). 200.Google Scholar
Luo, S., Ku, T.L., (1991). U-series isochron dating: A generalized method employing total sample dissolution. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 55, 555–564.Google Scholar
Martinson, D.G., Pisias, N.G., Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Moore, T.C., Shackleton, N.J., (1987). Age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages: Development of a high-resolution 0 to 300,000-year chronostratigraphy. Quaternary Research 27, 1–29.Google Scholar
Menking, K.M., Bischoff, J.L., Fitzparick, J.A., Burdette, J.W., Rye, R.O., (1997). Climatic/hydrologic oscillations since 155,000 yr B.P. at Owens Lake, CA, reflected in abundance and stable isotope composition of sediment carbonate. Quaternary Research 48, 58–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mizutani, Y., Rafter, T.A., (1973). Isotopic behaviour of sulfate oxygen in the bacterial reduction of sulfate. Geochemical Journal 6, 183–191.Google Scholar
Pearson, F.J. Jr., Rightmire, C.T., (1980). Sulfur and oxygen isotopes in aqueous sulfur compounds. Fritz, P., Fontes, J.C. Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry Elsevier, New York.227–258.Google Scholar
Roberts, S., (1996). Paleoclimate of Death Valley, California (100–200 ka). A Record from Cored Sediments, Homogenization Temperatures of Fluid Inclusions in Halite, and Stable Isotopes of Fluid Inclusions .Google Scholar
Roberts, S., Spencer, R.J., Lowenstein, T.K., (1994). Late Pleistocene saline lacustrine sediments, Badwater Basin, Death Valley, California. Lomando, A.J. Lacustrine Reservoirs and Depositional Systems Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), 61–103.Google Scholar
Sakai, H., Krouse, H.R., (1971). Elimination of memory effects in18 . Earth and Planetary Science Letters 11, 369–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, G.I., Friedman, I., Gleason, J.D., Warden, A., (1992). Stable isotope composition of waters in southeastern California: 2. Groundwaters and their relation to modern precipitation. Journal of Geophysical Research 97, 5813–5823.Google Scholar
Thode, H.C., Monster, J., Dunford, H.B., (1961). Sulfur isotope geochemistry. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 25, 159–174.Google Scholar
Van Stempvoort, D., Krouse, H.R., (1994). Controls of δ18 . Alpers, C.N., Blowes, D.W. Environmental Geochemistry of Sulfide Oxidation Am. Chem. Soc, Washington.446–480.Google Scholar
Winograd, I.J., Coplen, T.B., Landwehr, J.M., Riggs, A.C., Ludwig, K.R., Szabo, B.J., Kolesar, P.T., Revesz, K.M., (1992). Continuous 500,000-year climate record from vein calcite in Devils Hole, Nevada. Science 258, 255–260.Google Scholar
Yanagisawa, F., Sakai, H., (1983). Thermal decomposition of barium sulfate–vanadium pentoxide–silica glass mixture for stable isotope studies. Analytical Chemistry 55, 985–987.Google Scholar
Yang, W. (1996). Environmental Stable Isotope (H, C, O, S). Geochemistry of the Death Valley Sedimentary Basin, California, USA.Google Scholar
Yang, W., Spencer, R.J., Krouse, H.R., (1996). Stable sulfur isotope hydrogeochemical studies using desert shrubs and tree rings, Death Valley, California, USA. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 60, 3015–3022.Google Scholar
Yang, W., Spencer, R.J., Krouse, H.R., (1997). Stable isotope compositions of waters and sulfate species therein, Death Valley, California, USA: Implications for inflow and sulfate sources and arid basin climate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 147, 69–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar