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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.
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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

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