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Quaternary glaciation and hydrologic variation in the South American tropics as reconstructed from the Lake Titicaca drilling project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sherilyn C. Fritz ,
Paul A. Baker ,
Geoffrey O. Seltzer ,
Ashley Ballantyne ,
Pedro Tapia ,
Hai Cheng  and
R. Lawrence Edwards
Sherilyn C. Fritz*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0340, USA School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0340, USA
Paul A. Baker
Affiliation:
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences and Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Geoffrey O. Seltzer
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
Ashley Ballantyne
Affiliation:
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences and Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Pedro Tapia
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0340, USA
Hai Cheng
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
R. Lawrence Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +402 472 4917. E-mail address:[email protected](S.C. Fritz).
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Abstract

A 136-m-long drill core of sediments was recovered from tropical high-altitude Lake Titicaca, Bolivia-Peru, enabling a reconstruction of past climate that spans four cycles of regional glacial advance and retreat and that is estimated to extend continuously over the last 370,000 yr. Within the errors of the age model, the periods of regional glacial advance and retreat are concordant respectively with global glacial and interglacial stages. Periods of ice advance in the southern tropical Andes generally were periods of positive water balance, as evidenced by deeper and fresher conditions in Lake Titicaca. Conversely, reduced glaciation occurred during periods of negative water balance and shallow closed-basin conditions in the lake. The apparent coincidence of positive water balance of Lake Titicaca and glacial growth in the adjacent Andes with Northern Hemisphere ice sheet expansion implies that regional water balance and glacial mass balance are strongly influenced by global-scale temperature changes, as well as by precessional forcing of the South American summer monsoon.

Keywords

PaleoclimateLake TiticacaAndesAltiplanoBoliviaPeruSouth AmericaQuaternaryDiatomsIsotopesGlaciation
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , November 2007 , pp. 410 - 420
Copyright
University of Washington

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