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Age and extent of the Ilopango TBJ Tephra inferred from a Holocene chronostratigraphic reference section, Lago De Yojoa, Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Peter J. Mehringer Jr. ,
Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki ,
Lance K. Wollwage  and
Payson Sheets
Peter J. Mehringer Jr.*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, Celestial Horse Ranch, 39400 Rock Creek Lane, Frenchglen, OR 97736, USA
Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Tephrochronology Laboratory, MS 975, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
Lance K. Wollwage
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Payson Sheets
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0233, USA
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail addresses:[email protected], [email protected] (P.J. Mehringer).
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Abstract

Eruption of central El Salvador's Ilopango Volcano early in the first millennium A.D. caused death, cultural devastation, and exodus of southern Mesoamericans. It also left a time-stratigraphic marker in western El Salvador and adjacent Guatemala—the Ilopango Tierra Blanca Joven, or TBJ tephra. Mineral suites and major element abundances identify a silicic volcanic ash in cores from Lago de Yojoa, Honduras, as Ilopango TBJ. This extends its reported range more than 150 km to the northeast. Analyses of glass from the TBJ tephra from the Chalchuapa archaeological site, El Salvador, and from Lago de Yojoa, Honduras, establish the first major element reference fingerprint for the TBJ tephra. The Lago de Yojoa cores also hold two previously undated trachyandesitic tephra layers originating from the nearby Lake Yojoa Volcanic Field. One fell shortly before 11,000 14C yr B.P. and the other about 8600 14C yr B.P.

Keywords

Central AmericaTephrochronologyHoloceneIlopango VolcanoEl SalvadorTBJ tephraChalchuapa, MayaMesoamerican archaeologyLago De YojoaLake Yojoa Volcanic Field
Type
Short Papers
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , March 2005 , pp. 199 - 205
Copyright
University of Washington

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