Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:33:38.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Uranium-Series Age Estimates and Paleoclimatic Significance of Pleistocene Tufas from the Lahontan Basin, California and Nevada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yong Lao  and
Larry Benson
Yong Lao
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Larry Benson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, MS 404, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An extended chronology of Lahontan basin lake levels based on uranium-series age estimates correlates with the global ice-volume record. Lake highstands occur at or shortly after times of maximum ice-sheet size. Moderate size lakes occur when the global ice volume is about 80% of its maximum. The data indicate that lake levels rise and fall relative to the proximity of the mean position of the jetstream. When the continental ice sheet is above some threshold size or shape, it appears that the large-scale circulation and climatic conditions are right for producing lakes of moderate to large size within the Lahontan basin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , September 1988 , pp. 165 - 176
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

Benson, L.V., (1978). Fluctuation in the level of pluvial Lake Lahontan during the last 40,000 years. Quaternary Research. 9, 300-318.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., (1981). Paleoclimatic significance of lake-level fluctuations in the Lahontan Basin. Quaternary Research. 16, 390-403.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., (1984). Hydrochemical data for the Truckee River drainage system, California and Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 84-440. .Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., (1988). Preliminary paleolimnological data for the Walker Lake subbasin, California and Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigation Report 87-4258. .Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Leach, D.L., (1979). Uranium transport in the Walker River basin. Geochemical Exploration. 11, 227-248.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Mifflin, M.D., (1986). Reconnaissance bathymetry of basins occupied by Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 85-4262. .Google Scholar
Benson, L.W., Spencer, R.J., (1983). A hydrochemical reconnaissance study of the Walker River basin, California and Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 83-740. .Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Thompson, R.S., 1987a. Lake-level variation in the Lahontan Basin for the past 50,000 years. Quaternary Research. 28, 69-85.Google Scholar
Benson, L.V., Thompson, R.S., The physical record of lakes in the Great Basin. 1987b. North America and Adjacent Oceans during the Last Deglaciation. Ruddiman, W.F., Wright, H.E. Jr., Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America. K-3 241-260.Google Scholar
Bischoff, J.L., Rosebauer, R.J., Smith, G.I., (1985). U-series dating of sediments from Searles Lake: Difference between continental and marine climate records. Science. 227, 1222-1224.Google Scholar
Bonham, H.F., Papke, K.G., (1969). Geology and mineral deposits of Washoe and Storey Counties, Nevada. Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin. 70.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Kaufman, A., (1965). Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville II. Great Basin. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 76, 537-566.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Orr, P.C., (1958). Radiocarbon chronology of Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 69, 1009-1032.Google Scholar
Broecker, W.S., Walton, A.F., (1959). The geochemistry of 14C in freshwater systems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 16, 15-38.Google Scholar
Garside, L.J., (1973). Radioactive mineral occurrences in Nevada. Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin. 81.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J., Imbrie, J.Z., (1980). Modelling the climatic response to orbital variations. Science. 207, 942-953.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A., (1964). 230Th234U Dating of Carbonates from Lakes Lahontan and Bonneville. Ph.D. thesis. Columbia University.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A., (1971). Uranium-series dating of Dead Sea Basin carbonates. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 35, 1269-1281.Google Scholar
Kaufman, A., Broecker, W.S., (1965). Comparison of 230Th and 14C ages for carbonate materials from Lakes Lahontan and Bonneville. Journal of Geophysical Research. 70, 4039-4054.Google Scholar
Ku, T.L., Liang, Z.C., (1984). The dating of impure carbonates with decay-series isotopes. Nuclear Instrumental Methods in Physics Research. 233, 563-571.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Guetter, P.J., (1986). The influence of changing orbital parameters and surface boundary conditions on climate simulations for the past 18,000 years. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 43, 1726-1759.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Wright, H.E. Jr., (1985). Simulation of the climate of 18,000 yr B.P.: Results for the North American/North Atlantic/European Sector. Quarternary Science Reviews. 4, 147-187.Google Scholar
LaFlamme, B.D., Murry, J.W., (1987). Solid/solution interaction: The effect of carbonate alkalinity on absorbed thorium. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 51, 243-250.Google Scholar
Langmuir, D., (1978). Uranium solution-mineral equilibrium at low temperatures with applications to sedimentary ore deposits. Geochemical et Cosmochimica Acta. 42, 547-569.Google Scholar
Manabe, S., Broccoli, A.J., (1985). The influence of continental ice sheets on the climate of an ice age. Journal of Geophysical Research. 90, 2167-2190.Google Scholar
Martinson, D.G., Pisias, N.G., Hays, J.D., Imbrie, J., Moore, T.C. Jr., 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
Moore, J.G., Archbold, N.G., (1969). Geology and mineral deposits of Lyon, Douglas, Ormsby Counties, Nevada. Nevada Bureau of Mines Bulletin. 75.Google Scholar
Oviatt, C.G., McCoy, W.D., Reider, R.G., (1987). Evidence for a shallow early or middle Wisconsin-age lake in the Bonneville Basin, Utah. Quaternary Research. 27, 248-262.Google Scholar
Pisias, N.G., Martinson, D.G., Moore, T.C. Jr., Shackleton, N.J., Prell, W., Hays, J., Boden, G., (1984). High resolution stratigraphic correlation of benthic oxygen isotopic records spanning the last 300,000 years. Marine Geology. 56, 119-136.Google Scholar
Pyke, C.B., (1972). Some Meterological Aspects of the Seasonal Distribution of Precipitation in the Western United States and Baja California. University of California Water Resources Center, Contribution No. 139.Google Scholar
Sabbagh, M.E., Bryson, R.A., (1962). Aspects of the precipitation climatology of Canada investigated by the method of harmonic analysis. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 52, 426-440.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., Opdyke, N.D., (1973). Oxygen isotope and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Equatorial Pacific core V28-238: Oxygen isotope temperature and ice volumes on a 10,000 year and 100,000 year time scale. Quaternary Research. 3, 39-55.Google Scholar
Shoemaker, D.P., Garland, C.W., Steinfield, J.I., (1974). Experiment in Physical Chemistry. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Simpson, H.J., Trier, R.M., Li, Y.H., Anderson, R.F., Herczegb, A.L., (1984). Field Experimental Determinations of Distribution Coefficients of Actinide Elements in Alkaline Lake Environments. Prepared for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. LDGO, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Simpson, H.L., Trier, R.M., Toggweiler, J.R., Mathieu, G., Deck, B.L., Olsen, G.R., Harmond, D.E., Fuller, C., Ku, T.L., (1982). Radionuclides in Mono Lake, California. Science. 216, 512-514.Google Scholar
Staatz, M.H., Bauer, H.L., (1953). Uranium in the east Walker area, Lyon County, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 988-C. .Google Scholar
Sutcliffe, A.J., Lord, T.C., Harmon, R.S., Ivanovich, M., Rae, A., Hess, J.W., (1985). Wolverine in nothern England at about 83,000 yr B.P.: Faunal evidence for climatic change during isotope stage 5. Quaternary Research. 24, 73-86.Google Scholar
Szabo, B.J., (1985). Uranium-series dating of fossil corals from marine sediments of southeastern United States Atlantic Coastal Plain. Geological Society of American Bulletin. 96, 398-406.Google Scholar
Thompson, R.S., Benson, L.V., Hattori, E., (1986). A revised chronology for the last Pleistocene lake cycle in central Lake Lahontan. Quaternary Research. 25, 1-9.Google Scholar