A 50 ka precipitation record from the hyperarid Atacama Desert in northern Chile

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Title:Main Title: A 50 ka precipitation record from the hyperarid Atacama Desert in northern Chile
Description:Abstract: The Atacama Desert, northern Chile, is one of the major and assumed to be the oldest hyperarid deserts on Earth, characterized by the lowest precipitation rates (2 mm/yr) with significant spatial and temporal intensity shifts. The onset and the permanency of hyperarid climate conditions in the Atacama Desert are still controversially discussed. Hyperaridity is thought to have persisted at least since the Miocene, but is frequently punctuated by pluvial phases. Longer-scale precipitation reconstructions derived from sedimentary archives from the central Atacama Desert are rare and mostly restricted to the Miocene/Pliocene or the late Pleistocene. In this study, we focus on a ~4 m long sediment record (HUIII) from the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, which was cored in a tectonically blocked basin (clay pan ‘Huara’) in the Coastal Cordillera (20°04'34"S, 69°55'02"W) in order to reconstruct the regional paleoclimate history. Coring was carried out in spring 2015, following geophysical site-surveys in 2015 and 2018. The geophysical results suggest a well-stratified sediment infill of the basin with a maximum thickness of about 30 m. The uppermost ~4 m of these sediments, represented by core HUIII, according to a multi-disciplinary dating approach were accumulated over the past ca. 50 kyrs. The record mainly consists of fine-grained sediments, whose sedimentological, geochemical, geophysical and biological characteristics suggest formation under arid conditions with only sporadic precipitation. Intercalated coarser-grained horizons probably represent periods of semiarid climate conditions, causing multiple phases of local alluvial deposition from the interior catchment area into the clay pan. The findings from core HUIII are in agreement with data from the adjacent meander system, which suggest that the entire sediment sequence in the ‘Huara’ clay pan was deposited over the past 500 – 700 kyrs, making it a promising target for longer-term reconstructions of the regional paleoclimate history.
Responsible Party
Creators:Volker Wennrich (Principal Investigator), Julia Diederich (Author)
Contributor:Julia Diederich (Contact Person)
Funding Reference:Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG): CRC 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
Publisher:CRC1211 Database (CRC1211DB)
Publication Year:2019
Topic
CRC1211 Topic:Climate
Related Subproject:A2
Subjects:Keywords: Paleoclimate Proxies, Quaternary Geology
Geogr. Information Topic:Climatology/Meteorology/Atmosphere
File Details
Filename:Poster_Diederich_EGU_2019.png
Data Type:Image - Image
File Size:21.7 MB
Date:Available: 15.07.2019
Mime Type:image/png
Data Format:PNG
Language:English
Status:Completed
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Download Permission:Free
General Access and Use Conditions:According to the CRC1211DB data policy agreement.
Access Limitations:According to the CRC1211DB data policy agreement.
Licence:[CRC1211DB] Data policy agreement
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Specific Information - Presentation
Presenter:Julia Diederich
Presentation Date:11th of April, 2019
Presentation Type:Poster
Event:EGU General Assembly 2019
Event Type:Conference
Event Location:Vienna/ Austria
Event Duration:7th of April, 2019 - 12th of April, 2019
Metadata Details
Metadata Creator:Volker Wennrich
Metadata Created:15.07.2019
Metadata Last Updated:15.07.2019
Subproject:A2
Funding Phase:1
Metadata Language:English
Metadata Version:V50
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