Correlation of Late-Pleistocene Lake-Level Oscillations in Mono Lake, California, with North Atlantic Climate Events

Authors

Larry Benson, University of Colorado at BoulderFollow
Steve P. Lund, University of Southern CaliforniaFollow
James W. Burdett, Cornell University
Michaele Kashgarian, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Timothy P. Rose, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Joseph P. Smoot, U.S. Geological Survey
Martha Schwartz, University of Southern California

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1997

Citation

QUATERNARY RESEARCH 49, 1-10 (1998) ARTICLE NO. QR971940

Abstract

Oxygen-18 (¹⁸O) values of sediment from the Wilson Creek Formation, Mono Basin, California, indicate three scales of temporal variation (Dansgaard-Oeschger, Heinrich, and Milankovitch) in the hydrologic balance of Mono Lake between 35,400 and 12,900 ¹⁴C yr B.P. During this interval, Mono Lake experienced four lowstands each lasting from 1000 to 2000 yr. The youngest low stand, which occurred between 15,500 and 14,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P., was nearly synchronous with a desiccation of Owens Lake, California. Paleomagnetic secular variation (PSV) data indicate that three of four persistent low stands occurred at the same times as Heinrich events HI, H2, and H4. ¹⁸O data indicate the two highest lake levels occurred ~18,000 and ~13,100 ¹⁴C yr B.P., corresponding to passages of the mean position of the polar jet stream over the Mono Basin. Extremely low values of total inorganic carbon between 26,000 and 14,000 ¹⁴C yr B.P. indicate glacial activity, corresponding to a time when summer insolation was much reduced.