9709145 Markgraf This project involves a 2-year pilot study, Phase 1, of the Patagonian Lake Drilling Project (PATO), a multi-disciplinary, international effort to recover, for the first time, long paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate records from three extra-Andean closed lake basins in Argentina. These basins lie along a transect from the subtropical to the temperate latitudes of southern South America. Previous studies on shoreline features from the three basins document major changes in lake levels during the late Pleistocene, and suggest high sensitivity to climate change in the accumulated sediments. The objectives of the Phase 1 project are: 1)to survey and sample the modern lake and terrestrial environments for climate calibration of the sediment record; 2) to undertake seismic surveys of the sediments, to identify optimal core sites; and 3) to collect and analyze short cores to determnine the paleoclimatic potential of the records. An international group of experts in the field of paleolimnology and paleoclimatology is collaborating, from Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, and the US. In addition, substantial portions of this collaboration are supported by other funding sources: Germany (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft); Switzerland (Schweizer Nationalfond); the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory; and the Argentine Geological Survey. PATO is a contribution to the long- term collaborative effort of the Pole-Equator-Pole paleoclimate transect of the Western Hemisphere (IGBP-PAGES-PEP 1). ***
