Quaternary Paleoclimatic Record from Tropical South America: Drilling the Salar de Uyuni

This award supports a project to drill the Salar de Uyuni in order to recover a 300-meter long core, representing a history of about 0.5Myr. The core will be analyzed using a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct a climatological (effective moisture and temperature) time series of the Altiplano. Dating will be done by 14C, Ar/Ar, and U/Th methods. Detailed studies of the sedimentology, fluid inclusion petrography, stable isotopic and elemental geochemistry, and paleobiota (diatoms) will form the basis for the climatological reconstruction. The following majors questions will be addressed: (1) What was the nature of late Pleistocene climate variability in tropical South America ? (2) Was tropical South America wet or dry during glacial stages? (3) Are terrestrial tropical climate changes consistent with Milankovitch forcing and are they synchronous with high latitude changes? What climatic mechanisms (e.g. changes in the concentration of atmospheric water vapor) are responsible for these changes? (4) What are the dominant frequencies of suborbital-scale climatic changes in the tropics and are these variations in the terrestrial tropics synchronous with those at higher latitudes? What climatic mechanisms are responsible for these paleoclimatic characteristics?

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS)
Application #
9809612
Program Officer
David J. Verardo
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
1999-04-01
Budget End
2002-03-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
$297,729
Indirect Cost
Name
Duke University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Durham
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27705