This award supports a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) to examine exposures of laminated sediments in Laguna Paron, Peru. This sediment section may provide a unique opportunity to develop a high-resolution paleoclimate record from the central Andes that will compliment the ice-core record from the region. The sediments were deposited in a proglacial delta environment. Initial radiocarbon dates of wood indicate the sediments were deposited during the Little Ice Age. It is anticipated that the sediments will record glacial melt and runoff, whereas the ice cores primarily record glacial accumulation, thus the records in tandem will give a complete seasonal signal of paleoclimate. The exposures are now at risk of being lost because the lake level, which was artificially lowered in 1985, is being raised again. The initial lowering of the lake level produced downcutting in the delta and the first subaerial exposure of these sections.
