Atmospheric and hydrologic controls on a high resolution lacustrine record of late Pleistocene climate variability, Estancia basin, New Mexico:
Anderson, R.Y., Allen, B.D., Menking, K.M., Shafike, N.G., Syed, K.H.,
and Hostetler, S.W., 1999, Atmospheric and hydrologic controls on a high
resolution lacustrine record of late Pleistocene climate variability,
Estancia basin, New Mexico: EOS, v. 80, p. F499.
Late Pleistocene Lake Estancia, central New Mexico reached a surface
area of 1000 km2, a depth of -45 meters and experienced extreme
fluctuations before, during, and after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM).
Groundwater discharge in the closed topographic basin sustained a minimum
pool and assured a continuous, high-resolution record of lacustrine variability.
Changes in lake level before the LGM recorded abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger
type climate fluctuations. Adequate age control establishes 6 distinct
highstands and 5 lowstands during the LGM, and 3 post-LGM highstands that
correspond to changes recorded in Greenland ice. Groundwater, surface
water, and energy balance lake models, combined with meteorological observations
and atmospheric model predictions, are being adapted to estimate changes
in precipitation and surface runoff, temperature and evaporation, and
groundwater discharge during late Pleistocene climate perturbations.
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