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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