Continuous 500,000-year climate record from vein calcite in Devils Hole, Nevada

Journal Article · Fri Oct 09 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.258.5080.255· OSTI ID:7225692

Winograd, I J; Coplen, T B; Landwehr, J M; Revesz, K M ^[1]; Riggs, A C; Ludwig, K R; Szabo, B J ^[2]; Kolesar, P T ^[3]

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1. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA (United States)
2. U.S. Geological Survey, Lakewood, CO (United States)
3. Utah State Univ., Logan, UT (United States)

Oxygen-18 ({delta}{sup 18}O) variations in a 36-centimeter-long core (DH-11) of vein calcite from Devils Hole, Nevada, yield an uninterrupted 500,000-year paleotemperature record that closely mimics all major features in the Vostok (Antarctica) paleotemperature and marine {delta}{sup 18}O ice-volume records. The chronology for this continental record is based on 21 replicated mass-spectrometric uranium-series dates. Between the middle and latest Pleistocene, the duration of the last four glacial cycles recorded in the calcite increased from 80,000 to 130,000 years; this variation suggests that major climate changes were aperiodic. The timing of specific climatic events indicates that orbitally controlled variations in solar insolation were not a major factor in trigering deglaciations. Interglacial climates lasted about 20,000 years. Collectively, these observations are inconsistent with the Milankovitch hypothesis for the origin of the Pleistocene glacial cycles but they are consistent with the thesis that these cycles originated from internal nonlinear feedbacks within the atmosphere-ice sheet-ocean system.

• OSTI ID: 7225692
• Journal Information: Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Journal Name: Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States) Vol. 258:5080; ISSN SCIEA; ISSN 0036-8075
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290301 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
CALCITE
CARBONATE MINERALS
CENOZOIC ERA
CLIMATIC CHANGE
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DRILL CORES
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOLOGIC AGES
GLACIERS
ISOTOPE RATIO
ISOTOPES
MINERALS
MONITORING
NEVADA
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN ISOTOPES
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PALEONTOLOGY
PLEISTOCENE EPOCH
QUATERNARY PERIOD
USA