US EditionNevada Cave Reveals 580,000 Years of Climate Shifts
The study reveals sharp mid-interglacial groundwater declines and vegetation loss in Nevada using oxygen-isotope analysis from Devils Hole calcite deposits.
- Last week, Oregon State paleoclimatologist Kathleen Wendt led a team that reported a calcite deposit in Devils Hole fissure, southern Nevada, preserves 580,000 years of climate history in Nature Communications.
- Faced with sparse terrestrial archives in the Southwest United States, scientists turned to groundwater depositing metre-thick mineral layers that record past climate in arid regions.
- Wendt abseiled 20m into Devils Hole II and drilled a one-metre core to extract calcite, then analyzed oxygen isotopes to reconstruct past hydroclimate conditions.
- Analysis indicates alternating glacial and interglacial periods, with sharp mid-interglacial groundwater declines and vegetation losses linked to Pacific storm track shifts.
- By filling a terrestrial gap, the study provides a rare hydroclimate archive for the arid US Southwest, with Christo Buizert, Oregon State associate professor and co-author, noting this informs understanding of current and future climates.
9 Articles
9 Articles
Cave in Nevada Reveals 580,000 Years of Climate History
The Devils Hole spring, a unique desert Pupfish habitat, is administered by Death Valley National Park, and located within the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nye County, Nevada, Southwestern United States. Credit: Ken Lund – CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. A one-meter (roughly 3.3 feet) core of calcite pulled from a cave of Devils Hole in southern Nevada has yielded a rare record of roughly 580,000 years of climate change, spanning…
Controls on the southwest USA hydroclimate over the last six glacial-interglacial cycles - Nature Communications
The Great Basin in the southwest United States experienced major hydroclimate shifts throughout the Quaternary. Understanding the drivers behind these past changes has become increasingly important for improving future climate projections. Here, we present an absolute-dated δ18O and δ13C record from Devils Hole cave 2 (southern Nevada) that reveals climate and environmental changes in the southern Great Basin over the last 580,000 years. Water i…
Half a million years of weather is locked inside a ‘Devils Hole’
In the heart of the Mojave Desert, far from snowcapped peaks or roaring rivers, a narrow crack in the rock has quietly stored half a million years of climate history. Now, scientists have learned to read that record, and it tells a story that matters to you if you live anywhere in the water stressed West. A Cave That Remembers Ice Ages The site is called Devils Hole, a flooded fissure in southern Nevada. For hundreds of thousands of years, groun…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
