[Niessen] High-resolution qualitative environmental and climatic reconstruction for the last glacial interglacial cycles - the sediment record of the ICDP site Laguna Potrok Aike, Argentina (PASADO-Core)

German Title: High-resolution qualitative environmental and climatic reconstruction for the last glacial interglacial cycles - the sediment record of the ICDP site Laguna Potrok Aike, Argentina (PASADO-Core)

Abbreviation: 242

Current Status: completed


Main Applicant:Dr. Frank Niessen


Resources Recipient

Prof. Dr. Bernd Zolitschka


Other Persons

Dr. Christian Ohlendorf


Conveyor Begin:
Conveyor End:
Conveyor Duration:
Year: 2008


Description

As the overall aim, this project focuses on studying the last glacial cycle of the Southern Hemispheric mid-latitudes (52°S) using a unique lacustrine sediment record. Results will be compared with marine and ice core data as well as with modelling results and help to understand how climate interacts globally. Drilling of the sediment record of Laguna Potrok Aike, a 770 ka old maar lake in the dry steppe of southern Patagonia (Argentina), provides a unique record of environmental and climate variations. Core documentation, high-resolution core logging and archiving for internationally funded science projects will be one major focus of PASADO-Core as well as preparation of a stacked composite profile ready for subsampling by international collaborating science teams. XRF core logging data in combination with age determinations, first geochemical data and physical properties make available qualitative climate and environmental reconstructions at multi-millennial to decadal resolution. Some of the low-resolution geochemical data can be merged with XRF core scanning data to increase the temporal resolution of geochemical analyses considerably. Altogether, these results provide information about lacustrine productivity, origin of organic matter, allochthonous sediment transfer, hydrological variations and sedimentological processes, all of which are related to climatic forcing.