Paleoclimatic implications of fossil shoreline deposits in the southern basin and range province during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition

Paleolake shoreline deposits throughout the southern Basin and Range (SBAR) signify past intervals of steady-state climatic conditions occuring during the late Pleistocene slightly before, as well as after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~23-19 Ka). Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge about the age of fossil shoreline deposits—due to C-14 related uncertainties and incomplete dating of shorelines—has resulted in a large gap in our knowledge about past climatic and surface hydrologic conditions in the SBAR. Several studies collectively reveal multiple lake level oscillations during the LGM and last part of the Pleistocene, with reasonably well dated shoreline deposits existing for only four paleolakes: one in central New Mexico (Estancia), two in southwestern New Mexico (Playas and Cloverdale), and one in southeastern Arizona (Cochise). In summary, there is evidence for a pre-LGM high-stand at Cochise (>26 Ka), LGM high-stands at Estancia and Cloverdale (>20-16 Ka), deglacial age high-stands at Playas and Cochise (16-13 Ka), and latest Pleistocene-early Holocene still stands of as yet undetermined elevation at Playas and Estancia (13-9K). Further, the absence of high-stands from 11-10 Ka suggests that the Younger Dryas climatic reversal—which is detected in the stable O isotopic composition of speleothems from Cave-of-the-Bells in southeastern Arizona—was marked there by a decrease in mean annual air temperature without a significant increase in precipitation. Alternatively, if a return to glacial precipitation levels did occur, then it was for an interval so short that sedimentological evidence was not preserved. This presentation will cover the afore mentioned chronologies, along with discussion about associated atmospheric circulation patterns in the SBAR and across western North America.