Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, and Paleoecology of Neogene Central America: Bridging Continents and Oceans (NICA-BRIDGE)
Abstract
In March 2020, we will hold a workshop in Nicaragua to plan scientific drilling in Lakes Nicaragua and Managua. The Pliocene lakes are located in a trench-parallel half graben that hosts the volcanic front. They are uniquely suited for multidisciplinary scientific investigation of long, continuous sediment profiles because of their: 1) long records (several Myrs) of terrestrial and related marine basin development at the southern Central American margin, 2) alternating lacustrine and marine environments, 3) proximity to both the older and the younger volcanic arcs, separated by slab rollback, 4) significance as a hot spot for endemism, 5) strategic location for study of the great American biotic interchange. They offer the opportunity to combine seismological, volcanological, paleoclimatological, paleoecological, and paleoenvironmental studies in the ocean and on land. The Sandino Basin, offshore Nicaragua, is the oceanic continuation of the depression in which the lakes are located, and a second, seagoing drilling phase of the project will complement the lake drilling to understand the evolution of the entire complex margin.
Drilling of the Nicaraguan lakes will have broad scientific and socio-economic impacts and contribute to major societal themes addressed by ICDP: Climate & Ecosystems, Deep Biosphere, and Natural Hazards . Recent seismic surveys in the lakes support the feasibility of drilling long records, and will be continued. We anticipate collecting the oldest lacustrine records in the continental Neotropics, which will enable (a) development of a long Neotropical environmental and paleoclimate record, (b) determination of the times and rates of marine transgressions and regressions, their tectonic and climatic controls and ecological consequences, (c) investigation of recurrence rates and magnitudes of natural hazards, (d) identification of constraints on the timing and magmatic compositional changes during shifts of the volcanic arc, (e) exploration of linkages between long-term terrestrial and marine paleoenvironmental records, (f) assessment of ancient basin development and the deeper structure of western Nicaragua, and (g) study of climatic, geologic and anthropogenic influences on biodiversity and limnological variables, and consequent effects on micro- and macrobiota.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMEP21C2225K
- Keywords:
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- 1130 Geomorphological geochronology;
- GEOCHRONOLOGY;
- 1165 Sedimentary geochronology;
- GEOCHRONOLOGY;
- 4942 Limnology;
- LIMNOLOGY;
- 4943 Paleolimnology;
- LIMNOLOGY