The climate record of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Long lacustrine records from the Southern Hemisphere are required in order to test ongoing controversies concerning the occurrence and hemispheric synchronicity of palaeoclimate changes, in particular of abrupt events. Using geophysical, sedimentological and geochemical results from several lacustrine basins in eastern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, we demonstrate the potential of multiproxy limnogeological approaches to tackle some of the standing questions dealing with the Late Quaternary environmental evolution of southernmost South America.
The main goals of studying these various lacustrine basins are to check on the timing and magnitude of the observed stepwise climatic evolution of the Late Glacial-Holocene transition, to identify latitudinal variations of the Westerlies during the Holocene and to spot changes in El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity during the second part of the Holocene.
For longer records spanning several glacial-interglacial cycles, an ICDP deep drilling initiative has been undertaken in Laguna Potrok Aike, a maar lake adjacent to the Straits of Magellan. [...]

Project partners

Daniel Ariztegui (Univ. Geneva)

Publications:

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• Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., De Batist, M., Gebhardt, C., Haberzettl, T., Niessen, F., Ohlendorf, C. and Zolitschka. B. (in press) Environmental history of southern Patagonia unraveled by the seismic stratigraphy of Laguna Potrok Aike. Sedimentology.
  
  
• Ariztegui, D., Anselmetti, F. S., Gilli, A. & Waldmann, N. (2008) Late Pleistocene environmental change in Eastern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego - A limnogeological approach. In: J. Rabassa (Ed.), The Late Cenozoic of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Developments in Quaternary Sciences Series 11. ISSN 1571-0866. Elsevier, 241-253
  
  
• Beres, M., Gilli, A., Ariztegui, D. and Anselmetti, F.S. (2008) The Lago Cardiel basin, Argentina (49°S): Origin and evolution revealed by high-resolution multi-channel seismic reflection studies. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 25, 74-85.
  
  
• Gilli, A., Markgraf, V., Anselmetti, F.S., and Ariztegui, D. (2007) Comment on: G. Wenzens, 2005, Glacier advances east of the Southern Andes between the Last Glacial Maximum and 5000 BP compared with lake terraces of the endorrheic Lago Cardiel (49S, Patagonia, Argentina). Z. Geomorph. N.F.: 51, 135-137.
  
  
• Gilli, A., Ariztegui, D., Anselmetti, F.S., McKenzie, J.A., Markgraf, V., Hajdas, I. and McCulloch, R.D. (2005) Mid-Holocene strengthening of the southern westerlies in South America - Sedimentological evidences from Lago Cardiel, Argentina (49ºS).  Global and Planetary Change 49, 75-93.
  
  
• Gilli, A., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Beres, M., McKenzie, J.A: and Markgraf, V. (2005) Seismic stratigraphy, buried beach ridges and contourite drifts: the Late Quaternary history of the closed Lago Cardiel basin, Argentina (49ºS). Sedimentology 51, 1-23.
  
  
• Gilli A., Anselmetti F.S., Ariztegui D., Bradbury J.P., Kelts K., Markgraf V. and McKenzie J.A. (2001) Tracking abrupt climate change in the Southern Hemisphere: a seismic stratigraphic study of Lago Cardiel, Argentina (49°S). Terra Nova 13 (6), 443-448.
  
  
• Haberzettl, T., Kück, B., Anselmetti, F.S., Ariztegui, D., Fey, M., Janssen, A., Lücke, A., Mayr, C., Ohlendorf, C., Schäbitz, F., Schleser, G.H., Wille, M., Wulf, S. and Zolitschka, B. (2008) Hydrological variability in southeastern Patagonia and explosive volcanic activity in the southern Andean Cordillera during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 and the Holocene inferred from lake sediments of Laguna Potrok Aike, Argentina. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 259, 213-229.
  
  
• Markgraf, V., Bradbury, J.P., Schwalb, A., Burns, S., Stern, C., Ariztegui, D., Gilli, D., Anselmetti, F.S., Stine, S., and Maidana, N. (2003) Holocene paleoclimate of Southern Patagonia: Limnological and environmental history of Lago Cardiel, Argentina. The Holocene, 13, 581-591.
  
  
• Waldmann, N., Ariztegui, D., Anselmetti, F.S., Austin, J.A.Jr., Moy, C.M., Stern, C., Recasens, C. and Dunbar, R. (in press) Holocene climatic fluctuations and positioning of the southern hemispheric westerlies in Tierra del Fuego (54°S), Patagonia. Journal of Quaternary Science.
  
  
• Waldmann, N., Ariztegui, D., Anselmetti, F.S., Austin Jr., J.A.,Dunbar, R., M. Moy, C.M., Recasens, C. (2008) Seismic stratigraphy of Lago Fagnano sediments (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) - A potential archive of paleoclimatic change and tectonic activity since the Late Glacial. Geologica Acta 6, 101-110.