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Science 21 January 1994:
Vol. 263. no. 5145, pp. 361 - 365
DOI: 10.1126/science.263.5145.361
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Articles

500,000-Year Stable Carbon Isotopic Record from Devils Hole, Nevada

Tyler B. Coplen 1, Isaac J. Winograd 1, Jurate M. Landwehr 1, and Alan C. Riggs 2

1 U.S. Geological Survey, 431 National Center, Reston, VA 22092
2 U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Federal Center, MS 421, Lakewood, CO 80225

The record of carbon-13 (dgr13C) variations in DH-11 vein calcite core from Devils Hole, Nevada, shows four prominent minima near glacial terminations (glacial-interglacial transitions) V to II. The dgr13C time series is inversely correlated with the DH-11 oxygen isotope ratio time series and leads it by as much as 7000 years. The dgr13C variations likely record fluctuations in the dgr13C of dissolved inorganic carbon of water recharging the aquifer. How such variations are transported 80 kilometers to Devils Hole without obliteration by water-rock reaction remains an enigma. The record may reflect (i) global variations in the dgr13C of atmospheric CO2 and, hence, the dgr13C of continental biomass or (ii) variations in extent and density of vegetation in the southern Great Basin. In the latter case, dgr13C minima at 414, 334, 246, and 133 thousand years ago mark times of maximum vegetation.

Submitted on August 2, 1993
Accepted on November 18, 1993


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