HR: 0800h
AN: GP21B-01 [Abstracts]
TI: Late Holocene Sediment Study From Santa María del Oro Crater Lake, Nayarit, México, Using Environmental Magnetism
AU: * Vazquez, G
EM: gvazquez@geofisica.unam.mx
AF: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Posgrado en Ciencias de la Tierra. Cd.
Universitaria, Mexico, D.F 04510, Mexico
AU: Ortega, B
EM: bortega@geofisica.unam.mx
AF: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Instituto de Geofisica. Cd. Universitaria,
Mexico, D.F 04510, Mexico
AU: Rodriguez, A
EM: alerdz@geofisica.unam.mx
AF: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y L. Cd.
Universitaria, Mexico, D.F 04510, Mexico
AB:
The lake is located near the Pacific coast of Mexico, at the western end of the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt. It is a
deep lake (ca. 65 m) with steep sides and only a small bay (Agua Caliente) has shallower water (ca. 12 m). Four
parallel cores between 4 and 9 m long were recovered in March 2002 from this shallower area.
Sediments are characterized by alternated laminations (few millimeters to 2 cm) of sand, brown silt, green silt,
reddish silt, ochre silt, and peat. The 14-C dated sequence spans the last ca. 2,600 yrs. Given this age, it is
possible that each set of laminations represent annual sedimentation cycles. The record is a potential high-
resolution archive of environmental and climatic variability for western Mexico for late Holocene.
Magnetic measurements of susceptibility along the cores show a high variability in the concentration of magnetic
mineralogy. Different magnetic and non-magnetic properties show two sets of facies in relation to its magnetic
mineralogy; one group composed by sand, brown silt, green silt and peat has the magnetite and Ti-magnetite as
the principal magnetic phase; the second group, composed by reddish and ochre silt, has a low Ti magnetite
component and siderite, as the principal paramagnetic component. The effects of climatic variations such as the
drought occurred in the archeological Classic period (100 - 900 dC), the Medieval Warm Period (950 - 1350 dC),
the Little Ice Age (1400 - 1800 dC), and the droughts over the last 700 years, documented in sites along central
Mexico, are recognized in the magnetic mineralogy of Santa Maria del Oro.
DE: 1512 Environmental magnetism
DE: 3344 Paleoclimatology (0473, 4900)
SC: Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism [GP]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly