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The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Baker, PA; Seltzer, GO; Fritz, SC; Dunbar, RB; Grove, MJ; Tapia, PM; Cross, SL; Rowe, HD; Broda, JP
Published in: Science (New York, N.Y.)
January 2001

Long sediment cores recovered from the deep portions of Lake Titicaca are used to reconstruct the precipitation history of tropical South America for the past 25,000 years. Lake Titicaca was a deep, fresh, and continuously overflowing lake during the last glacial stage, from before 25,000 to 15,000 calibrated years before the present (cal yr B.P.), signifying that during the last glacial maximum (LGM), the Altiplano of Bolivia and Peru and much of the Amazon basin were wetter than today. The LGM in this part of the Andes is dated at 21,000 cal yr B.P., approximately coincident with the global LGM. Maximum aridity and lowest lake level occurred in the early and middle Holocene (8000 to 5500 cal yr B.P.) during a time of low summer insolation. Today, rising levels of Lake Titicaca and wet conditions in Amazonia are correlated with anomalously cold sea-surface temperatures in the northern equatorial Atlantic. Likewise, during the deglacial and Holocene periods, there were several millennial-scale wet phases on the Altiplano and in Amazonia that coincided with anomalously cold periods in the equatorial and high-latitude North Atlantic, such as the Younger Dryas.

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Published In

Science (New York, N.Y.)

DOI

EISSN

1095-9203

ISSN

0036-8075

Publication Date

January 2001

Volume

291

Issue

5504

Start / End Page

640 / 643

Related Subject Headings

  • Tropical Climate
  • Time
  • Temperature
  • Rain
  • Plankton
  • Peru
  • Geologic Sediments
  • General Science & Technology
  • Fresh Water
  • Diatoms
 

Citation

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Baker, P. A., Seltzer, G. O., Fritz, S. C., Dunbar, R. B., Grove, M. J., Tapia, P. M., … Broda, J. P. (2001). The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years. Science (New York, N.Y.), 291(5504), 640–643. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.291.5504.640
Baker, P. A., G. O. Seltzer, S. C. Fritz, R. B. Dunbar, M. J. Grove, P. M. Tapia, S. L. Cross, H. D. Rowe, and J. P. Broda. “The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years.Science (New York, N.Y.) 291, no. 5504 (January 2001): 640–43. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.291.5504.640.
Baker PA, Seltzer GO, Fritz SC, Dunbar RB, Grove MJ, Tapia PM, et al. The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years. Science (New York, NY). 2001 Jan;291(5504):640–3.
Baker, P. A., et al. “The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years.Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 291, no. 5504, Jan. 2001, pp. 640–43. Epmc, doi:10.1126/science.291.5504.640.
Baker PA, Seltzer GO, Fritz SC, Dunbar RB, Grove MJ, Tapia PM, Cross SL, Rowe HD, Broda JP. The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years. Science (New York, NY). 2001 Jan;291(5504):640–643.
Journal cover image

Published In

Science (New York, N.Y.)

DOI

EISSN

1095-9203

ISSN

0036-8075

Publication Date

January 2001

Volume

291

Issue

5504

Start / End Page

640 / 643

Related Subject Headings

  • Tropical Climate
  • Time
  • Temperature
  • Rain
  • Plankton
  • Peru
  • Geologic Sediments
  • General Science & Technology
  • Fresh Water
  • Diatoms