| Abstract: | Understanding the movement of water through thick vadose zones, especially on time scales encompassing long-term climate change, is increasingly important as societies utilize semi-arid environments for both water resources and sites viewed as favorable for long-term disposal or storage of hazardous waste. Hydrologic responses to Pleistocene climate change within a deep vadose zone in the eastern Mojave Desert at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, were evaluated by uranium-series dating of finely layered hyalitic opal using secondary ion mass spectrometry. Opal is present within cm-thick secondary hydrogenic mineral crusts coating floors of lithophysal cavities in fractured volcanic rocks at depths of 200 to 300. m below land surface. Uranium concentrations in opal fluctuate systematically between 5 and 550. ??g/g. Age-calibrated profiles of uranium concentration correlate with regional climate records over the last 300,000. years and produce time-series spectral peaks that have distinct periodicities of 100- and 41-ka, consistent with planetary orbital parameters. These results indicate that the chemical compositions of percolating solutions varied in response to near-surface, climate-driven processes. However, slow (micrometers per thousand years), relatively uniform growth rates of secondary opal and calcite deposition spanning several glacial-interglacial climate cycles imply that water fluxes in the deep vadose zone remained low and generally buffered from the large fluctuations in available surface moisture during different climates. ?? 2010. |
| Genre: | Article |
| ProdID: | 70035425 |
| Citation Author: | Paces, J. B.; Neymark, L. A.; Whelan, J. F.; Wooden, J. L.; Lund, S. P.; Marshall, B. D. |
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| Citation End Page: | 298 |
| Citation Issue: | 3-4 |
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| Citation Language: | English |
| Citation Larger Work Title: | Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
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| Citation Number Of Pages: | 12 |
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| Citation Search Results Text: | Limited hydrologic response to Pleistocene climate change in deep vadose zones - Yucca Mountain, Nevada; 2010; Article; Journal; Earth and Planetary Science Letters; Paces, J. B.; Neymark, L. A.; Whelan, J. F.; Wooden, J. L.; Lund, S. P.; Marshall, B. D. |
| Citation Start Page: | 287 |
| Citation Volume: | 300 |
| Citation Year: | 2010 |
| Type: | citation/reference |
| Text: | Limited hydrologic response to Pleistocene climate change in deep vadose zones - Yucca Mountain, Nevada; 2010; Article; Journal; Earth and Planetary Science Letters; Paces, J. B.; Neymark, L. A.; Whelan, J. F.; Wooden, J. L.; Lund, S. P.; Marshall, B. D. |
| URL (THUMBNAIL): | http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/thumbnails/outside_thumb.jpg |
| URL (DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2010.10.006 |
| Date Other: | Fri, 1 Jan 2010 00:00 -0600 |
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