Geology topics
Research about Owens Lake
Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Owens Lake.
The last interglaciation at Owens Lake, California; Core OL-92
Owens Lake, located at the eastern base of the central Sierra Nevada (Fig. 1), was the terminus of the Owens River prior to the lake's complete desiccation shortly after 1913 due to river diversion by the City of Los Angeles. During earlier wetter cycles, the lake overflowed to fill a series of downstream basins including China Lake Basin, Searles Valley, Panamint Valley, and ultimately, Death Valley (Smith and Street-Perrott, 1983). In 1992 the U.S. Geological Survey drilled a 323-m-deep core (OL-92) into Owens Lake sediments near the depocenter of the basin to obtain a continuous record of silty-clay sediment spanning the last 800,000 yrs. A multi-parameter reconnaissance study of the entire core (ca 7000-yr resolution), was reported in a 13-chapter summary volume (Smith and Bischoff, 1997). A document containing the numerical and other detailed forms of raw data collected by that volume's authors was prepared earlier (Smith and Bischoff, 1993). The reconnaissance study provided an approximate time-depth model for the entire core, based on radiocarbon dates from the top 31m, the Bishop Ash (759,000 yrs) at 304 m, ten within-Brunhes paleomagnetic excursions, and a compaction-corrected mass-accumulation rate of 51.4 g/cm/l000yr (Bischoff et al., 1997a). Application of this model to observed sediment parameters indicates that Owens Lake was saline, alkaline, and biologically productive at times of decreased water-flow, and was generally hydrologically flushed and relatively unproductive during times of increased water-flow. Grain size, abundance of CaCO 3 , organic carbon, clay mineralogy, cation-exchange capacity of the clay fraction, fossil pollen, fish, ostracodes, and diatoms (see summary by Smith et al., 1997) all show cyclic variation down the core. CaCO 3 abundance, in particular, strongly reflects an approximately 100 ka dominant cycle, characteristic of global ice-volume indicated by the MIS δ 18 O record. Four of the last five marine isotope terminations are clearly shown in the OL-92 record.
Dust deposition downwind of Owens (dry) Lake, 1991–1994: Preliminary findings
Salt‐rich dust derived from the Owens Lake playa is deposited in significant quantities to distances of at least 40 km north and south of the playa. Semiannual measurements from 1991 to 1994 of dust deposition rates (dust flux) and composition 2 m above the ground at seven sites in Owens Valley show that (1) dust in Owens Valley is derived mainly from the playa, although areas closer to the sites can also be sources; (2) south of the playa, dust flux is higher in the winter than in the summer, but north of the playa, dust flux is about the same or slightly lower in the winter; (3) on the playa, interannual variation in dust flux is large (factors of 5–10 during the 3 years), but at downwind sites, the variation is much smaller; (4) the dust typically has total soluble salt content as high as 30%, generally much higher than that of dust elsewhere in southern Nevada and California; and (5) to a distance of at least 40 km south of the playa, soluble salt flux is significantly higher than regional rates. The dust flux measurements indicate that significant quantities of salt‐rich dust are probably being added to the soils in the region around Owens Lake playa; these dust additions may affect soil pH and vegetation.
Core OL-92 from Owens Lake: Project rationale, geologic setting, drilling procedures, and summary
Several lines of evidence indicated that Owens Lake, a now-dry lake in southeast California, would probably yield a continuous and climatically informative sedimentary record. Also, the details of modern climate and runoff in the area are exceptionally well known, providing a firm basis for interpreting various types of evidence from a core in terms of past climates. Drilling was carried out in early 1992 to retrieve this record. The resulting core, OL-92, was taken from the south-central part of the lake (lat 36°22.85′ N, long 117°57.95′ W). Lake surface elevation at the drill site is 1,085 m. The core’s length is 322.86 m, recovery was ~80%, and the age of its basal sediments is ~800 ka. Study of the core has revealed lithologic, chemical, mineralogic, geophysical, and paleontologic evidence that reflects alternating periods of high- and low-volume runoff into Owens Lake. This volume presents these studies and summarizes their paleoclimatic significance.
Ostracodes in Owens Lake core OL-92: Alteration of saline and freshwater forms through time
Ostracode species’ geographic distributions are limited by parameters such as water temperature, salinity, and dissolved-ion composition. Because these parameters are, in part, determined by climate, ostracode biogeographic distributions serve as proxies for past climates. Therefore, the ostracodes in Core OL-92 from Owens Lake, southeast California, reveal climatic oscillations during the past 800,000 yr. The climatic history of the Owens Lake area, as indicated by the fossil ostracode record, reflects a number of high-latitude glacial and interglacial episodes in which glacial-period terminations fall at approximately 120 ka (Termination II), 225 ka (Termination III), 340 ka (Termination IV), and 438 ka (Termination V). A plot of saline versus freshwater ostracodes over time agrees quite well with a number of other geochemical and biological climatic indicators from the Owens Lake core.
Paleobiotic and isotopic analysis of mollusks, fish and plants from core OL-92: Indicators for an open or closed lake system
Intervals of open versus closed lake systems for Pleistocene Owens Lake in California are suggested by a comparison of paleobiotic and isotopic evidence recovered from core samples of OL-92. Mollusks and fish were identified from 67 core samples, and their ecological requirements were noted. Carbon dioxide extractions for stable isotopes of 13 C and 18 O from aragonite of the molluscan shell material were obtained by standard procedures, and isotopic compositions were measured using a mass spectrometer. The values of 13 C and 18 O from sediment samples taken previously (Benson and Bischoff, 1993) were compared with 13 C and 18 O values from mollusk shells recovered from the core. These data indicate at least two times of open lake, very low salinity (or “fresh” water) episodes, which are in agreement with the interpretation of fish and mollusk paleoecology supporting open systems between 207 m and 208 m (ca. 450 ka to ca. 453 ka) and between 309 m and 313 m (ca. 765 ka to ca. 775 ka).
An 800,000-year pollen record from Owens Lake, California: Preliminary analyses
A long sequence of fossil palynomorph assemblages from a 323-m-long core taken at Owens Lake has enabled us to evaluate the gross vegetational trends for the Owens Valley region of California over the past ~800,000 years. Shifts in vegetation composition and abundance in the study area during the Pleistocene were indicated in core sediments by marked fluctuations in the pollen frequencies of pines, junipers, and, to a lesser extent, of big sagebrush, composites, and chenopods/amaranths. The modern vegetation distribution and modern pollen rain on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada indicate that maximal abundances of these taxa generally characterize higher elevation subalpine and montane coniferous forests, lower elevation coniferous woodland, steppe, and desert scrub environments. Pollen frequencies in the upper part of core OL-92 corroborate vegetational trends documented previously from late Wisconsin and Holocene Neotoma middens in the Great Basin. These trends and evidence from this study suggest that woodland taxa expanded their range down the slope of the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada and were established in (and immediately adjacent to) Owens Valley during moderated climates of the late Wisconsin, apparently in response to decreases in temperature and increases in precipitation, but retreated upslope toward their present position starting as long ago as ca. 20 ka. More importantly, pollen evidence from core OL-92 documents that the southern Sierra Nevada has experienced nine major cool-to-warm vegetation shifts (in addition to the late Wisconsin-early Holocene warming) during the time interval spanning the middle Pleistocene to early Holocene (Brunhes Normal Polarity Chron). We believe that at least six consecutive cool-to-warm shifts (the most recent ones) represent transitions from full-glacial to full-interglacial conditions on the basis of the magnitude of vegetation change in this portion of the pollen record. These marked changes in the frequency curves of dominant palynomorph taxa enabled us to identify boundaries that define 19 (?20) pollen zones in OL-92. The excursions of the pollen frequency curves within and across zone boundaries approximate the nature, duration, and timing of the middle and late Pleistocene climatic trends documented by geochemical (δ 18 O) evidence from OL-92 and from Devils Hole (DH-11) in the Amargosa Desert of Nevada.
Synthesis of the paleoclimatic record from Owens Lake core OL-92
During much of the late Quaternary, Owens Lake overflowed into one or more of four successively lower-elevation basins. Most of the water came from the high, eastern slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada, and changes in the volumes of that water reflect a dominant climatic cycle of ~100 k.y. Variations in the inflow to, and outflow from, Owens Lake since ca. 800 ka left biological, chemical, mineralogical, and geophysical evidence in the sediments of those changes. Biological evidence includes fossil ostracodes, diatoms, fish, and mollusks (and δ 18 O data from their shells) which indicate fresh or brackish lake water on the basis of their modern habitats. Fossil pollens indicate ~20 regional vegetation cycles during the same period. Chemical evidence of high inflow and, commonly, outflow volumes is provided by the low inorganic- and organic-C content of some sediments, reflecting short lake-water residence times; long residence times produced higher and more variable quantities of these components. Mineralogical variations in illite/smectite ratios indicate changes in weathering processes and glacial comminution. High magnetic susceptibility correlates with other criteria that indicate high runoff. Between 810 ka and 645 ka, Owens Lake was fresh, several meters deep, and depositing silt with a few beds of sand; it supported a flora and fauna now found in fresh, sometimes very cool, waters. (Note that most geologic ages describing the OL-92 chronology have been rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 ka.) A shallow-but-freshwater lake may have been the result of accelerated sedimentation during an earlier (>800 ka) glaciation in the Sierra Nevada, choking the basin with sediment nearly to its spillway level. Between 645 ka and 450 ka, the lake was probably even shallower, depositing beds of coarse to fine sand, but overflowing periodically allowing its water to remain fresh. Between 450 ka and 5 ka, Owens Lake was mostly deep, alternating between spilling and being closed part of the time. It deposited silt and clay on its floor, yet underwent detectable variations in salinity caused by climate changes; this part of the record is the most easily interpreted and constitutes the main basis for comparing this paleoclimatic record with other long records. From 5 ka to A.D. 1913, when the Owens River was diverted into an aqueduct, Owens Lake was shallow (~2 m to ~15 m), moderately saline (~5% to <15% salts), and depositing oolites. After 1913, the lake desiccated. Comparison of the Owens Lake water-depth record with that of Searles Lake, two-basins downstream during much of late Pleistocene time, shows that they underwent similar responses to climate, but sedimentation changes documenting those responses commenced thousands of years apart, apparently because changes in precipitation volumes occurred gradually. Owens Lake, at the base of high mountains, was the first to reflect increasing amounts of regional precipitation; Searles, in a more arid environment, was the first to reflect decreasing amounts of precipitation. Devils Hole, 150 km east of Owens Lake, has a well dated isotopic-temperature record that resembles the Owens Lake-depth record. Marine records of Pleistocene glacial fluctuations, which measure high-latitude ice-sheet volumes and thus both precipitation and temperature at those latitudes, also resemble the Owens Lake history. There are, however, differences between the ages of the maxima and minima of climatic events as reconstructed from the Owens Lake core and similar-appearing inflections in the other two records; the differences range from 0 to 33 k.y. and average ~15 k.y. The question arises whether the differences between those ages are results of errors in the time-scale used for the Owens Lake record, or were there significant differences in the times when atmospheric climate change began to affect its different elements. The three records compared here are measurements of different elements and combinations of elements in two latitude belts: the deep-sea marine records measure combinations of temperature and precipitation that determined global ice volumes (at mostly high latitudes), the Devils Hole record measures atmospheric temperatures (in its mid-latitude region), and the Owens Lake record measures effective precipitation (in the same mid-latitude region).
Responses of sediment geochemistry to climate change in Owens Lake sediment: An 800-k.y. record of saline/fresh cycles in core OL-92
Geochemical parameters of sediments from drill hole OL-92 indicate that Owens Lake was saline, alkaline, and highly productive during interglacial periods, and was hydrologically open and relatively unproductive during glacial periods. Abundance of CaCO 3 , organic carbon, and cation-exchange capacity of the clay fraction show cyclic variation down the core. Six minima in these components during the past 500 k.y. are interpreted as caused by intensive overflow that occurred during Sierran glacial advances. Maxima in these components indicate closed-lake conditions, reflecting warmer and more arid interglacial climates. The pattern of CaCO 3 abundance suggests that closed lake conditions predominated over the past 500 k.y. The absence of gaylussite and gypsum in the sediments, however, indicates lake salinity never exceeded about 15 wt %, a limit which requires flushing of accumulated salts every 10 k.y. Oscillations of CaCO 3 generally indicate a 100-k.y. dominant cycle, a characteristic of the marine δ 18 O record. Four of the last five marine isotope terminations are clearly shown in the Owens Lake record. The last interglacial at Owens Lake appears to have occurred between 120 ka and 50 ka. The roughly 10-k.y. offset between this interval and marine oxygen-isotope stage 5 reflects either error in the age-depth model, or alternatively, a time lag between changes in Northern Hemisphere ice volumes and the manifestation of local climate change in lake geochemistry and sedimentology.
Age and correlation of tephra layers, position of the Matuyama-Brunhes chron boundary, and effects of Bishop Ash eruption on Owens Lake, as determined from drill hole OL-92, Southeast California
Tephra layers in the ~323-m-deep Owens lake drill hole OL-92 correlate to tephra layers that have been identified and dated elsewhere in the western United States. Tephra layers identified are the Bishop ash bed (758 ka) at 309.2–298.6 m; the Dibekulewe (ash) bed (ca. 470 ka to ca. 610 ka) at ~224 m; and one of several ash beds in Walker Lake (ca. 60 ka to ca. 80 ka) at ~50.7 m. Other tephra layers, the ages of which are poorly constrained, have also been identified. Age constraints from a sedimentation-rate curve based on dry bulk density and independently derived magnetostratigraphy provide new age constraints to the undated or poorly dated tephra layers: ca. 740 ka for the ash of Thermal Canyon, and ca. 510 ka for the Dibekulewe (ash) bed. Bishop tephra fell into a deep Owens Lake, but the lake shallowed as ash was rapidly reworked by wind and water within the Owens Lake basin. The shallowing of the lake was the result in part to filling with the large volume of ash that was deposited in the basin and then reworked into the lake, but the filling was also an effect of the onset of a moderately warm interstadial period of hemispheric or global extent corresponding to oxygen-isotope stage 19. The lake deepened again as the last several meters of the 10-m-thick, composite ash bed were deposited in the lake. Despite its great thickness, reworking of the light ash must have been rapid. The position of the Matuyama-Brunhes paleomagnetic boundary is estimated to be between 311.4 m and 314.8 m, and most likely between 311.4 m and 312.9 m, in the core, based on (1) the pattern of magnetic inclinations in the Owens Lake core as compared with those at other sites in the region; (2) estimates of the time elapsed between the magnetic reversal and the deposition of the Bishop ash bed; and (3) the probable range of sediment-deposition rates in Owens Lake during this time.
Stratigraphy, lithologies, and sedimentary structures of Owens Lake core OL-92
Owens Lake, a now-dry lake in southeastern California immediately east of the southern Sierra Nevada, was the site of a coring project designed to obtain a long paleoclimatic record. During the ensuing study, lacustrine deposits were recovered by the 323 m long core designated “OL-92.” The presence of the Bishop ash (ca. 760 ka) and the Matuyama-Brunhes paleomagnetic reversal (ca. 780 ka) near the base of core OL-92 shows that this core represents about 800 k.y. of deposition in Owens Lake. The sediments are dominantly lacustrine clay, silt, and fine sand, although some intervals contain as much as 40 wt % CaCO3. The lowest ~57 m of recovered sediments is mostly silt or clay, but several sand beds are present; the overlying ~60 m of sediment is similar, but its sand content is more dispersed. Together, these two units are composed of ~70 wt % silt and clay and ~30 wt % sand, suggesting deposition in lakes that fluctuated between moderately deep and shallow. Overlying them is ~201 m of sediments that were mostly deposited in deep water; they consist predominantly of silt and clay but include two thin, coarse-sand beds. An oolite bed forms the upper ~4 m of natural deposits, and an anthropogenic salt bed, >2 m thick, forms much of the present surface. In addition to the Bishop ash, several much thinner tephra layers are also present. About 70% of the clastic-sediment units are massive, some clearly because of bioturbation; other units display a thin bedding defined by changes in color or grain size. Rhythmic bedding, observed in numerous segments <1 m thick, seems to represent cyclical events ~100 yr long. Thin color bands caused by the chemical alteration of sediments on each side of hairline fractures create irregular subvertical veins. Clastic dikes, as much as ~2 cm wide and ~75 cm long, characterize some zones. Bioturbation structures, sand pods, ice-rafted(?) granules, small faults, minor discontinuities, and possible turbidity-current structures are also present. Lithologic variations, in combination with other evidence, indicate that from ca. 810–645 ka, Owens was most commonly a moderately deep fresh-water lake; from ca. 645–450 ka, it was more commonly a shallow—but still fresh-water—lake; from ca. 450–5 ka, it was almost continuously a deep, mostly fresh-water lake; and after ca. 5 ka, it was a shallow, moderately saline lake. Other variations in the sediments and their contents, however, indicate additional cycles of average lake-overflow volumes that are not reflected by sediment-size changes.
A time-depth scale for Owens Lake sediments of core OL-92; radiocarbon dates and constant mass-accumulation rate
Results of radiocarbon analyses of carbonates and humates from the upper 31 m of OL-92 indicate coherent and linear progression of dates with depth down to about 24 m and 30 ka. Scatter of results below this depth indicates that the practical limit of radiocarbon dating in this core is about 30 ka. The average mass-accumulation rate (MAR) for the top 24 m is 52.4 g/cm 2 /k.y. calculated from radiocarbon dates and bulk density reconstruction. A similar calculation for the entire core down to the Bishop ash bed (304 m, 759 ka) gives a MAR of 51.4 g/cm 2 /k.y., suggesting a constant MAR throughout the past 760 k.y. A time-depth curve for the entire core was then constructed from this constant value and using pore-water content to correct for sediment compaction. The resulting curve is remarkably coincident with a similar plot independently derived from 10 within-Brunhes paleomagnetic events identified by Glen et al. (this volume). That MAR remained relatively constant through the glacial/interglacial cycles may imply that the increased sediment supply during the high runoff of glacial times was balanced by increased size of the depositional area and vice-versa during interglacials. Surface area of the lake is approximately proportional to river discharge, but only up to the spill point of the lake. The constant MAR suggests, therefore, that spilling of Owens Lake was relatively infrequent during the past 800 k.y., as independently inferred from the sediment geochemistry (Bischoff et al., this volume, chapter 4).
A diatom-based paleohydrologic record of climate change for the past 800 k.y. from Owens Lake, California
A 323-m (~800 k.y.) core of lake deposits beneath Owens Lake playa, Inyo County, California, contains a nearly continuous paleolimnological record based on diatom assemblages. The core chronology is anchored by the Matuyama/Brunhes magnetostratigraphic boundary and the Bishop ash near the base of the record and by radiocarbon dates near the top. Throughout most of its history, Owens Lake was characterized by fresh-water diatoms, indicating a positive hydrologic input from the Owens River and overflow to lake systems downstream. Both benthic and planktic freshwater diatoms dominate in ashy and sandy sediments between 800 ka and 440 ka and suggest shallow, open-water environments in a basin where sedimentation and subsidence were approximately balanced. After 440 ka, freshwater planktic diatoms dominate, implying that the Owens basin became deeper, perhaps as a result of increased rates of tectonic subsidence. The stratigraphic distribution of saline benthic and planktic diatoms record comparatively short intervals when the lake was shallow and saline. Nevertheless, periodic overflow during these times prevented deposition of evaporites. According to a chronology based on sediment mass-accumulation rates, the alternation of saline and freshwater diatom assemblages approximately tracks the progression of oxygen isotope stages recorded in marine deposits. Even-numbered isotope stages representing glacial conditions are matched by episodes where freshwater planktic diatoms dominate, indicating abundant precipitation in the Sierra Nevada in response to a southward shift of storm tracks originating in the North Pacific around the Aleutian Low.
An 800,000-year paleoclimatic record from core OL-92, Owens Lake, Southeast California
No abstract available.
Core OL-92 from Owens Lake, southeast California
The drilling project at Owens Lake commenced in April, 1991. This Open-File Report represents an effort to make available to other researchers our preliminary data collected during the first year of study following completion of the core-drilling phase. Nineteen data collections and preliminary interpretations are presented in the following sections. They are the work of fifteen first-authors and their numerous co-authors. Broadly, their topics include a field log of the core (1 contribution), sedimentological analyses (1), clay- mineral identification (1), geochemical analyses (5), dating and age estimates of the cored sediments (4), and identifications of fossil materials (7).