Abstract
Annually resolved sedimentological records (including annual varves) can be used to develop precise chronologies for key climatic and tectonic events. Varved records, however, are most common in high latitude lakes, resulting in a spatial bias with respect to annually resolved records in tropical regions. Here we report on the sedimentology of two sediment cores from Lake Izabal, eastern Guatemala, that contain a well-preserved thinly laminated section spanning ca. 2200 years of the mid-Holocene. We integrate radiocarbon age-depth modeling, sedimentological observations, laminae counting, µX-ray fluorescence scanning, and multivariate statistical analyses to constrain the nature and chronology of the laminations. Our sedimentological and geochemical results suggest that the alternating clastic (dark) and biogenic (light) laminae couplets were deposited annually. Dark laminae are characterized by an abundance of detrital grains, organic detritus, total organic carbon, and terrigenic elements, and most likely formed during times of increased discharge during the rainy season. In contrast, light laminae are characterized by a decrease in detrital grains and total organic carbon, and an increase in biogenic silica constituents, and were likely deposited at times of increased lake productivity during the dry season. We compare a floating varve chronology that spans ca. 2200 years with three radiocarbon-based age-depth models. Consistency between the varve chronology and one of the models partially supports the annual character of the laminated section in Lake Izabal. This laminated section, one of the first annually resolved sedimentological records from Central America, can help explore mid-Holocene hydroclimate variability and regional tectonic processes in this understudied region.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Steffen Mischke and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive reviews that significantly improved the quality of this manuscript. We thank Defensores de la Naturaleza Foundation (Guatemala) and the Continental Scientific Drilling (CSD) Facility at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities for help with core collection and analyses, respectively. This is contribution # 15 of the Missouri S&T MCTF research group, and LLNL-JRNL-805149.
Funding
This study was partially supported by the Geological Society of America (GSA) Graduate Student Research Grant to ED, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Award No. 1712071. This research was also partially supported by the Visiting Graduate Student Program from the Continental Scientific Drilling (CSD) Facility (Minnesota) to ED and by NSF Award no. 2029102 to JOF.
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ED, and JOF contributed to data collection, sedimentological analysis, results interpretation, and manuscript preparation. SZ contributed to geochronological analysis. EB, and RB contributed to geochemical analysis. All authors contributed to results interpretation and editing of the manuscript.
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Supplementary Fig. 1
Cross-correlation of the two parallel cores using high-resolution digital core-scan image. Red lines highlight the laminae markers used for correlation. (JPG 8456 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
Composite profile shows a color coded by the core from which the varve counting was performed. Red lines highlight the laminae markers used for correlation. (JPG 22 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 3
Proxy data and simplified lithology versus depth for core 1. Elemental abundances in total counts (tc). (JPG 22 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 4
Laser-granulometry measurements of the particle-size distribution of separated sediment fractions between dark and light laminae. Position of respective curves in core 1 is indicated in the legend (depth in core, cm). (JPG 22 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 5
Principal component analyses (PCA) using the µXRF data from the thinly laminated clay zone in core 2. (JPG 22 kb)
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Duarte, E., Obrist-Farner, J., Zimmerman, S.R.H. et al. Sedimentological and geochemical characterization of a varved sediment record from the northern Neotropics. J Paleolimnol 70, 205–223 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-023-00292-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-023-00292-x