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Oxygen isotope composition of annually banded modern and mid-Holocene travertine and evidence of paleomonsoon floods, Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gary R. O'Brien ,
Darrell S. Kaufman ,
Warren D. Sharp ,
Viorel Atudorei ,
Roderic A. Parnell  and
Laura J. Crossey
Gary R. O'Brien
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA
Darrell S. Kaufman*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA Department of Environmental Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA
Warren D. Sharp
Affiliation:
Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA
Viorel Atudorei
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA
Roderic A. Parnell
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA
Laura J. Crossey
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Department of Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4099, USA. E-mail address:Darrell.Kaufman@nau.edu (D.S. Kaufman).
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Abstract

Holocene and modern travertine formed in spring-fed Havasu Creek of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, was studied to determine the factors governing its oxygen-isotope composition. Analysis of substrate-grown travertine indicates that calculated calcite-formation temperatures compare favorably with measured water temperatures, and include silt-rich laminae deposited by monsoon-driven floods. Ancient spring-pool travertine is dated by U-series at 7380 ± 110 yr and consists of 14 travertine-silt couplets of probable annual deposition. One hundred eighty high-resolution δ18O analyses of this mid-Holocene sample average −11.0‰ PDB. The average value for modern travertine is ∼0.5‰ lower, perhaps because mid-Holocene temperature was higher or there was proportionally greater summer recharge. δ18O cyclicity in the mid-Holocene travertine has average amplitude of 1.9 ± 0.5‰ PDB, slightly less than the inferred modern-day annual temperature range of Havasu Creek. The annual temperature range might have been reduced during the 14-yr interval compared to present, although other non-temperature factors could account for the muted annual variation. Silt-rich laminae within isotopically lower calcite in the modern and mid-Holocene travertine verifies the seasonal resolution of both samples, and suggests that similar temperature-precipitation conditions, as well as monsoon-generated summer floods, prevailed in the mid-Holocene as they do throughout the Grand Canyon region today.

Keywords

TravertineGrand CanyonOxygen isotopesHolocene paleoclimateMonsoon
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , May 2006 , pp. 366 - 379
Copyright
University of Washington

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