Collaborative Research: P2C2--Paleoclimate and Cultural Change in Mesoamerica: Testing the Hypothesis of ENSO Forcing of Late Holocene Rainfall Variability

University Of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas NV

Investigators

Abstract

The researchers aim to develop several high-resolution (~2 to 5 year), time-overlapping and replicated delta oxygen-18 isotope records over the past five millennia from uranium series dated stalagmites collected in an El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) sensitive region of southwestern Mexico. The goal of the project is to test the hypothesis that southern Mexico experienced prolonged wet conditions during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA) that was coincident with a more La Niña-like state of low sea surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The primary broader impacts involve the education of a doctoral student and the development of English and Spanish guides to cave science for interested members of the public in the U.S. and in Mexico. Also, the science results could have broad application to many areas in the physical and social sciences.