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Follow on Google News | A climatological treasure in Nevada opens up new perspectivesBy: Austrian Science Fund FWF Nevada, in the southwest of the USA, is home to a unique location. Travellers through the Amargosa Desert at the edge of Death Valley can find a geological gem. A narrow crack in the rock allows a glimpse of a widespread underground water system. Devils Hole, as it is called, is a hotspot for palaeoclimatologists. The mineral calcite precipitates in the warm water and deposits thick crusts on the walls of this cavern which is at least 150 metres deep. Already in the late 1980s, scientific investigations proved that these deposits offer complete and very precise climatological records of approximately the last 500,000 years. Climatological data from 1 million years In an FWF-funded project headed by the geologist Christoph Spötl from the University of Innsbruck, new measurements are being undertaken in the cavern with the aim of pushing the record back to 800,000 years and, possibly, beyond one million years. To get the data, the scientists sample calcite drill cores from above the groundwater table and use state-of-the- Reconstruct climate change Apart from conducting new measurements to date the calcite deposits, the researchers from Innsbruck also investigate the temperature of the water reservoir and fluctuations in the groundwater table. The lime deposits show, for instance, that the water table was significantly higher about 20,000 years ago – by approximately 9 metres. This enables the research team of Christoph Spötl to reconstruct dry and wet phases in this part of North America – and thus draw a clearer picture of climate history; an important historical record for the southwest of the USA, which is currently plagued by droughts. The big mystery Moreover, the scientists would like to solve a big mystery around Devils Hole with their new investigations, since existing palaeoclimatological data from Nevada do not tally with data obtained, for instance, from seabed deposits. This fact is still the subject of controversial discussions within the scientific community and an unresolved issue in climate research. "The controversy resides in the fact that the very big, global climate changes, like the transition from an ice age to a warm age, started significantly earlier here than anywhere else", explains Spötl and adds: "We have come rather close to answering this question which has been an issue for more than 20 years, but would not like to pre-empt publications currently in the pipeline." End
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