{"id":23930,"date":"2015-12-01T17:11:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T21:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=23930"},"modified":"2021-11-10T16:40:03","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T20:40:03","slug":"usgs-scientists-chart-climatic-timeline-of-las-vegas-desert-wetlands-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/usgs-scientists-chart-climatic-timeline-of-las-vegas-desert-wetlands-springs.htm","title":{"rendered":"USGS Scientists Chart Climatic Timeline Of Las Vegas Desert Wetlands, Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although wetlands and springs are not the first things that come to mind for most people viewing the Las Vegas desert terrain, those who know the area well know that the real story of the Las Vegas desert lies in its water, namely its natural wetlands and springs that bubble up from deep underground.<\/p>\n

U.S. Geological Survey Geologist Kathleen Springer and a team of scientists have been slowly unraveling the narrative of these ancient sources of water, which have existed for thousands of years and are to this day an integral part of the desert environment. Springer has found that, over thousands of years, the desert wetlands and springs have expanded and contracted based on climate changes, dramatically shifting from a relatively barren environment to lush areas that attracted Colombian mammoths, sabre-toothed cats and other large animals, then back to barren again. <\/p>\n

The shifts take many years, though they are abrupt relative to the hundred-thousand-year timescales which Springer and other scientists are currently investigating. She and others have been working on the Paleohydrology of Desert Wetlands Project under the USGS\u2019s Climate and Land Use Change Research and Development Program. <\/p>\n

The purpose of the project is to create temporal and stratigraphic models of the Tule Springs area in Las Vegas, a place so rich in prehistoric fossil records it is now preserved as the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument. <\/p>\n

\"Kathleen

Kathleen Springer inspects wetland deposits. (Credit: Eric Scott)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was the Senior Curator for San Bernardino County Museum back in 2003 to 2004, and my team and I were asked to assess the Tule Springs land, which was slated to go up for sale,\u201d says Springer. \u201cWe found an absolute treasure trove of 500 fossil localities including mammoth remains. We were beyond excited. We told them, \u2018Don\u2019t sell the land!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Springer and her team have spent years painstakingly constructing a \u201cscaffolding of the deposits\u201d which shows not only physical location of the fossils but also where they are in time. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust because fossils are located next to each other, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that they were together temporally,\u201d Springer explains. \u201cGeographical proximity doesn\u2019t always equal temporal proximity.\u201d <\/p>\n

For example, she says, \u201cWe did not find deposits which showed mammoths and people existed at the same time, though those objects have been found near each other by archaeologists in the past.\u201d <\/p>\n

Constructing the scaffolding, or temporal and stratigraphic models for the fossils, is complex and involves many data pieces, including radiometric and luminescence dating techniques. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe area was a very active site during the Big Dig in the 1960s, especially 1962 and 1963. It was also the site where Nobel Prize Winner Willard Libbey first tested radiocarbon dating,\u201d says Springer. During the Big Dig, enormous trenches were dug to examine fossils. Ten trenches up to a mile long were dug to understand the complex stratigraphy. <\/p>\n

In Springer\u2019s work, the area studied is large, including some 25,000 acres with many fossil locations being recorded in painstaking geographical and chronological detail. \u201cWe were lucky the area had not been developed, as so many places in Las Vegas have as populations have grown,\u201d Springer says. \u201cTule Springs is the last bastion of wetland deposits in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Quintin

Quintin Lake collects mammoth rib bones. (Credit: Kathleen Springer)<\/p><\/div>\n

In terms of research methods, Springer uses standard geological and stratigraphic methods. \u201cWhat we do is very \u2018boots on the ground,\u2019\u201d Springer says. \u201cWe visually examine the area, looking for changing lithologies which indicate discontinuities in the fossil record.\u201d <\/p>\n

Springer and her team target different materials for radiocarbon dating, especially charcoal, which indicates a burnt area. \u201cIt\u2019s the best thing for radiocarbon dating,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n

Springer\u2019s chronological data are robust, and are augmented with excellent snail dating, particularly gastropod species. Springer\u2019s team relied on a radiocarbon expert to accurately date the snail fossils found. To reference fossils spatially, GPS locations and photo documents are used. These are recorded, organized and stored in a GIS database. <\/p>\n

Google Earth is used directly in the field. Also, there are two published geologic maps published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.<\/p>\n

A technique called luminescence dating was also used to date sediments older than the practical limit of the radiocarbon method. \u201cWe\u2019re interested in the last time the sediment saw light,\u201d Springer says. <\/p>\n

Samples are taken from the ground by using galvanized metal pipes with a metal cap on one end and a rubber cap on the other. The pipe is rammed into the ground with a mallet. The pipe fills up with sample and is capped. These samples are then taken back to the USGS lab. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe radiocarbon data we get can only go back about 40,000 years,\u201d Springer says. \u201cLuminescence data can go back much further, about 250,000 years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Every unit collected which has fossils is dated, meaning the pipe samples are \u201cbins of time\u201d that show where and when there was water in the area, as well as animals and plants. They also show dynamic water level changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbrupt hiatuses punctuate our records, meaning there were strong temporal oscillations,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\"Mammoth

Mammoth tusk. (Credit: Eric Scott)<\/p><\/div>\n

Springer and her team found that Northern hemisphere climate proxy models match with the fossil evidence they have found of desert spring expansions and contractions, indicating a direct relationship between the two. When the Las Vegas desert spring climate was wet, Greenland ice core samples indicate it was cool there. When the desert springs had run dry, Greenland records indicated it was hot there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the really novel thing we found,\u201d Springer emphasizes. \u201cThe desert wetland climate oscillations matched Northern hemisphere climate oscillations almost exactly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The desert springs and wetlands of Las Vegas, furthermore, were found to be cyclic in both ancient and modern history, repeatedly having alternating wet and dry periods. Sometimes the dry periods would last a hundred years. But then the wetlands would emerge again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point in our multi-year investigation, we can just now start to ask and hopefully answer questions about what species reactions were to the wet and dry cycles,\u201d Springer says. Some of the species likely migrated during the dry spells, such as mammoths and wolves, but it was clear that, during wet spells, large species returned to the desert springs and wetlands. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also able to use the tooth enamel of large species and analyze the oxygen and carbon isotope geochemistry to look at water paleohydrology, and what the animals were eating,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s no other Pleistocene-era site like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springer adds that every fossil they find has a chain-of-custody record. Each object has a number, plus each location has a number and fits into a spatial database. Records are also stored on acid-free paper in specialized cabinets. Geologic information and photographs are very important, and geology is digitally marked onto pictures for easy reference. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always using our mini iPad or iPhones with Google Earth out in the field,\u201d Springer says. \u201cIt used to take weeks to do this type of work; now it takes about half the time, since there is now an app we can use to take geologic measurements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springer is \u201cso appreciative that the Bureau of Land Management allowed me to do this whole project. We were able to show the Las Vegas deposits, these groundwater discharge deposits, matched Greenland\u2019s ice core records for climate changes. It was truly amazing,\u201d she says. \u201cWe saw a highly responsive desert wetland ecosystem, basically a poster child for abrupt climate change. A harbinger for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top image:\u00a0Gass Peak, near Las Vegas. (Credit: Eric Scott)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Geological Survey scientists use sediment cores, geographic methods and GPS technology to construct a narrative of ancient desert wetland wildlife at a Las Vegas study site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":23923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,5],"tags":[345,60,109,138,73],"class_list":["post-23930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-atmosphere","category-featured-articles","tag-earth-atmosphere","tag-featured","tag-news-ticker","tag-soil","tag-usgs"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\nUSGS Scientists Chart Climatic Timeline Of Las Vegas Desert Wetlands, Springs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"U.S. Geological Survey scientists use sediment cores, geographic methods and GPS technology to construct a narrative of ancient desert 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