Stable water isotope climate archives in springs from the Olympic Mountains, Washington
Sidle WC and Cvetic V. 2011. Stable water isotope climate archives in springs from the Olympic Mountains, Washington. Environmental Earth Science. 62:569-580
Springs offer an opportunity to sample archived climatic variables from remote watersheds on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington. These include past temperature and humidity trends via the stable water isotopes ....The isotopic composition of meteoric waters behaves predictably such that the water isotopes in preciptation are depleted within cool regions and enriched within warm regions. This fundamental observation is used to document past recharge air temperature and humidity trends from groundwater .... .... This continental archive is used to resolve uncertainty in global climate models.... The report objective is to provide first an appropiate geologic background in which the sampled springs are located and where groundwater is being transported. Next, present-day HDO analyses are examined from preciipitation, streams, and firn in order to understand the range of values that could enter recharge waters from current air masses on the Peninsula. Given a record of Holocene groundwater ages ..., springs are explored in proxies for paleoclimate trends ... in this representative watershed....
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Sidle, W.; Cvetic, V.
- Units
- OLYM
- Keywords
- Elwha River Watershed, Holocene climate change, Spring, stable isotope