scholarly journals Initial Time Of Two High Altitude Crater Lakes (Nevado De Toluca, Central Mexico) Recorded In Subfossil Cladocera

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystyna Szeroczyńska ◽  
Edyta Zawisza ◽  
Marta Wojewódka

Abstract The objective of this study was the recognition and reconstruction of the origin of two high altitude lakes and the ecological conditions of their early existence based on subfossil Cladocera and chemical analyses. The study focused on the oldest lacustrine sediments from Lake Sol and Lake Luna, located in the crater of Volcano Nevado de Toluca (Central Mexico). The Nevado de Toluca crater developed approximately 12 ka yr BP. According to the literature, the volcano was last active approximately 3.3 ka yr BP, and the lakes developed after that eruption. The remains of nine Cladocera species were found in the bottom sediments of both lakes. The most dominant taxa were two endemic littoral species: Alona manueli and Iliocryptus nevadensis. The total frequency of Cladocera specimens in both of the sediment cores was very low. No Cladocera remains were recorded in the sediment layer at depths between 123–103 m from Lake Luna. The results of the lithological and geochemical analyses showed that this sediment layer was composed of allochthonous material, probably originating from slid down from the volcanic cone. This was suggested by the content of silica (up to 13%), iron (up to 12%), and titanium (up to 4%). The Cladocera remains recorded in the bottom sediments suggested that both reservoirs developed as freshwater lakes at the beginning of the sedimentation. The calibrated radiocarbon dates obtained for the bottom samples were 4040 to 3990 yr BP for Lake Luna (129 cm) and 4485 to 4485 yr BP for Lake Sol (89 cm). The obtained ages were older than the dates of the last eruption, which occurred approximately 3300 yr BP. This result was likely related to the type of radiocarbon dated materials (charcoals).

Radiocarbon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1705-1712 ◽  
Author(s):  
M A Martínez-Carrillo ◽  
C Solís ◽  
I Hernández Bautista ◽  
R Junco Sánchez ◽  
M Rodríguez-Ceja ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe Nevado de Toluca is a stratovolcano located in the southwest of the Toluca Valley in central Mexico. At a height of around 4200 m there are two crater lakes: El Sol and La Luna. Since Precolumbian times, people in the surrounding valleys carried out rituals and deposited offerings into the lakes. After the Spanish conquest, these rituals were kept alive clandestinely. Currently, reminiscent of Mesoamerican rituals subsist. Due to the long duration of the ritual at the Nevado de Toluca, it is important to date the materials recovered in the underwater and terrestrial archaeological explorations. This article proposes a chronology of Prehispanic ritual activities performed in the Nevado de Toluca based on the characterization and radiocarbon (14C) dating performed to materials from the volcano’s lakes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Dan M. Healan ◽  
Christine Hernández

Abstract This article presents the ceramic sequence and chronology resulting from a multi-year program of survey, excavation, and analysis of pre-Hispanic settlement and exploitation within the Zinapécuaro-Ucareo (“U-Z”), Michoacan obsidian source area. Pottery analysis and classification aided by seriation analysis identified nine ceramic complexes and seven ceramic phases and sub-phases that both expand and refine the ceramic sequence previously established for the region by Gorenstein's (1985) investigations at nearby Acámbaro, Guanajuato. Initially established by ceramic cross-dating, the U-Z ceramic chronology has been largely confirmed by 30 radiocarbon dates and spans over 2,000 years of pre-Hispanic settlement, which included at least two notable episodes of trait-unit and site-unit intrusion from the eastern El Bajío and central Mexico. One of these episodes involved the appearance of two enclaves settled by individuals from the Acambay valley c. 90 km to the East, most likely from the site of Huamango, which our data indicate would have been occupied during the Middle Postclassic period.


2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Carmona Jiménez ◽  
Miriam Guadalupe Bojorge García ◽  
Rocío Ramírez Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  

2000 ◽  
Vol 318 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 281-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Garcı́a-Palomo ◽  
J.L. Macı́as ◽  
V.H. Garduño

2000 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth H. Orvis ◽  
Sally P. Horn

Glacial lake sediments and glacial geomorphology in Valle de las Morrenas, a glacial trough on the north face of Cerro Chirripó, Costa Rica, provide evidence on high-altitude Pleistocene conditions in Central America. The most recent glacier in the valley (Chirripó stage I) receded very rapidly near the end of the Younger Dryas chronozone. Radiocarbon dates on basal organic sediments from lakes beneath upper, middle, and lower limits of that glacier fall close together, and two-sigma calibrated ages overlap for the period 9700–9600 cal yr B.P. Earliest datable transition sediments from the central lake date to 12,360–11,230 cal yr B.P. Larger, older moraines, and associated trimlines, allowed reconstruction of three paleoglaciers (Chirripó stages II, III, and IV). Computer analysis of hypsometry using published tropical-glacier vertical mass balance profiles yields ELAs of 3506–3523, 3515–3537, and 3418–3509 m, respectively; Chirripó II ELA-estimate positions applied to Chirripó I yield an ELA of 3538–3546 m. We infer minimal temperature depressions of 7.4–8.0°C for the Chirripó I–IV stages. Modeling the behavior of modern tropical glaciers yields basinwide net accumulation estimates of 440–620, 550–830, and 960–1760 mm yr−1 for the Chirripó II, III, and IV stages.


2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Pétrequin ◽  
Michel Errera ◽  
Anne-Marie Pétrequin ◽  
Pierre Allard

Two groups of quarries (Mont Viso and Mont Beigua, Italy) were the source of the Alpine axeheads that circulated throughout western Europe during the Neolithic. The quarries on Mont Viso (Oncino: Porco, Bulè and Milanese), discovered in 2003, have been radiocarbon-dated, and this has revealed that the exploitation of jadeites, omphacitites and eclogites at high altitude (2000–2400 m above sea level) seems to have reached its apogee in the centuries around 5000 BC. The products, in the form of small axe- and adze-heads, were distributed beyond the Alps from the beginning of the fifth millennium, a few being found as far away as the Paris Basin, 550 km from their source as the crow flies. However, it was not until the mid-fifth millennium BC that long axeheads from Mont Viso appeared in the hoards and monumental tombs of the Morbihan, 800 km from the quarries. Production continued until the beginning of the third millennium BC, but at this time the distribution of the products was less extensive, and the process of distribution operated in a different way: tools made from jadeite and eclogite are still found in the French Jura, but the extraction sites at the south-east foot of Mont Viso no longer seem to have been used. The variability in the geographical extent of the distribution at different times seems to be related to the social context of exploitation of the high-altitude quarries, which were only ever accessible for a few months each year.


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