USING CARBONATE THICKNESSES IN FAYETTEVILLE GREEN LAKE, NY, TO ESTABLISH VARIABILITY IN PRECIPITATION DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE

This work utilizes varved sediments found in Fayetteville Green Lake, New York to correlate carbonate thicknesses with variability in precipitation. These variations are cyclical in nature, corresponding closely with the Pacific North America Pattern (PNA) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) teleconnective patterns (Hubeny, 2006). This work will also investigate any possible correlation with the Trough Intensity Index (Bradbury and others, 2002) with the hopes of increasing the resolution of the mean weather pattern. These correlation efforts will be used to establish periodicity within the paleoclimate record. The current Fayetteville Green record extends back to 600 C.E. using three core samples. This work will include two additional cores samples taken from Fayetteville Green Lake and further extend the record back to approximately 0 C.E. Spectral and wavelet analyses will be conducted to establish periodicity and confidence levels. In addition to extending the existing record, sample means weather maps will be created from modern data to highlight the mean 500mb and surface maps during extremes in variability. Correlations with the Palmer Drought index will be employed to try and generate a more complete picture of the impact of extremes in variability.