QUANTIFYING REGIONAL TEMPERATURE RESPONSES TO GLACIAL AND DEGLACIAL CLIMATE FORCINGS THROUGH APPLICATION OF CLUMPED ISOTOPE THERMOMETRY TO SHELL AND SEDIMENTARY CARBONATES IN LAKE-SHORELINE AND WETLAND DEPOSITS IN THE SOUTHERN BASIN AND RANGE

The last Deglacial interval was marked by major perturbations to the global climate system as atmospheric temperatures and CO₂ concentrations soared to near-modern levels by the early Holocene. Several discharges of freshwater into the North Atlantic from the melting and collapse of continental ice sheets produced large changes in ocean circulation and sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic, leading to abrupt- and millennial-scale fluctuations in air temperature. Although the timing and amount of these changes have been quantified from offshore proxy records at low latitudes, and ice core records at high latitudes, very little data have been gathered from continental interior regions. Ancient shoreline and wetland deposits in the southern Basin and Range reveal the tremendous magnitude of hydrologic changes that occurred during major humid intervals in the past, but the relative roles of temperature and precipitation remain poorly constrained. However, such information is of paramount importance to calibrating and improving forward-run climate models, otherwise reliant on paleotemperature estimates inferred from biological proxies. To fill this critical knowledge gap and complement recent reconstructions for other regions and time periods, we present clumped isotope paleotemperature estimates from gastropod shells and sedimentary carbonates in fossil shoreline and wetland deposits in the southeastern Basin and Range.