GSA Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, USA - 2019

Paper No. 36-33
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM-5:30 PM

INVESTIGATING PALEOENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE DURING THE HOLOCENE USING A STALAGMITE FROM MATUPI CAVE, EQUATORIAL AFRICA


DUPONT, Laura A., Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602; Center for Applied Isotope Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, RAILSBACK, L. Bruce, Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, BROOK, George A., Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, LIANG, Fuyuan, Department of Geography, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 61455, CHENG, Hai, Institute of Global Environmental Change, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China and EDWARDS, Lawrence, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis and petrographical surface analysis of U-Th dated Stalagmite MAT-12 from Matupi Cave in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo provides a reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental effects of the African Humid Period (AHP) in eastern equatorial Africa during the Holocene. Preliminary results obtained from this study, coupled with a high-resolution U-Th age model, reveal the local response to the AHP, a well-documented climate event of the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene, ca. 14.8 to 5.5 cal. ka BP. During the AHP, much of north, central, and east Africa was wetter than the present. Though various proxy records have demonstrated the orbitally-forced, pluvial nature of the AHP, the spatial and temporal patterns of AHP onset, intensity, and termination have been subject to intense debate. This additional record in eastern equatorial Africa serves as a paleoenvironmental reconstruction highlighting the local effects of the AHP, particularly changes in vegetation and rainfall patterns near Matupi Cave while Stalagmite MAT-12 was deposited.