Document Type
Thesis
Date of Degree Completion
Spring 2006
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Geological Sciences
Committee Chair
Dr. Lisa Ely, Department of Geology
Second Committee Member
Dr. Andrew A. Piacsek, Science Honors Research Program Director
Abstract
La Alberca is a volcanic caldera in the Michoacan-Guanajuato volcanic field of central Mexico. The oldest known burial ( ~5000 yrs BP) in the state of Michoacan was discovered beneath prehispanic cliff paintings on the caldera wall. The stratigraphy of fluvial and lacustrine sediments exposed in trenches in the caldera floor record environmental changes that have implications for the type of human use of the site. La Alberca is a closed system with an alluvial fan that extends from the northeastern wall into the lowest southern comer of the caldera floor. Paricutin eruption in 1943-52 and other earlier eruptions deposited coarse sand-sized tephra. Over the last ~3000 years, the periods between volcanic eruptions are characterized by finer sediment accumulating in shallow pools. Change in the sedimentation pattern is driven by either extensive tephra blanketing the watershed after volcanic eruptions or by regional changes in climate.
Recommended Citation
Trosper, Tabitha, "Implications of Climate Change and Tephra Accumulation on the Lacustrine Environment in a Volcanic Caldera in Michoacan, Mexico" (2006). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 106.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/undergrad_hontheses/106
Comments
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