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TephATA: A Tephrostratigraphic Framework for the Atacama Desert and its Application on Regional Sedimentary Archives

Niklas Leicher 1, Volker Wennrich1, Vincent Feldmar2, Fernando Sepulveda Vasquez3, Paulina Vasquez Illanes3, Andres Quezada Jara3, Frank Wombacher1, István Dunkl4, Richard Albert5, Marcel Guillong6, Tanja Kramm2, Bernd Wagner1, Georg Bareth2

  • Affiliations: 1Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; 2Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; 3Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería, Santiago, Chile; 4Department of Sedimentology and Environmental Geology, Göttingen University, Göttingen, Germany; 5FIERCE -- Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany; 6Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland 

  • Presentation type: Talk [Invited]

  • Presentation time: Tuesday 08:30 - 08:45, Room S150

  • Programme No: 3.13.1

  • Theme 3 > Session 13

Abstract

Developing chronologies of sedimentary archives in arid environments can be challenging due to the lack of applicable dating methods. However, robust chronologies are essential for studying Earth surface processes through time and for evaluating local paleoenvironmental observations in a regional and global context. In the Atacama Desert, volcanic ash layers occur in various types of sedimentary archives and on various timescales due to the persistent volcanic activity within the Andes. Tephrostratigraphy and -chronology using these ash layers can help to overcome dating limitations. A tephrostratigraphic framework, which places individual tephra layers in stratigraphic and chronological order and shows their regional dispersal, however, is currently absent. Within the CRC1211 "Earth-Evolution at the dry limit", the project TephATA aims to develop a regional tephra database to construct the first comprehensive tephrostratigraphic framework for the Atacama Desert and adjacent regions. The TephATA database uses an extended IGSN meta schema and combines all sample related data (morphological, geochemical, stratigraphical and chronological) in just one repository. TephATA is integrated as a web-based part of the CRC1211 database and offers tools to test tephra correlations (similarity coefficient, oxide plotting tool). Particularly widespread tephra layers are used as independent tie-points for the synchronization of the various marine and terrestrial sedimentary records investigated within the CRC1211. The TephATA repository will contribute to the understanding of the volcanic eruptive history of the adjacent volcanic centers and thus offers crucial information for volcanic hazard assessment, such as the frequency of explosive eruptions and the spatial dispersal of their pyroclastic products.