Robert J. Rosenbauer George I. Smith James L. Bischoff 1985 <p><span>One of the major unresolved questions in Pleistocene paleoclimatology has been whether continental climatic transitions are consistent with the glacial δ</span>¹⁸<span>O marine record. Searles Lake in California, now a dry salt pan, is underlain by sediment layers deposited in a succession of lakes whose levels and salinities have fluctuated in response to changes in climate over the last 3 × 10</span>⁶<span>&nbsp;years. Uranium-series dates on the salt beds range from 35 × 10</span>³<span>&nbsp;to 231 × 10</span>³<span>&nbsp;years. This range of dates allows identification of lake-sediment horizons that are time correlatives of the boundaries of marine isotope stages from the recent 3/4 boundary back to the 8/9 boundary. The 5/6 boundary coincided with a deepening of the lake, but the analogous 1/2 boundary coincided with desiccation. The 3/4, 4/5, 6/7, 7/8, and 8/9 boundaries correspond in age to horizons that record little or no change in sedimentation or climate. These hydrologic results demonstrate that the continental paleoclimate record at this mid-latitude site does not mimic the marine record.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1126/science.227.4691.1222 en American Association for the Advancement of Science Uranium-series dating of sediments from Searles Lake: Differences between continental and marine climate records article