Mexico, The effects of climate change on tropical regions are still poorly understood. However, tropical regions are among the most populated areas in the world. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics (LIAG) have now created both an age-depth model and a moisture distribution for the last 500,000 years from one of the oldest lakes in central Mexico, Lake Chalco.
The results indicate that Central Mexico experienced recurrent dry periods related to Earth’s natural wobble.
The researchers have published their work in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. Central Mexico, because of its mild climate and fertile soil, has been continuously populated by humans since colonization of primary civilizations and remains an area with one of the highest population concentrations in the world.
Improved understanding of both the mechanisms contributing to the present climate change and its consequences for the biosphere, including human society, will not only provide the knowledge required to cope with its effects, but may also shed light on the forces that have driven similar events in the past.
The research team used borehole geophysics, which measures the physical properties of sediments, to extract paleoclimate signals from lacustrine deposits in the upper 300 meters to determine past climate conditions. This is the first time that borehole geophysical data has been used to reveal the history of moisture content in lake sediments, providing insight into 500,000 years of climate history in central Mexico.
Source: Oman News Agency