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More Evidence for the Little Ice Age
in South America

Reference
Valero-Garces, B.L., Delgado-Huertas, A., Ratto, N., Navas, A. and Edwards L.  2000.  Paleohydrology of Andean saline lakes from sedimentological and isotopic records, Northwestern Argentina.  Journal of Paleolimnology 24: 343-359.

What was done
The authors applied sedimentological, geochemical and isotopic techniques to the study of saline lake sediments obtained from the southernmost part of the Altiplano (a north-south trending high volcanic plateau that runs from tropical to subtropical latitudes of South America).

What was learned
The authors discuss their lake sediment results within the context of independent data obtained from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, historical documents and dendrochronological records, concluding that their lake records "show abrupt paleohydrological and paleoclimatic changes synchronous to the onset and termination of the Little Ice Age."  Indeed, they unequivocally state, as their final conclusion, that "the Little Ice Age stands as a significant climatic event in the Altiplano and South America."

What it means
This work is yet another piece of the rapidly accumulating mountain of evidence that demonstrates - in contradiction of the claims of IPCC climate revisionists - that the Little Ice Age was much more than a local phenomenon of the North Atlantic region (see Little Ice Age in our Subject Index for other such studies).


Reviewed 27 December 2000