Isotopic paleoclimate from hydrated volcanic ash

The deuterium composition (deltaD) of secondary water in glass shards of volcanic ash can be used to calculate the deltaD--and hence the climatic association--of water that was in contact with the ash during the first 10,000 years after eruption of the ash; this being the approximate (+/-5000 years) time necessary for water to diffuse completely through the thin walls of the pumice and glass shards. The fractionation between environmental water and water diffusing into the glassy ash must be known in order to calculate the deltaD of the ancient ground water. With help from A.J. Gude and R.A. Sheppard, the authors have recently determined this fractionation, and have used it to derive a value for deltaD of water from 25 samples of glass from the Huckleberry Ridge (2.1 m.y.), Bishop Tuff (0.74 m.y.), and Lava Creek B (0.61 m.y.) ashes collected from sites throughout the Western US. All of these deltaD values correlate very well with latitude and with the present distribution of deltaD in surface water. For example, the deltaD of water in Huckleberry Ridge ash varies from -85 per thousand SMOW for samples collected in Texas, to -148 per thousand for samples from south-central Montana. Thus, water ofmore » hydration in rhyolitic ash represents samples of ancient environmental water and can be used to study changes in the deltaD of the precipitation through time.« less