A 9000-year oxygen and carbon isotope record of hydrological change in a small Ethiopian crater lake

Abstract

The stable isotope composition of authigenic calcites in a core from Lake Tilo, a small crater lake in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, provides a subcentury scale record of lake response to climatic change over the last 8850 14 C yrs (9850 cal. yrs). An unusually high range of δ 18 O and δ 13 C values (~15,) is attributed, in part, to major changes in hydrothermal groundwater flux. Although hydrothermal groundwater influx to the lake was high during the early Holocene, its flow rate was relatively stable and thus climatically induced changes to the water budget can be inferred from variations in δ 18 O and δ 13 C ratios. A major decline in hydrothermal groundwater input from ~5500 14 C yrs BP increased lakewater residence time and led to substantial increases in δ 18 O and δ 13 C, before the mid-Holocene transition to more arid conditions. During the last ~2700 14 C years diagenetic processes have resulted in extremely varied δ 18 O and δ 13 C values. The Holocene isotope record from Lake Tilo challenges the widely held assumption that crater lakes act as ’gigantic rain gauges’, sensitive only to changes in precipitation/evaporation ratios.