Recent projects
Winter climate variability in the Pacific Northwest
Photo by K. Wendt
Formations preserved in the marble halls of Oregon Caves in the Siskiyou Mountains (SW Oregon) provide clues about winter climate variability during past interglacial periods over the last ~600,000 years. This ongoing project aims to provide semi-quantitative temperature and precipitation reconstructions of past warm periods, including the MIS 5e (~120,000 years ago) and MIS 11e (~400,000 years ago) to better understand how warmer global conditions may have impacted winters the Pacific Northwest.
Past periods of abrupt CO2 rise
Photo by Katherine Stelling
This project focuses on periods during the last glaciation when atmospheric CO2 concentrations changed abruptly. To do this, I measure ancient atmosphere that's frozen as tiny bubbles in West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core. I am investigating these abrupt changes in extreme detail - up to decadal timescales - in order to understand how in Earth's carbon cycle has rapidly changed in the past.
PI: Dr. Christo Buizert, Oregon State University
Publications
Wendt, K. A., Nehrbass-Ahles, C., Niezgoda, K., Noone, D., Kalk, M., Menviel, L., Gottschalk, J., Rae, J., Schmitt, J., Fischer, H., Stocker, T., Muglia, J., Ferreira, D., Brook, E., and Buizert, C. (2024) Southern Ocean drives multidecadal atmospheric CO2 rise during Heinrich Stadials. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Link.
Wendt, K. A., Bennett, H. I., Carter, A. J., and Marks-Peterson, J. C. (2022) Our frozen past: Ice core insights into Earth's climate history, PAGES Magazine, Link.
Media
Hydroclimate variability in the Southwest USA
Photo by Robbie Shone
Devils Hole cave is located in the Amargosa Desert of southwest Nevada. The walls of the cave are coated with a thick calcite crusts that have precipitated subaqueously for nearly 1 million years. Our project builds upon previous paleoclimate studies in Devils Hole in order to reconstruct nearly 700,000 years of climate history in this region. This timeframe will allow us to examine the last eight glacial-interglacial cycles recorded in this unique terrestrial archive. In addition, we are studying how the water-table has fluctuated over these glacial-interglacial cycles. Doing so will allow us to better understand past wet periods that once prevailed in thisarid region.
PI: Dr. Christoph Spötl, University of Innsbruck
Publications
Wendt, K. A., Carolin, S., Buizert, C., Steidle, S., Edwards, R. L., Moseley, G. E., Dublyansky, Y., Cheng, H., Chengfei, H., Warner, M. S. C., and Spötl, C. (in review). Controls on the southwest USA hydroclimate over the last seven glacial-interglacial cycles. Nature Communications.
Lowenstein, T., Olson, K., Stewart, B. W., McGee, D., Stroup, J. S., Hudson, A. M., Wendt, K. A., Peaple, K. D., Feakins, S. J., Bhattacharya, T., Lund, S. (2024) Unified 200 kyr paleohydrologic history of the Southern Great Basin: Death Valley, Searles Valley, Owens Valley and the Devils Hole cave. Quaternary Science Reviews. Link
Jackson, T. R., Steidle, S. D., Wendt, K. A., Dublyansky, Y., Edwards, R. L., and Spötl, C. (2023) A 350,000-year history of groundwater recharge in the southern Great Basin, USA., Nature Communications in Earth and Environment. Link
Li, X., Wendt, K. A., Dublyansky, Y., Moseley, G. E., Spötl, C., and Edwards, R. L. (2021) Novel method for determining 234U-238U ages from Devils Hole 2 cave calcite, Geochronology Link
Wendt, K.A., Pythoud, M., Dublyansky, Y., Moseley, G.E., Edwards, R.L., Spötl, C. (2020) Paleohydrology of southwest Nevada based on groundwater 234U/238U over the last 450ka. GSA Bulletin, 132 (3-4) 793–802 Link
Wendt, K.A., Dublyansky, Y., Moseley, G.E., Cheng. H., Edwards, R.L., Spötl, C. (2018) Moisture availability in the SW United States over the last three glacial-interglacial cycles. Science Advances, 4 (10) eaau1375 Link
Moseley, G.E., Edwards, R.L., Wendt, K.A., Cheng, H., Dublyansky, Y., Lu, Y., Boch, R., Spötl, C. (2016): Reconciliation of the Devils Hole climate record with orbital forcing. Science 351, 165-168 Link
Past pluvial periods in NE Brazil
Photo by K. Wendt
Beneath the parched deserts of NE Brazil is a vast network of caves. Within these caves are stalagmites and stalactites that grew during past wet periods. For my MSc project, I studied a series of these anomalous wet periods that occurred during the last glaciation. To do so, I used high precision uranium-series dating and stable isotope analysis on multiple stalagmites collected from NE Brazilian caves.
PI: Dr. R. L. Edwards, University of Minnesota
Publications
Wendt, K.A., Häuselmann, A.D., Fleitmann, D., Berry, A.E., Wang, X., Auler, A.S., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L. (2019) Three-Phased Heinrich Stadial 4 recorded in NE Brazil Stalagmites. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 510, 94-102 Link
© Copyright Kathleen Wendt