Recent projects 

West Antarctica

Photo from climate.gov

My research 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 

Devils Hole

 

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

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

Media

Plain English Summary: UIBK News

National Geographic Instagram

Phys.org

UIBK Newsroom

Pahrump Valley Times

Focus Online (german)

SciLog

Poem by S. Illingworth

 

               NE Brazil Pluvial Periods 

 

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

Wendt. K. A., Berry, A. E.,Häuselmann, A. D., Fleitmann, D., Wang, X., Auler, A. S., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., (in prep) High-resolution Heinrich Stadial 1 recorded in NE Brazil Stalagmites

 

© Copyright Kathleen Wendt