Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/128260
Type: Thesis
Title: A reconstruction of Late Pleistocene to Holocene palaeoenvironmental change at Basin Lake, Fraser Island.
Author: Murphy, C.
Issue Date: 2017
School/Discipline: School of Physical Sciences
Abstract: Fraser Island lake sediments may record valuable information about past environmental changes, which in turn may provide key insights into the mechanisms driving this variability. This information is vital if we are to determine how the Fraser Island environment has reacted to climate changes in the past, and by extension, how it may react to similar conditions in the future. In this study, the geochemical composition of sediments from Basin Lake, Fraser Island, were characterised using a combination of organic and moisture content analyses, micro-XRF analysis, traditional XRF analysis, X-ray diffraction, particle size analysis and radiocarbon dating. The Basin Lake sediments contain a mixture of locally derived sand and far travelled dust, in proportions that have varied through time. Changing environmental conditions resulted in the deposition of four distinct sediment units within the lake. The new data presented here indicates that regional scale aridity was a dominant influence on sediment deposition on Fraser Island at or before 49 thousand years before present, resulting in a high percentage of distally sourced sediment in Basin Lake. During the Last Glacial Maximum, extreme local aridity resulted in increased contribution from locally-derived sediment before a return to wetter conditions during the early Holocene. The Late Holocene sediments preserve evidence for greater climate variability, alternating between arid and wet environments.
Dissertation Note: Thesis (B.Sc.(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Physical Sciences, 2017
Where: Fraser Island, Queensland
Keywords: Honours; Geology; dust; palaeoenvironments; lake sediments; scanning XRF; X-Ray diffraction; grain size analysis
Description: This item is only available electronically.
Provenance: This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the author of this thesis and do not wish it to be made publicly available, or you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals
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