129 Holocene records of environment and freshwater availability from tufa archives: implications for human occupation at Murujuga, NW WA
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Date
2022-12-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Australasian Quaternary Association
Abstract
Murujuga in NW Western Australia is the world’s largest rock art province, with over 1 million engravings. The art and other archaeological evidence in this landscape are an important record of human response to the changing climate following the last ice-age. 130 m of sea level rise following Last Glacial Maximum (LGM ~22 kya) transformed Murujuga from an inland range to a coastal archipelago. We discuss the potential of freshwater tufa as multi-proxy archives to inform on the local environmental and climatic change that impacted this region during the Holocene. Tufa, which are calcium carbonate deposits that form from freshwater springs and seeps in river channels, provide a proxy of past freshwater availability. Establishing the age and rate of tufa formation will enhance our understanding of the presence and permanence of water holes that would have been important for human occupation. Outcomes of this work will provide context to the extraordinary archaeological record documented in Murujuga rock art.
Description
Keywords
Environment, Fresh water, Western Australia, Climates, Calcium carbonates, Sea level, Archaeological specimens, Deposits, Cultural objects
Citation
Mather, C., Tucker, M., Leopold, M., Levchenko, V., O’Leary, M., Morrison, P., & McDonald, J. (2022). Holocene records of environment and freshwater availability from tufa archives: implications for human occupation at Murujuga, NW WA. Presentation to the AQUA 2022 Conference, 6-8th December 2022, Adelaide, (pp. 129-130). Retrieved from: https://aqua.org.au/conference/aqua-2022/aqua-2022-conference-program-and-abstracts/