Late Holocene Sedimentary Record from Chhari Dhandh, Kachchh, Western India

Abstract

The Chhari Dhandh (lake), located at the periphery of Banni plains, is a lacustrine archive in the hyper arid regime of Kachchh in western India. In the present study, the geochemical proxy approach has been made to reconstruct the signals from the past climate conditions on the core retrieved from the Chhari lake, which is supported by the radiocarbon and optical dating methods. The research identifies five significant climatic events of alternate humid (warm) and dry (cold) climatic conditions spanning the last ~2400 cal yr BP. The signatures of the Roman Warm Period, Cold Dark Ages and Medieval Warm Period suggest the strong archiving potential of this landscape for past climatic signatures. The top part of the sedimentary record also reports climatic conditions resembling the global event of Little Ice Age, but this information is speculative due to a lack of chronological support. The study again highlights the Kachchh landscape as a robust and unique natural laboratory to assess climate and tectonic processes.