Crater lakes of the Pali Aike Volcanic Field as key sites for paleoclimatic and paleoecological reconstructions in southern Patagonia, Argentina

Sedimentary records from crater lakes are of major scientific interest because they provide continuous high-resolution climatic and environmental archives. From a limnogeological survey of crater lakes performed in the Pali Aike Volcanic Field (52°S, southeastern Patagonia, Santa Cruz, Argentina), two deep crater lakes have been recognized: Laguna Potrok Aike (100 m water depth) and Laguna Azul (56 m water depth). Physico-chemical analyses of these closed lake systems demonstrate that Laguna Azul has a dimictic and thermally stratified freshwater body, whereas Laguna Potrok Aike is a subsaline polymictic lake. Both have an oxygen-rich water column from top to bottom. Laguna Potrok Aike in particular is enriched in Na, P, and Cl. The morphometry suggests that Laguna Azul is of Holocene age, whereas the potential sediment infill of Laguna Potrok Aike may comprise 250 m to a mid-Pleistocene age (770 ka). Several aerial and subaquatic lake level terraces at Laguna Potrok Aike point to lake level fluctuations triggered by prior hydrological changes. Although fine-grained sediments of both lakes are not varied, they may eventually provide a detailed terrestrial record of past environmental and climatic variations for this southern mid-latitude region.