How Sediment Layers Reveal Earth’s Ancient Climate Cycles

By Gemma Tarlach
Jun 17, 2019 11:11 PMDec 13, 2019 5:56 PM
Ancient Sediment Colorized - USGS
Colorized elevation map of a lakebed in New Jersey shows stripes of ancient sediment deposits. The deposits are tied to cycles of wet and dry climates throughout Earth’s history. (Credit: LIDAR image, U.S. Geological Survey, digital colorization by Paul Olsen)

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Ribbons of blue — the modern Raritan and Neshanic rivers — slice across a landscape that’s key to understanding Earth’s deep-time climate cycles. This colorized elevation map captures a 40-square-mile chunk of an ancient lakebed in central New Jersey. The purple and gray stripes represent layers of sediment that were deposited horizontally in a huge lake, then tilted and beveled off by erosion so the layers could be seen in cross section from above.

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