Salt Pollution and Climate Change at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Summary

In order to determine if the water management systems of ancestral Puebloans caused salt pollution during periods of climatic change and increased aridity, sediment samples were collected from ancient irrigation features and reservoirs in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Today, these features are filled with sediments. Periods of climate change were determined with AMS radiocarbon and OSL dating. Soil salinity was measured using a conductivity cell and plotted against age in order to illustrate changes in salt content through time. Salinity levels were measured at 10 cm intervals and ranged between 11.3 ppm and more than 3,000 ppm clearly illustrating changes in the quantity of salt through time. Rather than elevating soil salinity levels to the point that agricultural fields could no longer be farmed, water management systems constructed during periods of climate change greatly diluted natural salinity levels. This research expands our knowledge and understanding of the cost, in terms of water management and salt pollution, of developing an urban center in an arid region during periods of climate change. This suite of archaeological and climatic data fills an important gap in our knowledge of ancestral Puebloans as it relates to water management and climate change.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Contributions of Vernon Scarborough in Water Management and Sustainability, Part 1: Global and Comparative

Keywords

Spatial Coverage