Inca Huasi was a

paleolake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. It was named by a research team in 2006. It existed about 46,000 years ago in the

Salar de Uyuni Salar de Uyuni (or "Salar de Tunupa") is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over in area. It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of above sea level. The Sal ...

basin. Water levels during this episode rose by about . Overall, this lake cycle was short and not deep, with water levels reaching a height of . The lake would have had a surface of . Most water was contributed to it by the Uyuni-Coipasa drainage basin, with only minimal contributions from Lake Titicaca. Changes in the South American

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

may have triggered its formation.

Radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

dates on

tufa Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water in unheated rivers or lakes. Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less porous) carbonate deposits, which are known as travertine. ...

which formed in Lake Inca Huasi were dated at 45,760 ± 440 years ago. Uranium-thorium dating has yielded ages between 45,760 and 47,160 years. Overall the lake existed between 46,000 and 47,000 years ago. The Inca Huasi cycle coincides with the marine isotope stage 3, the formation of a deep lake in the Laguna Pozuelos basin and the expansion of

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s in several parts of South America including the Puna. This lake cycle took part during a glacial epoch, along with the Sajsi lake cycles. A more humid climate in northeastern Argentina and elsewhere in subtropical South America has been linked to the Inca Huasi phase. However, rainfall might not have increased by much on the Altiplano during the Inca Huasi cycle. Other paleolakes are Coipasa,

Ouki Ouki was an ancient lake in the Bolivian Altiplano. Its existence was postulated in 2006 by a group of scientists which had subdivided the Lake Minchin lake cycle in several subcycles. The Lake Minchin cycle had been previously identified in 1904 a ...

, Minchin, Sajsi, Salinas and Tauca. Research made in 2006 attributed the "Lake Minchin" to this lake phase.

References

Sources

* * * {{coord missing, Bolivia Former lakes of South America Geology of Bolivia Pleistocene Lakes of Bolivia