Constraints on Pleistocene pluvial climates through stable-isotope analysis of fossil-spring tufas and associated gastropods, Kharga Oasis, Egypt

Stable-isotope analyses of fossil-spring carbonates (tufas) and freshwater gastropods (Melanoides tuberculata) from the currently hyperarid Western Desert of Egypt indicate that this region received enough precipitation to support a small perennial lake during the height of the oxygen-isotope stage 6/5e pluvial event, and a substantial volume of spring discharge during prior pluvial phases. Tufa and gastropod oxygen-isotope ratios are generally …