LONG CONTINENTAL POLLEN RECORD FROM A TROPICAL INTERMONTANE BASIN - LATE PLIOCENE AND PLEISTOCENE HISTORY FROM A 540-METER CORE

Long continental records of climatic change are scarce but are of great importance in facilitating the comparison of land-based and ocean-based climatic histories. In the Eastern Cordillera (Cordillera Oriental) of Colombia, the high plain of Bogota represents the bottom of a former lake that occupied a subsiding intermontane basin. Here, pollen records have been retrieved from two bore-holes known as Funza I and Funza II. These records are the longest high-resolution pollen records in the world, as they represent the period from the late Pliocene to the latest Pleistocene. They show the warm late Pliocene climate, direct biogeographical evidence of the closure of the Isthmus of Panama, and the well-known ice ages of the last 1 million years. A comparison between the fission-track zircon-based time control of the pollen record and a high-resolution oxygen-isotope record from the Ocean Drilling Program shows corresponding climatic oscillations. Several other basins in the world have a great potential for reconstructing climatic history, and the need is obvious for an international program for drilling long continental cores. The poor readiness of funding bodies to give support is difficult to explain.