Paleowildfire Reconstruction

SAFRR Masters student Robert Leeper is in the beginning stages of trying to identify the occurence of paleowildfires during the past 5000 years in the San Gabriel mountains. Within the next few weeks Robert will be meeting with Kate Scharer, a USGS research geologist, and Dr. Matthew Kirby, a paleoclimatologist at Cal State Fullerton, to move forward with the initial research at lakes and sag ponds along the San Andreas fault. The plan will be to take vibracores at a few lakes in the San Gabriel mountains and slab cores at the sag ponds. All cores will be analyzed for grain size and charcoal flux for indications of paleowildfires and changes in sediment deposition that commonly occur after wildfires.