Some Features of Hydrological Processes in the Ponto-Caspian Seas During the Late Pliocene—Early Pleistocene

Author(s):  
Nikolay Esin ◽  
Nikolay Igorevich Esin ◽  
Igor Podymov
2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Mc Intyre ◽  
Margaret L. Delaney ◽  
A. Christina Ravelo

Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (358) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirvan Mohammadi Ghasrian

Despite the potential importance of southern Iran, and the Persian Gulf area in particular, for discussions on the dispersal of early hominins from Africa into Eurasia during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene (Bar-Yosef & Belfer-Cohen 2001; Rose 2010), this area has remained almost unexplored until recently. Historically, Palaeolithic survey and excavations in Iran have mainly concentrated in western regions, especially the Zagros Mountains. As a result of recent studies, however, evidence for Palaeolithic sites in the southern regions of Iran, from Fars province to Qeshm Island, has greatly increased (Dashtizade 2009, 2010). Even with this improvement, no sites of Lower Palaeolithic date have yet been reported from the southern coastal areas on one of the proposed early hominin routes into Eurasia. As a result, it has been suggested that the few Lower Palaeolithic sites reported from other parts of Iran, especially in the west (e.g. Biglari & Shidrang 2006), were not populated from the south.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1435-1445 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Etourneau ◽  
C. Ehlert ◽  
M. Frank ◽  
P. Martinez ◽  
R. Schneider

Abstract. The global Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene cooling (~3.0–2.0 million years ago – Ma) concurred with extremely high diatom and biogenic opal production in most of the major coastal upwelling regions. This phenomenon was particularly pronounced in the Benguela upwelling system (BUS), off Namibia, where it is known as the Matuyama Diatom Maximum (MDM). Our study focuses on a new diatom silicon isotope (δ30Si) record covering the MDM in the BUS. Unexpectedly, the variations in δ30Si signal follow biogenic opal content, whereby the highest δ30Si values correspond to the highest biogenic opal content. We interpret the higher δ30Si values during the MDM as a result of a stronger degree of silicate utilisation in the surface waters caused by high productivity of mat-forming diatom species. This was most likely promoted by weak upwelling intensity dominating the BUS during the Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene cooling combined with a large silicate supply derived from a strong Southern Ocean nutrient leakage responding to the expansion of Antarctic ice cover and the resulting stratification of the polar ocean 3.0–2.7 Ma ago. A similar scenario is hypothesized for other major coastal upwelling systems (e.g. off California) during this time interval, suggesting that the efficiency of the biological carbon pump was probably sufficiently enhanced in these regions during the MDM to have significantly increased the transport of atmospheric CO2 to the deep ocean. In addition, the coeval extension of the area of surface water stratification in both the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific, which decreased CO2 release to the atmosphere, led to further enhanced atmospheric CO2 drawn-down and thus contributed significantly to Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene cooling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Sánchez-Montes ◽  
Erin L. McClymont ◽  
Jeremy M. Lloyd ◽  
Juliane Müller ◽  
Ellen A. Cowan ◽  
...  

Abstract. The initiation and evolution of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet are relatively poorly constrained. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 341 recovered marine sediments at Site U1417 in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). Here we present alkenone-derived sea surface temperature (SST) analyses alongside ice-rafted debris (IRD), terrigenous, and marine organic matter inputs to the GOA through the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. The first IRD contribution from tidewater glaciers in southwest Alaska is recorded at 2.9 Ma, indicating that the Cordilleran Ice Sheet extent increased in the late Pliocene. A higher occurrence of IRD and higher sedimentation rates in the GOA during the early Pleistocene, at 2.5 Ma, occur in synchrony with SSTs warming on the order of 1 ∘C relative to the Pliocene. All records show a high degree of variability in the early Pleistocene, indicating highly efficient ocean–climate–ice interactions through warm SST–ocean evaporation–orographic precipitation–ice growth mechanisms. A climatic shift towards ocean circulation in the subarctic Pacific similar to the pattern observed during negative Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) conditions today occurs with the development of more extensive Cordilleran glaciation and may have played a role through increased moisture supply to the subarctic Pacific. The drop in atmospheric CO2 concentrations since 2.8 Ma is suggested as one of the main forcing mechanisms driving the Cordilleran glaciation.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Vreeken ◽  
R. W. Klassen ◽  
R. W. Barendregt

Davis Creek silt is the informal name for a previously unreported loess and its reworked detritus encountered at several locations to the south of the east and centre blocks of the Cypress Hills. This unit intervenes between a pediment with an estimated age of 10 Ma and Late Wisconsinan glacial deposits. Because the unit has reversed magnetization, it is older than 788 ka, the astronomical age of the Matuyama–Brunhes magnetic polarity reversal. The unit also contains an undated volcanic ash from the Pearlette ash family that could represent the Mesa Falls (1.27 Ma) or the Huckleberry Ridge (2.02 Ma) ash bed. Davis Creek silt overlies an oxidized weathering zone and contains large secondary carbonate nodules near its truncated top that were, in places, reworked into a lag deposit or stone line before accumulation of the glacial overburden. At one location Davis Creek silt is separated from this overburden by a unit of cryoturbated gravelly loam with remnants of a reddish-yellow paleosolic B horizon.


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