A continuous stable isotope record from the penultimate glacial maximum to the Last Interglacial (159–121 ka) from Tana Che Urla Cave (Apuan Alps, central Italy)

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 450-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonora Regattieri ◽  
Giovanni Zanchetta ◽  
Russell N. Drysdale ◽  
Ilaria Isola ◽  
John C. Hellstrom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Regional Scale ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
Glacial Stage ◽  
Isotope Record

AbstractRelatively few radiometrically dated records are available for the central Mediterranean spanning the marine oxygen isotope stage 6–5 (MIS 6–5) transition and the first part of the Last Interglacial. Two flowstone cores from Tana che Urla Cave (TCU, central Italy), constrained by 19 U/Th ages, preserve an interval of continuous speleothem deposition between ca. 159 and 121 ka. A multiproxy record (δ18O, δ13C, growth rate and petrographic changes) obtained from this flowstone preserves significant regional-scale hydrological changes through the glacial/interglacial transition and multi-centennial variability (interpreted as alternations between wetter and drier periods) within both glacial and interglacial stages. The glacial stage shows a wetter period between ca. 154 and 152 ka, while the early to middle Last Interglacial period shows several drying events at ca. 129, 126 and 122 ka, which can be placed in the wider context of climatic instability emerging from North Atlantic marine and NW European terrestrial records. The TCU record also provides important insights into the evolution of local environmental conditions (i.e. soil development) in response to regional and global-scale climate events.

A geochronologic framework for the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon A. Mahan ◽  
Harrison J. Gray ◽  
Jeffrey S. Pigati ◽  
Jim Wilson ◽  
Nathaniel A. Lifton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
Fossil Site ◽  
Shell Carbonate ◽  
Mis 5

AbstractThe Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA), provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct high-altitude paleoenvironmental conditions in the Rocky Mountains during the Last Interglacial Period. We used four different techniques to establish a chronological framework for the site. Radiocarbon dating of lake organics, bone collagen, and shell carbonate, and in situ cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al ages on a boulder on the crest of a moraine that impounded the lake suggest that the ages of the sediments that hosted the fossils are between ~140 ka and >45 ka. Uranium-series ages of vertebrate remains generally fall within these bounds, but extremely low uranium concentrations and evidence of open-system behavior limit their utility. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages (n = 18) obtained from fine-grained quartz maintain stratigraphic order, were replicable, and provide reliable ages for the lake sediments. Analysis of the equivalent dose (DE) dispersion of the OSL samples showed that the sediments were fully bleached prior to deposition and low scatter suggests that eolian processes were likely the dominant transport mechanism for fine-grained sediments into the lake. The resulting ages show that the fossil-bearing sediments span the latest part of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6, all of MIS 5 and MIS 4, and the earliest part of MIS 3.

Introduction to the Snowmastodon Project Special Volume The Snowmastodon Project

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk R. Johnson ◽  
Ian M. Miller ◽  
Jeffrey S. Pigati ◽  
Keyword(s):  
High Elevation ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Alpine Ecosystems ◽  
Special Volume ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
Mis 5 ◽  
Insight Into

Studies of terrestrial biotic and environmental dynamics of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, also called the Last Interglacial Period, provide insight into the effects of long-term climate change on Pleistocene ecosystems. In North America, however, there are relatively few fossil sites that definitively date to MIS 5. Even fewer contain multiple ecosystem components (vertebrates, invertebrates, plants) that have been studied in detail, and none are located at high elevation. Thus, our view of North American ecosystems during MIS 5 is, at best, an incomplete composite view, and alpine ecosystems are entirely undocumented.

Variability in surface and deep water conditions in the nordic seas during the last interglacial period

1998 ◽  
Vol 17 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 963-985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Fronval ◽  
Eystein Jansen ◽  
Haflidi Haflidason ◽  
Hans Petter Sejrup
Keyword(s):  
Deep Water ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Nordic Seas ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
Water Conditions

scholarly journals How warm was Greenland during the last interglacial period?

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1933-1948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaelle Landais ◽  
Valérie Masson-Delmotte ◽  
Emilie Capron ◽  
Petra M. Langebroek ◽  
Pepijn Bakker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Water Isotopes ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
Ice Sheet Topography ◽  
North Greenland

Abstract. The last interglacial period (LIG, ∼ 129–116 thousand years ago) provides the most recent case study of multimillennial polar warming above the preindustrial level and a response of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to this warming, as well as a test bed for climate and ice sheet models. Past changes in Greenland ice sheet thickness and surface temperature during this period were recently derived from the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) ice core records, northwest Greenland. The NEEM paradox has emerged from an estimated large local warming above the preindustrial level (7.5 ± 1.8 °C at the deposition site 126 kyr ago without correction for any overall ice sheet altitude changes between the LIG and the preindustrial period) based on water isotopes, together with limited local ice thinning, suggesting more resilience of the real Greenland ice sheet than shown in some ice sheet models. Here, we provide an independent assessment of the average LIG Greenland surface warming using ice core air isotopic composition (δ15N) and relationships between accumulation rate and temperature. The LIG surface temperature at the upstream NEEM deposition site without ice sheet altitude correction is estimated to be warmer by +8.5 ± 2.5 °C compared to the preindustrial period. This temperature estimate is consistent with the 7.5 ± 1.8 °C warming initially determined from NEEM water isotopes but at the upper end of the preindustrial period to LIG temperature difference of +5.2 ± 2.3 °C obtained at the NGRIP (North Greenland Ice Core Project) site by the same method. Climate simulations performed with present-day ice sheet topography lead in general to a warming smaller than reconstructed, but sensitivity tests show that larger amplitudes (up to 5 °C) are produced in response to prescribed changes in sea ice extent and ice sheet topography.

scholarly journals Sediment core fossils in ancient Lake Ohrid: testing for faunal change in molluscs since the Last Interglacial period

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 3969-3999 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Albrecht ◽  
H. Vogel ◽  
T. Hauffe ◽  
T. Wilke
Keyword(s):  
Sediment Core ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Ancient Lake ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Lake Ohrid ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Extinction Events ◽  
Mollusc Shells

Abstract. Ancient Lake Ohrid is probably of early Pleistocene or Pliocene origin and amongst the few lakes in the world harboring an outstanding degree of endemic biodiversity. Although there is a long history of evolutionary research in Lake Ohrid, particularly on molluscs, a mollusc fossil record has been missing up to date. For the first time, gastropod and bivalve fossils are reported from the basal, calcareous part of a 2.6 m long sediment succession (core Co1200) from the north-eastern part of Lake Ohrid. Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of mollusc shells from the same stratigraphic level yielded an age of 130±28 ka. Lithofacies III sediments, i.e. a subdivision of the stratigraphic unit comprising the basal succession of core Co1200 between 181.5–263 cm appeared solid, grayish-white, and consisted almost entirely of silt-sized endogenic calcite (CaCO3>70%) and intact and broken mollusc shells. Here we compare the faunal composition of the thanatocoenosis with recent mollusc associations in Lake Ohrid. A total of 13 mollusc species (9 gastropod and 4 bivalve species) could be identified within Lithofacies III sediments. The value of sediment core fossils for reconstructing palaeoenvironmental settings was evaluated. The agreement between sediment and palaeontological proxies was tested. The combined findings of the ecological study and the sediment characteristics suggest deposition in a shallow water environment during the Last Interglacial period. We tested for major faunal changes since the Last Interglacial period and searched for signs of extinction events. The fossil fauna exclusively included species also found in the present fauna, i.e. no extinction events are evident for this site since the Last Interglacial. The thanatocoenosis showed the highest similarity with recent Intermediate Layer (5–25 m) mollusc assemblages. The demonstrated existence of a mollusc fossil record in Lake Ohrid sediment cores also has great significance for future deep drilling projects. It can be hoped that a more far reaching mollusc fossil record will then be obtained, enabling insight into the early evolutionary history of Lake Ohrid.

Advancing into Eternal Silence

2020 ◽  
pp. 571-580
Author(s):  
Hans Blumenberg
Keyword(s):  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Media Archaeology ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter discusses Hans Blumenberg's essay “Advancing into Eternal Silence: A Century after the Sailing of the Fram” (1993). This essay was written three years before his death. It offers not just the philosophical reading of an episode in the history of polar expeditions ripe with significance, but draws on an anecdote to muse on the relationship between media-archaeology and nihilism. Blumenberg explains that humans are risky beings, and not just because they seek frontier-pushing adventures like the voyage adrift of the Fram. They are risky for the very reason that their biological origins lie in the narrow span of the last interglacial period, when they learned the ability to cope with life caught between the advancing and receding glaciers; the natural being was now pitted against nature.

scholarly journals Detection and Characterisation of Eemian Marine Tephra Layers within the Sapropel S5 Sediments of the Aegean and Levantine Seas

Quaternary ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Christopher Satow ◽  
Katharine M. Grant ◽  
Sabine Wulf ◽  
Hartmut Schulz ◽  
Addison Mallon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Major Element ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Aegean Sea ◽  
Interglacial Period ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Proxy Records ◽  
Last Interglacial Period ◽  
Levantine Basin ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tephra Layers

The Eemian was the last interglacial period (~130 to 115 ka BP) to precede the current interglacial. In Eastern Mediterranean marine sediments, it is marked by a well-developed and organic-rich “sapropel” layer (S5), which is thought to reflect an intensification and northward migration of the African monsoon rain belt over orbital timescales. However, despite the importance of these sediments, very little proxy-independent stratigraphic information is available to enable rigorous correlation of these sediments across the region. This paper presents the first detailed study of visible and non-visible (cryptotephra) layers found within these sediments at three marine coring sites: ODP Site 967B (Levantine Basin), KL51 (South East of Crete) and LC21 (Southern Aegean Sea). Major element analyses of the glass component were used to distinguish four distinct tephra events of Santorini (e.g., Vourvoulos eruption) and possible Anatolian provenance occurring during the formation of S5. Interpolation of core chronologies provides provisional eruption ages for the uppermost tephra (unknown Santorini, 121.8 ± 2.9 ka) and lowermost tephra (Anatolia or Kos/Yali/Nisyros, 126.4 ± 2.9 ka). These newly characterised tephra deposits have also been set into the regional tephrostratigraphy to illustrate the potential to precisely synchronise marine proxy records with their terrestrial counterparts, and also contribute to the establishment of a more detailed volcanic history of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document