Aeolian influx and related environmental conditions on Gran Canaria during the early Pleistocene

AbstractThe island of Gran Canaria is regularly affected by dust falls due to its proximity to the Saharan desert. Climatic oscillations may affect the Saharan dust input to the island. Geochemical, mineralogical, and textural analysis was performed on a well-developed and representative early Pleistocene paleosol to examine Saharan dust contribution to Gran Canaria. Significant and variable Saharan dust content was identified in addition to weathering products such as iron oxides and clay minerals. Variations in quartz and iron oxide concentrations in the paleosol likely reflect different Saharan dust input in more/less-contrasted rhexistasic/biostatic climatic conditions. Linking the quartz content in Canarian soils, the Ingenio paleosol, and two Canarian loess-like deposits to different ages from the Quaternary, we hypothesized that the dust input should be lower (about 33–38%) throughout the early to middle Pleistocene than during the late Quaternary. The Saharan dust input to the Gran Canaria profile in the Pleistocene persisted in spite of climatic variations.

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Loess of the Upper Mississippi Valley Driftless Area

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1006/qres.1994.1051 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 30-40 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

David S. Leigh ◽

James C. Knox

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Ice Sheets ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Laurentide Ice Sheet ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Mississippi Valley ◽

Driftless Area ◽

Lithostratigraphic Units ◽

Continental Ice Sheets

AbstractLoess of the Driftless Area includes four distinct late Quaternary lithostratigraphic units: the Wyalusing (new), Loveland, Roxana, and Peoria formations. Erosion has removed parts or all of the pre-late Wisconsian loess at many sites. These formations consist largely of loess and retransported loess that typically occurs on uplands, terraces, and valley margins in the region. The oldest widespread formation (probably > 125,000 yr B.P.) is here formally named the Wyalusing Formation. The three younger formations correlate with the Loveland (probably > 125,000 yr B.P.), Roxana (55,000-25,000 yr B.P.), and Peoria (25,000-12,000 yr B.P.) loesses recognized elsewhere in the midcontinental United States. The soil/stratigraphic morphology of the Wyalusing-Loveland and Roxana-Peoria couplets appears to represent two distinct loess sedimentation sequences related to major expansion and contraction of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during oxygen isotope stages 6 and 3-2, respectively. The occurrence-frequency of loess units is inversely related to age, illustrating the erosional nature of the Driftless area landscape. The occurrence of four loess units at some sites in Driftless Area stratigraphic sections corroborates loess stratigraphy along the length of the Mississippi Valley, where typically not more than four or five loess units are found and they represent only the late and middle Pleistocene (<790,000 yr B.P.). Past climatic conditions, which favored erosion of loess, as well as a temporally erratic spatial extent of former continental ice sheets in North America, which provided the dust supply, probably account for the low number of loess units along the Mississippi Valley.

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Pliocene to Pleistocene climate and environmental history of Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic, based on high-resolution inorganic geochemistry data

Climate of the Past Discussions ◽

10.5194/cpd-9-5899-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 5899-5940 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

V. Wennrich ◽

P. S. Minyuk ◽

V. Ya. Borkhodoev ◽

A. Francke ◽

B. Ritter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental History ◽

Far East ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Gradual Transition ◽

Russian Arctic ◽

Lake Productivity ◽

The North ◽

Lake El’Gygytgyn

Abstract. The 3.6 Ma sediment record of Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic, represents the longest continuous climate archive of the terrestrial Arctic. Its elemental composition monitored by X-ray fluorescence scanning exhibits significant changes since the Mid-Pliocene caused by climate driven variations in the primary production, postsedimentary diagenetic processes, and current activity in the lake as well as weathering processes in its catchment. During the Mid to Late Pliocene, warmer and wetter climatic conditions are reflected by elevated Si / Ti ratios, indicating enhanced diatom production in the lake. Prior to 3.3 Ma, this signal is highly masked by intensified detrital input from the catchment, visible in maxima of clastic-related proxies such as the K concentration. In addition, calcite formation in the early lake history points to enhanced nutrient flux into the lake caused by intensified weathering in its catchment. Its termination at ca. 3.3 Ma is supposed to be linked to the development of permafrost in the region triggered by a first cooling in the Mid-Pliocene. After ca. 3.0 Ma the elemental data suggest a gradual transition to Quaternary-style glacial / interglacial cyclicity. In the early Pleistocene, the cyclicity was first dominated by variations on the 41 ka obliquity band but experienced a change to a 100 ka eccentricity dominance after the Middle Pleistocene Transition at ca. 1.2 to 0.7 Ma. This clearly demonstrates the sensitivity of the Lake El'gygytgyn record to orbital forcing. A successive decrease of the baseline-levels of the redox-sensitive Mn / Fe ratio and magnetic susceptibility between 2.3 to 1.8 Ma reflects an overall change in the bottom water oxygenation due to an intensified occurrence of pervasive glacial episodes in the early Quaternary. The coincidence with major changes in the North Pacific and Bering Sea paleoceanography at ca. 1.8 Ma implies that the change in lake hydrology was caused by regional cooling and/or changes in the ocean-land moisture transport. Further rising TOC and TN values after ca. 1.6 Ma are attributed to a progressive intensification of the glacial intensity. In the course of the Quaternary glacial/interglacial sequence eight so-called "super-interglacials" occur. Their exceptional warm conditions are reflected by extreme Si / Ti peaks accompanied by lows in Ti, K, and Fe, thus indicating an extraordinary high lake productivity.

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Geological and Ecological Perspectives on the Middle Pleistocene

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(74)90003-9 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 136-148 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Karl W. Butzer

Keyword(s):

Cultural Change ◽

Deep Sea ◽

First Record ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Magnetic Reversal ◽

Upper Pleistocene ◽

Climatic Oscillations ◽

Palynological Records ◽

Eemian Interglacial

This paper evaluates the geological and paleoecological implications of a Wenner-Gren symposium Stratigraphy and Patterns of Cultural Change in the Middle Pleistocene. The deep-sea, glacial-eustatic, loess, alluvial, and palynological records suggest between six and eight cold-warm cycles since the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal of 700,000 BP. Till and outwash stratigraphies are inadequate to provide a valid nomenclature for the numerous glacials preceding the Würm. Since at least five of the glacials since 700,000 BP were sufficiently severe to produce permafrost in midlatitude Europe, the “glacial Pleistocene” begins with the Brunhes-Matuyama. Although earlier cold-warm cycles extend well back into the early Pleistocene, with extensive glaciation and repeated floral decimations in higher latitudes, the first record of permafrost in the Rhine Basin 700,000 BP argues that major climatic oscillations of the Brunhes epoch were of glacial-interglacial amplitude. It is therefore recommended that a Lower-Middle Pleistocene boundary be linked to the practicable and universally applicable chronometric horizon provided by the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, while the Middle-Upper Pleistocene limit can continue to be drawn at the base of the last, Eemian Interglacial (130,000 BP). The tropical African record presently contributes little to general understanding of the Middle Pleistocene, while the climatic cycles of higher latitudes are of limited value in analyzing mid-Pleistocene records of the tropical continents. Problems of stratigraphic control and environmental contexts for archeological sites are discussed.

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Short-tailed mice with a long fossil record: the genusLeggadina(Rodentia: Muridae) from the Quaternary of Queensland, Australia

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.5639 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e5639 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jonathan Cramb ◽

Gilbert J. Price ◽

Scott A. Hocknull

Keyword(s):

Late Quaternary ◽

Mount Etna ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Northern Australia ◽

Late Cenozoic ◽

Additional Material ◽

Common Component ◽

Cave Deposits ◽

Mt Etna

The genusLeggadina(colloquially known as ‘short-tailed mice’) is a common component of Quaternary faunas of northeastern Australia. They represent a member of the Australian old endemic murid radiation that arrived on the continent sometime during the late Cenozoic. Here we describe two new species of extinctLeggadinafrom Quaternary cave deposits as well as additional material of the extinctLeggadina macrodonta.Leggadina irvinisp. nov. recovered from Middle-Upper (late) Pleistocene cave deposits near Chillagoe, northeastern Queensland, is the biggest member of the genus, being substantially larger than any other species so far described.Leggadina webbisp. nov. from Middle Pleistocene cave deposits at Mount Etna, central eastern Queensland, shares features with the oldest species of the genus, the Early PleistoceneL. gregoriensis. Based on the current palaeoecological interpretation of the type locality,L. webbi, represents the only member of the genus that inhabited rainforest. The succession ofLeggadinaspecies through the late Quaternary suggests an ecological replacement of the extinct large-bodiedL. irviniwith the extant, small-bodiedL. lakedownesisat Chillagoe. At Mt. Etna, the extinct rainforest speciesL. webbiis replaced with the extant xeric-adaptedL. forrestiduring the latest Middle Pleistocene. This replacement is associated with a mid-Pleistocene shift towards progressive intensifying seasonal and arid climates. Our study adds to the growing list of small-bodied faunal extinctions during the late Quaternary of northern Australia.

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Vertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy, and paleohydrology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada (USA)

Geology of the Intermountain West ◽

10.31711/giw.v4.pp55-98 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 55-98

Author(s):

Kathleen Springer ◽

Jeffrey Pigati ◽

Eric Scott

Keyword(s):

Las Vegas ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Plant Macrofossils ◽

Distinct Species ◽

American Southwest ◽

Local Fauna ◽

Climatic Oscillations ◽

Las Vegas Valley ◽

National Monument ◽

Desert Wetlands

Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument (TUSK) preserves 22,650 acres of the upper Las Vegas Wash in the northern Las Vegas Valley (Nevada, USA). TUSK is home to extensive and stratigraphically complex groundwater discharge (GWD) deposits, called the Las Vegas Formation, which represent springs and desert wetlands that covered much of the valley during the late Quaternary. The GWD deposits record hydrologic changes that occurred here in a dynamic and temporally congruent response to abrupt climatic oscillations over the last ~300 ka (thousands of years). The deposits also entomb the Tule Springs Local Fauna (TSLF), one of the most significant late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) vertebrate assemblages in the American Southwest. The TSLF is both prolific and diverse, and includes a large mammal assemblage dominated by Mammuthus columbi and Camelops hesternus. Two (and possibly three) distinct species of Equus, two species of Bison, Panthera atrox, Smilodon fatalis, Canis dirus, Megalonyx jeffersonii, and Nothrotheriops shastensis are also present, and newly recognized faunal components include micromammals, amphibians, snakes, and birds. Invertebrates, plant macrofossils, and pollen also occur in the deposits and provide important and complementary paleoenvironmental information. This field compendium highlights the faunal assemblage in the classic stratigraphic sequences of the Las Vegas Formation within TUSK, emphasizes the significant hydrologic changes that occurred in the area during the recent geologic past, and examines the subsequent and repeated effect of rapid climate change on the local desert wetland ecosystem.

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Late Quaternary Fluvial Sedimentation in the Voidomatis Basin, Epirus, Northwest Greece

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(91)90098-p ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 103-115 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

John Lewin ◽

Mark G. Macklin ◽

Jamie C. Woodward

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Basin ◽

Late Quaternary ◽

Radiometric Dating ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Fluvial Sedimentation ◽

The Mediterranean Basin

AbstractDetailed morpho- and lithostratigraphic investigations, allied with radiometric dating, in the Voidomatis basin, Epirus, northwest Greece, have identified four Quaternary terraced alluvial fills that range from middle Pleistocene to historic in age. Major-periods of alluviation during the late Quaternary were associated with valley glaciation (ca. 26,000–20,000 yr B.P.) and subsequent deglaciation (ca. 20,000–15,000 yr B.P.) in the Pindus Mountains during Late Würmian times, and more recently linked to overgrazing sometime before the 11th century AD. The late Quaternary alluvial stratigraphy of the Voidomatis River is more complex than the “Older Fill” and “Younger Fill” model outlined previously, and it is suggested that these terms should no longer form the basis for defining alluvial stratigraphic units in the Mediterranean Basin.

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Rodents as indicators of the climatic conditions during the Middle Pleistocene in the southwestern Mediterranean region: implications for the environment in which hominins lived

Journal of Human Evolution ◽

10.1016/j.jhevol.2020.102911 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 150 ◽

pp. 102911

Author(s):

Juan Manuel López-García ◽

Gloria Cuenca-Bescós ◽

Maria Ángeles Galindo-Pellicena ◽

Elisa Luzi ◽

Claudio Berto ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Region ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Middle Pleistocene

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Cosmogenic burial dating of in cave-deposited alluvium: unravelling long-term incision rates and complex speleogenesis in multi-level cave systems

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19598 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gilles Rixhon ◽

Didier L. Bourlès ◽

Régis Braucher ◽

Alexandre Peeters ◽

Alain Demoulin

Keyword(s):

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Fluvial Terrace ◽

Base Level ◽

Cave System ◽

River Incision ◽

Order Of Magnitude ◽

History Of ◽

Multi Level

Multi-level cave systems record the history of regional river incision in abandoned alluvium-filled phreatic passages which, mimicking fluvial terrace sequences, represent former phases of fluvial base-level stability. In this respect, cosmogenic burial dating of in cave-deposited alluvium (usually via the nuclide pair 26Al/10Be) represents a suitable method to quantify the pace of long-term river incision. Here, we present a dataset of fifteen 26Al/10Be burial ages measured in fluvial pebbles washed into a multi-level cave system developed in Devonian limestone of the uplifted Ardenne massif (eastern Belgium). The large and well-documented Chawresse system is located along the lower Ourthe valley (i.e. the main Ardennian tributary of the Meuse river) and spans altogether an elevation difference exceeding 120 m.The depleted 26Al/10Be ratios measured in four individual caves show two main outcomes. Firstly, computed burial ages ranging from ~0.2 to 3.3 Ma allows highlighting an acceleration by almost one order of magnitude of the incision rates during the first half of the Middle Pleistocene (from ~25 to ~160 m/Ma). Secondly, according to the relative elevation above the present-day floodplain of the sampled material in the Manants cave (<35 m), the four internally-consistent Early Pleistocene burial ages highlight an &#8220;anomalous&#8221; old speleogenesis in the framework of a gradual base-level lowering. They instead point to intra-karsting reworking of the sampled material in the topographically complex Manants cave. This in turn suggests an independent, long-lasting speleogenetic evolution of this specific cave, which differs from the per descensum model of speleogenesis generally acknowledged for the regional multi-level cave systems and their abandoned phreatic galleries. In addition to its classical use for inferring long-term incision rates, cosmogenic burial dating can thus contribute to better understand specific and complex speleogenetic evolution.

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GEOLOGICAL AND MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY MAPPING OF MOUNT GIOUCHTA (CENTRAL CRETE)

Bulletin of the Geological Society of Greece ◽

10.12681/bgsg.11181 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 289 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. Kokinou ◽

E. Kamberis ◽

A. Sarris ◽

I. Tzanaki

Keyword(s):

Magnetic Susceptibility ◽

Spatial Distribution ◽

Stress Field ◽

Magnetic Measurements ◽

Strain Analysis ◽

Geological Structure ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Western Slope ◽

Strain Pattern

Giouchta Mt. is located south of Heraklion city, in Crete. It is an N-S trending morphological asymmetric ridge, with steep western slope whilst the eastern slope represents a smoother relief, composed of Mesozoic limestone and Eocene- lower Oligocene flysch sediments of the Gavrovo -Tripolis zone. The present study focuses on the geological structure of Mt. Giouchta. Field mapping and tectonic analysis is performed for this purpose. The dominant structures are contractional in nature, deformed by normal faulting related to the extensional episodes initiated in Serravallian times. The strain pattern in the area is revealed from strain analysis. It is inferred that the orientation of the stress field in the area has changed several times: the N-S, stress field which was dominant during Late Serravallian times changed to NE-SW (in Late Serravallian? - Early Tortonian) and subsequently to WNW-ESE (Early to Middle Tortonian) to become NW-SE in Late Tortonian. This orientation changed also during the Quaternary times trending from NW-SE (Early Pleistocene) to ENE-WSW (Middle Pleistocene-Holocene). In addition to the above, surface soil samples were collected in the wider area of mount Giouchta and they were analyzed in order to determine the magnetic susceptibility. GIS techniques were used for mapping the spatial distribution of the geological features and the magnetic measurements on the topographic relief of the area. Statistical analysis techniques were also applied in order to investigate the relation of faulting and magnetic susceptibility. Maps representing the spatial distribution of the above measurements were created by using appropriate interpolation algorithms.

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Elephant bones for the Middle Pleistocene toolmaker

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0256090 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. e0256090

Author(s):

Paola Villa ◽

Giovanni Boschian ◽

Luca Pollarolo ◽

Daniela Saccà ◽

Fabrizio Marra ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Upper Paleolithic ◽

Raw Material ◽

General Idea ◽

Early Pleistocene ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Middle Pleistocene ◽

Medium Size ◽

Bone Tools ◽

Lithic Industry ◽

Taphonomic Analysis

The use of bone as raw material for implements is documented since the Early Pleistocene. Throughout the Early and Middle Pleistocene bone tool shaping was done by percussion flaking, the same technique used for knapping stone artifacts, although bone shaping was rare compared to stone tool flaking. Until recently the generally accepted idea was that early bone technology was essentially immediate and expedient, based on single-stage operations, using available bone fragments of large to medium size animals. Only Upper Paleolithic bone tools would involve several stages of manufacture with clear evidence of primary flaking or breaking of bone to produce the kind of fragments required for different kinds of tools. Our technological and taphonomic analysis of the bone assemblage of Castel di Guido, a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy, now dated by 40Ar/39Ar to about 400 ka, shows that this general idea is inexact. In spite of the fact that the number of bone bifaces at the site had been largely overestimated in previous publications, the number of verified, human-made bone tools is 98. This is the highest number of flaked bone tools made by pre-modern hominids published so far. Moreover the Castel di Guido bone assemblage is characterized by systematic production of standardized blanks (elephant diaphysis fragments) and clear diversity of tool types. Bone smoothers and intermediate pieces prove that some features of Aurignacian technology have roots that go beyond the late Mousterian, back to the Middle Pleistocene. Clearly the Castel di Guido hominids had done the first step in the process of increasing complexity of bone technology. We discuss the reasons why this innovation was not developed. The analysis of the lithic industry is done for comparison with the bone industry.

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