scholarly journals Development of a multi-method chronology spanning the Last Glacial Interval from Orakei maar lake, Auckland, New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonie Peti ◽  
Kathryn E. Fitzsimmons ◽  
Jenni L. Hopkins ◽  
Andreas Nilsson ◽  
Toshiyuki Fujioka ◽  
...  

Abstract. Northern New Zealand is an important site for understanding Last Glacial Interval (LGI) paleoclimate dynamics, since it is influenced by both tropical and polar climate systems which have varied in relative strength and timing of associated changes. The Auckland Volcanic Field maar lakes preserve these climatic influences on the regional paleoenvironment, as well as past volcanic eruptions, in their sedimentary infill. The sediment sequence infilling Orakei maar lake is continuous, laminated, high-resolution and provides a robust archive from which to investigate the dynamic nature of the northern New Zealand climate system over the LGI. Here we present the chronological framework for the Orakei maar sediment sequence. Our chronology was developed combining Bayesian age modelling of combined radiocarbon ages, tephrochronology of known-age rhyolitic tephra marker layers, 40Ar/39Ar-dated eruption age of a local basaltic volcano, luminescence dating (using post infrared-infrared stimulated luminescence, or pIR-IRSL), and the timing of the Laschamp paleomagnetic excursion. We also investigated the application of meteoric (cosmogenic) Beryllium-10 variability to improve the age-depth model by complementing relative paleointensity measurements. However, the results were apparently influenced by some unaccounted catchment process and unable to reach satisfactory interpretation, apart from confirming the presence of the Laschamp excursion, and therefore the 10Be data are not used in the production of the final age model. We have integrated our absolute chronology with tuning of the relative paleointensity record of the Earth’s magnetic field to a global reference curve (PISO-1500). The maar-forming phreatomagmatic eruption of the Orakei maar is now dated to > 130,120 yr (95 % confidence range 128,665 to 131,560 yr). Our new chronology facilitates high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstruction for northern New Zealand spanning the last ca. 130,000 years for the first time as most NZ records that spall all or parts of the LGI are fragmentary, low-resolution and poorly dated. Providing this chronological framework for LGI climate events inferred from the Orakei sequence is of paramount importance in the context of identification of leads and lags in different components of the Southern Hemisphere climate system as well as identification of Northern Hemisphere climate signals.

Geochronology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-410
Author(s):  
Leonie Peti ◽  
Kathryn E. Fitzsimmons ◽  
Jenni L. Hopkins ◽  
Andreas Nilsson ◽  
Toshiyuki Fujioka ◽  
...  

Abstract. Northern New Zealand is an important location for understanding Last Glacial Interval (LGI) palaeoclimate dynamics, since it is influenced by both tropical and polar climate systems which have varied in relative strength and timing. Sediments from the Auckland Volcanic Field maar lakes preserve records of such large-scale climatic influences on regional palaeo-environment changes, as well as past volcanic eruptions. The sediment sequence infilling Orakei maar lake is continuous, laminated, and rapidly deposited, and it provides a high-resolution (sedimentation rate above ∼ 1 m kyr−1) archive from which to investigate the dynamic nature of the northern New Zealand climate system over the LGI. Here we present the chronological framework for the Orakei maar sediment sequence. Our chronology was developed using Bayesian age modelling of combined radiocarbon ages, tephrochronology of known-age rhyolitic tephra marker layers, 40Ar∕39Ar-dated eruption age of a local basaltic volcano, luminescence dating (using post-infrared–infrared stimulated luminescence, or pIR-IRSL), and the timing of the Laschamp palaeomagnetic excursion. We have integrated our absolute chronology with tuning of the relative palaeo-intensity record of the Earth's magnetic field to a global reference curve (PISO-1500). The maar-forming phreatomagmatic eruption of the Orakei maar is now dated to > 132 305 years (95 % confidence range: 131 430 to 133 180 years). Our new chronology facilitates high-resolution palaeo-environmental reconstruction for northern New Zealand spanning the last ca. 130 000 years for the first time as most NZ records that span all or parts of the LGI are fragmentary, low-resolution, and poorly dated. Providing this chronological framework for LGI climate events inferred from the Orakei sequence is of paramount importance in the context of identification of leads and lags in different components of the Southern Hemisphere climate system as well as identification of Northern Hemisphere climate signals.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqiang Yang ◽  
Cong Chen ◽  
Zhuo Zheng

<p>A series of paleomagnetic works relying on the ocean sediments present some significant astronomic periods, such as a 100 kyr quasi-period and 41 kyr obliquity signal. These studies provide the new insights unscrambling what and how the earth magnetic field changed in despite of the ongoing debating. Numerical studies of recent years also reveal the possibility of the precession drive the dynamos and influence the magnetic field. However, the less of reliable high-resolution paleomagnetic records besides of relative paleointensity reduce its credibility. Here, we present some detailed rock magnetic and paleomagnetic studies on the continuous 40-m-thick sediments in two parallel cores retrieved from Tianyang Maar lake, southern China. The new results would contribute to discuss the correlation of paleomagnetic field with the astronomical factors.</p><p>Tianyang Maar lake  is located in the southern part of the Leizhou Peninsula.  The maar lake has a surface area of ~ 7.3 km<sup>2</sup> surrounded by a 40 - 60 m high crater rim composed of basaltic breccia and tuff . Two new parallel cores, TY08 and TY15 (~ 10 m apart), were extracted from center of the crater in 2008 and 2015, respectively, using a rotary borer consisting of a stainless steel outer tube and a plastic inner tube to minimize sediment disturbances and contamination. The sediments of two cores can divided into three zones: about upper 15.59 m was composed of varying colors clay and the middle part (15.59-21.94 m), was dominated by the grey and greyish-brown fine to coarse sand with occasional gravels, embedded a thick grey clay layer; the lower part (21.94-40.0 m) shown as the dark grey and black organic-rich clay.</p><p>The paleomagnetic results show that the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of the sediments is mainly contributed by magnetically soft minerals, and the sediments have fairly documented geomagnetic field variations. A chronology is constructed using multiple methods, including radiocarbon dating, optically stimulated luminescence dating and terrestrial-marine pollen correlation. The 340-kyr paleomagnetic inclination record displays patterns similar to those seen in regional records over a large spatial scale (> 3000 km), implying that these records may reflect large-scale core dynamics on timescales of 10<sup>4 </sup>- 10<sup>5</sup> years in this low-latitude region. The Tianyang inclination record exhibits a negligible inclination anomaly (∆I = -0.08°) and features six anomalous inclination events, which are assigned to the Laschamp, Blake, Fram Strait II/6α, Iceland Basin, Mamaku and 9α excursions respectively. The spectral and singular spectrum analysis (SSA) exhibit that the inclination does not show the significant signal of 100-kyr periodicity, however, the closed precession period is obvious in the third components of inclination (PC3). PC3 component shows nearly synchronous variations with the precession parameter while the opposite correlation appeared under the condition of eccentricity minima strong. This corresponding pattern hint us that astronomical parameters have the essential influence to the earth magnetic field, however, the different moving may forc or constrain the earth magnetic behavior.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Constantin ◽  
Joseph Mason ◽  
Ulrich Hambach ◽  
Daniel Veres ◽  
Cristian Panaiotu ◽  
...  

<p>Here we investigate the timing of Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition as reflected in nine luminescence dated loess-palaeosol sequences across the northern hemisphere, from the Chinese Loess Plateau, the southeastern European loess belt and the central Great Plains, Nebraska, USA.<br>First, logs of high-resolution magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence were used as palaeoclimatic proxies to define the environmental transition from the last glacial loess to the current interglacial soil. Second, the onset of increase in their values above typical loess values was used to assess the onset of, and developments during, the Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition. The variability seen in the magnetic susceptibility records are interpreted based on high-resolution luminescence dating applied on multiple grain-sizes (4-11 µm, 63-90 µm, 90-125 µm) of quartz extracts from the same sample. In order to increase the overall precision of the luminescence based chronology we rely on weighted average ages. Based on these, Bayesian modeling allowed the determination of age-depth models and mean sedimentation rates for each investigated site.<br>The magnetic susceptibility signal shows a smooth and gradual increase for the majority of the sites from the typical low loess values to the interglacial ones. At all but one site, this increase, associated to the onset of the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary (ie., 11.7 ka) was dated to 14 ka or even earlier. Our results highlight the need of combining palaeoclimatic proxies (magnetic susceptibility) with absolute dating when placing the Pleistocene-Holocene climatic transition as reflected by the evolution of this proxy in order to avoid misinterpretations in loess-paleosol records caused by simple pattern correlation. These results indicate diverse environmental dynamics recorded in the different North Hemisphere loess regions during the major global climatic shift from the last glacial to the Holocene.<br>The detailed luminescence chronology coupled with magnetic susceptibility records indicate the formation of accretional Holocene soils in the sites investigated. Modeled accumulation rates for the Holocene soil are similar for European, Chinese and American loess sites investigated and vary from 0.02 m/ka to 0.09 m/ka.</p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Peter C. Almond ◽  
Sándor Gulyás ◽  
Pál Sümegi ◽  
Balázs P. Sümegi ◽  
Stephen Covey-Crump ◽  
...  

Abstract Calcareous loess in North Canterbury, eastern South Island, New Zealand (NZ), preserves subfossil bird bone, terrestrial gastropods, and eggshell, whose abundances and radiocarbon ages allowed us to reconstruct aspects of palaeoenvironment at high resolution through 25 to 21 cal ka BP. This interval includes millennial-scale climatic variability during the extended last glacial maximum (30–18 ka) of Australasia. Our loess palaeoclimatic record shows good correspondence with stadial and interstadial climate events of the NZ Climate Event Stratigraphy, which were defined from a pollen record on the western side of South Island. An interstade from 25.4 to 24 cal ka BP was warm but also relatively humid on eastern South Island, and loess grain size may indicate reduced vigour of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds. The subsequent stade (24–22.6 cal ka BP) was drier, colder, and probably windier. The next interstade remained relatively dry on eastern South Island, and westerly winds remained vigorous. The 25.4–24 ka interstade is synchronous with Heinrich stade 2, which may have driven a southward migration of the subtropical front, leading to warming and wetting of northern and central South Island and retreat of Southern Alps glaciers at ca. 26.5 ka.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Alexandros P. Poulidis ◽  
Atsushi Shimizu ◽  
Haruhisa Nakamichi ◽  
Masato Iguchi

Ground-based remote sensing equipment have the potential to be used for the nowcasting of the tephra hazard from volcanic eruptions. To do so raw data from the equipment first need to be accurately transformed to tephra-related physical quantities. In order to establish these relations for Sakurajima volcano, Japan, we propose a methodology based on high-resolution simulations. An eruption that occurred at Sakurajima on 16 July 2018 is used as the basis of a pilot study. The westwards dispersal of the tephra cloud was ideal for the observation network that has been installed near the volcano. In total, the plume and subsequent tephra cloud were recorded by 2 XMP radars, 1 lidar and 3 optical disdrometers, providing insight on all phases of the eruption, from plume generation to tephra transport away from the volcano. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and FALL3D models were used to reconstruct the transport and deposition patterns. Simulated airborne tephra concentration and accumulated load were linked, respectively, to lidar backscatter intensity and radar reflectivity. Overall, results highlight the possibility of using such a high-resolution modelling-based methodology as a reliable complementary strategy to common approaches for retrieving tephra-related quantities from remote sensing data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 248 ◽  
pp. 106602
Author(s):  
Tobias Sprafke ◽  
Philipp Schulte ◽  
Simon Meyer-Heintze ◽  
Marc Händel ◽  
Thomas Einwögerer ◽  
...  

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