a high resolution record of the last deglaciation in the central mediterranean sea palaeovegetation and palaeohydrological evolution abstract a high resolution palynological and stratigraphical record of a marine deep sea core in the adriatic sea documents marine and continental palaeoenvironmental changes in the basin during the last deglaciation and early holocene a chronology is derived from the oxygen isotope stratigraphy three periods of aridity marked by the development of a semi desert rich in artemisia occurred between 18 5 and 16 kyr between 14 4 and 12 7 kyr and between 11 1 and 9 7 kyr consistent with the last glacial maximum the oldest dryas and the younger dryas they are correlated with increases in productivity and intensification of the levantine water formation in the eastern mediterranean basin during the warmer bolling allerod 12 7 11 1 kyr the presence of the cold temperate dinocyst bitectatodinium tepikiense is interpreted as indicating the establishment of a strong seasonal thermal gradient probably linked to seasonal cold freshwater runoff from the po river attested by the unique presence of pollen of freshwater plants the expansion of forest and the development of the warmer dinocysts start with termination ib during the holocene three tree phases are recognized and are contemporaneous with the preboreal boreal and atlantic chronozones of europe the two phases of sapropel deposition are marked by higher pollen and dinocyst concentrations and a high representation of brigantedinium spp which indicate higher preservation of organic material and or freshwater runoff of the po river

sr and nd isotopes as tracers of north atlantic lithic particles paleoclimatic implications sr and nd isotopic compositions have been measured on the lithic fraction of last climatic cycle sediments from the north atlantic 40 n 60 n in order to identify the origins of the particles from the reconstruction of their transport pathways we deduce the mechanisms that explain their distributions the main source regions are the canadian shield mostly the area of baffin bay and western greenland the scandinavian shield the european region british isles and bay of biscay and iceland we observe a significant glacial interglacial contrast characterized by a dominant icelandic input via near bottom transport by north atlantic deep water nadw during the interglacials and a largely continent derived contribution of surface transported ice rafted detritus ird during the glacial period during the last glacial period the heinrich events abrupt massive discharges of ird originated not only from the laurentide ice sheet as heretofore envisioned but also from other sources three other major north atlantic ice sheets fennoscandian british isles and icelandic probably surged simultaneously discharging ice and ird into the north atlantic as opposed to theories implying a unique laurentide origin gwiazda et al 1995 driven by an internal mechanism mcayeal 1993 we confirm that the icelandic and the fennoscandian ice sheets also surged as recently proposed by other authors and we here also distinguish a possible detrital contribution from the british isles ice sheet this pan north atlantic phenomenon thus requires a common regional external forcing

links between marine and atmospheric processes oscillating on a millennial time scale a multi proxy study of the last 50 000 yr from the alboran sea western mediterranean sea abstract the large dataset obtained from the extensive study of images core md95 2043 recovered from the alboran sea western mediterranean shows the periodicities and phase relationships of oceanographic and atmospheric processes on a millennial time scale the 1470 yr cycle is the most significant with the exception of the records reflecting climatic or environmental changes on land which show statistically significant 3300 and 8000 frequency bands the investigation of these core records on a millennial scale resolution allows us to establish the evolution of oceanographic and atmospheric mechanisms that influenced the western mediterranean region in the course of the dansgaard oeschger cycles accordingly possible land sea interactions can be identified and situated in the context of the temporal succession of the different climatic processes for instance saharan dust supply from northern africa appears to lead high latitude climate changes suggesting that low latitude feedback processes were involved in forcing the millennial climatic variability in the westernmost mediterranean

origin of the northern atlantic s heinrich events as first noted by heinrich 1988 glacial age sediments in the eastern part of the northern atlantic contain layers with unusually high ratios of ice rafted lithic fragments to foraminifera shells he estimated that these layers are spaced at intervals of roughly 10 000 years in this paper we present detailed information documenting the existence of the upper five of these layers in odp core 609 from 50 n and 24 w their ages are respectively 15 000 radiocarbon years 20 000 radiocarbon years 27 000 radiocarbon years about 40 000 years and about 50 000 years we also note that the high lithic fragment to foram ratio is the result of a near absence of shells in these layers although we are not of one mind regarding the origin of these layers we lean toward an explanation that the heinrich layers are debris released during the melting of massive influxes of icebergs into the northern atlantic these sudden inputs may be the result of surges along the eastern margin of the laurentide ice sheet

stable isotope anomalies in mediterranean pleistocene records oxygen and carbon isotope records of twelve mediterranean cores raised from west alboran sea to east off israel and of four atlantic cores raised from the western side of gibraltar and located respectively inside below and beyond the modern mediterranean outflow are compared to open ocean records of core 71 139c from the north atlantic and core v19 30 from the east pacific oxygen isotope stratigraphies can be established for deep mediterranean records and the major events of the last 150 ka are easily identifiable for instance the five substages of stage 5 or the 18 ka event stage 2 are identified but the 10 ka event younger dryas is only recorded by globigerina bulloides and benthic foraminifera suggesting that the cooling affected only winter sst 14c dates for the two terminations ia and ib of the last deglaciation which are recorded in sediment cores from areas with high sedimentation rates faro ridge alboran sea sicilian strait are in good agreement with the dates published for the same termination in atlantic cores an intermediate step however has been identified in some cores at 14 ka and divides termination ia into two phases oxygen isotope anomalies are recorded by the shallow water species globigerinoides ruber they correspond to 1 a higher amplitude glacial interglacial change in 18o values which exceeds that of the open ocean by 1 in the western basin and by 1 7 in the eastern basin 2 large isotopic depletions during the deposition of sapropel s1 s3 and s5 they are interpreted as the result of fresh water run off responsible for a strong dilution in the shallower layers of the east mediterranean waters the isotopic effect of this dilution averages 0 75 for sapropel s1 and 1 6 for sapropel s5 during the last glacial maximum the mediterranean still acted as a concentration basin and a gradient of 18o values similar to the modern one 0 75 existed from west to east in the deep waters apparently deep water temperatures were lower during the last glacial but the decrease did not exceed 4 c in the eastern basin major anomalies are also contained in the 13c records of g bulloides and benthic foraminifera the 13c records from surface intermediate and deep waters of the eastern basin and from intermediate and deep waters of the western basin are opposite to that of the open ocean during glacial time 13c values were higher in intermediate and deep waters of the whole mediterranean and also in surface water of the eastern basin at the same time the 13c gradient of surface to deep waters was low this gradient increased during the last deglaciation while 13c values of g bulloides and benthic foraminifera decreased this decrease interrupted at 10 ka may have been related to increased fresh water run off from the bordering contintents due to increased precipitation especially in the tropical belt the 13c depletion is clearly recorded in the levantine and deep water masses and can be traced westward in the mediterranean outflow oxygen and carbon isotope anomalies recorded simultaneously in the east mediterranean by the shallow water species globigerinoides ruber during sapropel deposition indicate that increased precipitation on the bordering continents and strong fresh water run off during the time of the last deglaciation may have caused a density stratification and deep stagnation in the eastern basin uncertainties arise from the fact that in the mixing model deglacial mediterranean waters are mixed with continental fresh waters the isotopic characteristics of which are not entirely understood although increased surface water production of biogenic material can not be excluded as a possible cause of 13c depletion it appears that the river discharge including the nile as well as black sea input are also plausible sources for the fresh water layering

surface water temperature salinity and density changes in the northeast atlantic during the last 45 000 years heinrich events deep water formation and climatic rebounds we developed a new method to calculate sea surface salinities sss and densities ssd from planktonic foraminiferal 18o and sea surface temperatures sst as determined from planktonic foraminiferal species abundances sst sss and ssd records were calculated for the last 45 000 years for biogeochemical oceanic flux study bofs cores 5k and 8k recovered from the northeast atlantic the strongest feature is the dramatic drop in all three parameters during the heinrich ice rafting events we modelled the possibility of deepwater formation in die northeast atlantic from the ssd records by assuming that the surface waters at our sites cooled as they flowed further north comparison with modelled north atlantic deepwater densities indicates that there could have been periods of deepwater formation between 45 000 and 30 000 14c years b p interrupted by iceberg meltwater input of heinrich event 3 and 4 at 27 000 and 38 000 14c years b p and during the holocene no amount of cooling in the northeast atlantic between 30 000 and 13 000 years could cause deep water to form because of the low salinities resulting from the high meltwater inputs from icebergs our records indicate that after each heinrich event there were periods of climatic rebound with milder conditions persisting for up to 2000 years as indicated by the presence of warmer and more saline water masses after these warm periods conditions returned to average glacial levels these short term cold and warm episodes in the northeast atlantic are superimposed on the general trend towards colder conditions of the last glacial maximum lgm heinrich event 1 appears to be unique as it occurs as insolation rose and was coeval with the initial melting of the fennoscandian ice sheet we propose that meltwater input of heinrich event 1 significantly reduced north atlantic deep water formation reducing the heat exchange between the low and high latitudes thus delaying deglaciation by about 1500 radiocarbon years 2000 calendar years

origin and consequences of cyclic ice rafting in the northeast atlantic ocean during the past 130 000 years deep sea sediment cores recovered from the northeast atlantic ocean were examined in order to elucidate the influence of the earth s orbital parameters on major ice rafting analyses of coarse grained ice rafted debris and planktonic foraminifers revealed a strong reaction to the precession signal since 130 000 yr b p dropstone layers have been deposited each half period of a precessional cycle 11 000 1000 yr ice rafting occurs during times of winter minimum summer maximum insolation and summer minimum winter maximum insolation in the first case high summer insolation forces meltwater discharge from the ice sheets into the polar seas which subsequently enhances formation of sea ice during the winter in the second case growth of continental ice enhances iceberg production which also leads to a salinity reduction of surface seawater both situations result in a southward penetration of polar water thus the marine record of dropstones documents ice rafting not only during weichselian stades but also during cold events within interstades the regularity of ice rafting yields a useful framework to calibrate and elucidate climatic changes not only in the region of the north atlantic ocean but also in remote areas such as the pacific ocean and the antarctic

evidence for changes in the north atlantic deep water linked to meltwater surges during the heinrich events abstract deep sea sediment records from north atlantic cores 40 n 55 n provide evidence of several massive iceberg discharges known as heinrich events during the last glacial period high resolution benthic 18 o and 13 c records from north atlantic sediment cores were used to monitor the impact of heinrich events on thermohaline circulation and to estimate the sensitivity of deep oceanic circulation to changes in freshwater input to the north atlantic surface waters our data indicate that major rearrangements of deep water masses were directly associated with these massive iceberg discharges to trace in detail the deep water conditions in the north atlantic benthic 13 c values in several cores were used to generate time slices before during and after heinrich event 4 dated at 35 ka bp although north atlantic deep water continued to form during the oxygen isotope stage 3 at 37 ka bp deep circulation was characterized by an increased incursion of deep waters of southern origin which reduced the 13 c composition of north atlantic deep waters particularly in the eastern atlantic basin north atlantic deep water production was reduced during heinrich layer 4 hl4 at 35 ka bp synchronously with the changes in the surface water hydrology deep convection processes may have occurred in areas not affected by the salinity decrease soon after hl4 33 ka bp the 13 c distribution was similar to that before the event similarly a rapid return to initial 13 c values was observed at the end of the most clearly defined heinrich events hl5 hl4 and hl1 comparison between deep circulation patterns corresponding to hl4 the last glacial maximum and heinrich event 1 indicates that each of these periods was characterized by a different circulation state associated with changes in convection sites

iceberg discharges into the north atlantic on millennial time scales during the last glaciation high resolution studies of north atlantic deep sea cores demonstrate that prominent increases in iceberg calving recurred at intervals of 2000 to 3000 years much more frequently than the 7000 to 10 000 year pacing of massive ice discharges associated with heinrich events the calving cycles correlate with warm cold oscillations called dansgaard oeschger events in greenland ice cores each cycle records synchronous discharges of ice from different sources and the cycles are decoupled from sea surface temperatures these findings point to a mechanism operating within the atmosphere that caused rapid oscillations in air temperatures above greenland and in calving from more than one ice sheet

40ar 39ar dating of latest pleistocene 41 ka marine tephra in the mediterranean sea implications for global climate records abstract fifty one 40 ar 39 ar laser heating analyses of sanidine crystals in the c 13 tephra layer recovered out of a piston core raised from 3000 m depth in the tyrrhenian sea yielded apparent ages between 25 and 112 ka twenty four of these measurements define an age probability maximum and generate an isochron of 41 1 2 1 ka 2 with a 40 ar 36 ar intercept of 288 21 that is indistinguishable from the modern atmosphere however the entire population is skewed toward older apparent ages with smaller peaks at 48 ka 55 ka 67 ka and 110 ka the composition of glass shards in the c 13 tephra overlaps that of the sio 2 rich phase of the 150 km 3 campanian ignimbrite which erupted from the campi flegrei caldera 130 km northwest of the core site although the 41 1 2 1 ka isochron is 15 older than k ar and 14 c ages for the campanian ignimbrite it is indistinguishable from recent 40 ar 39 ar age determinations the campanian ignimbrite eruptions were also chemically similar to and correlated with the y 5 ash layer the most voluminous and widely dispersed late pleistocene tephra in the mediterranean region the age of the y 5 layer was constrained originally at 38 0 2 5 ka on the basis of astronomical dating of o isotope stages the 40 ar 39 ar ages astronomical dating plus chemical similarities permit correlation of the c 13 tephra layer with both the campanian ignimbrite and the y 5 tephra layer the older ages preserved in the c 13 tephra layer may reflect xenocrysts incorporated during the explosive eruption accompanying collapse of the campi flegrei caldera 41 ka the c 13 tephra layer is correlated with a 10 be peak in an adjacent marine core o isotope stage 3 12 and immediately preceded a cooling episode corresponding to heinrich event 4 thus the age of these features is constrained by radioisotope dating the 41 ka peak in 10 be deposition is a global phenomenon whose age matches that of the laschamp geomagnetic excursion thus our results provide a new tie point among several polar ice core and marine proxy records of paleoclimate during the past 50 kyr precise age information independent of radiocarbon dating can be recovered from latest pleistocene marine tephra using the 40 ar 39 ar laser heating method despite the presence of multiple components that may have been incorporated during or after its deposition

a centennial scale organic walled dinoflagellate cyst record of the last deglaciation in the south adriatic sea central mediterranean abstract a high resolution study of sea surface temperature sst and primary productivity changes during the last deglaciation in the south adriatic sea is presented on the basis of organic walled dinoflagellate cysts dinocysts compared with stable oxygen and carbon isotope records derived from globigerina bulloides two more defined warming phases between 14 75 and 14 10 cal kyr bp gi 1e and between 13 85 and 13 25 cal kyr bp gi 1c and perhaps a mild one between 12 95 and 12 60 cal kyr bp gi 1a interrupted by two cold events between 14 10 and 13 85 cal kyr bp gi 1d and between 13 25 and 12 95 cal kyr bp gi 1b are highlighted weaker sst oscillations occurred within the relatively stable periods gs 2a 17 00 14 75 cal kyr bp gs 1 or younger dryas 12 60 11 60 cal kyr bp and early holocene several dinocyst proxies used to evaluate surface primary productivity suggest that the cold events gi 1d and gi 1b are associated with episodes of both enhanced primary productivity and perhaps improved organic matter preservation due to reduced deep water formation phases of more pronounced increased surface primary productivity without stagnation in bottom waters are recorded during gi 1c and early gs 1 freshwater po river discharge seems to be the cause of enhanced productivity during event gi 1c at 13 4 cal kyr bp and probably during gi 1d

chronology for climate change developing age models for the biogeochemical ocean flux study cores we construct age models for a suite of cores from the northeast atlantic ocean by means of accelerator mass spectrometer dating of a key core bofs 5k and correlation with the rest of the suite the effects of bioturbation and foraminiferal species abundance gradients upon the age record are modeled using a simple equation the degree of bioturbation is estimated by comparing modeled profiles with dispersal of the vedde ash layer in core 5k and we find a mixing depth of roughly 8 cm for sand sized material using this value we estimate that age offsets between unbioturbated sediment and some foraminifera species after mixing may be up to 2500 years with lesser effect on fine carbonate 10 mu m ages the bioturbation model illustrates problems associated with the dating of instantaneous events such as ash layers and the heinrich peaks of ice rafted detritus correlations between core 5k and the other cores from the bofs suite are made on the basis of similarities in the downcore profiles of oxygen and carbon isotopes magnetic susceptibility water and carbonate content and via marker horizons in x radiographs and ash beds

millennial scale variability in the productivity signal from the alboran sea record western mediterranean sea primary productivity of the alboran sea western mediterranean is reconstructed for the time interval 48 000 to 28 000 years bp using the following geochemical proxies calcium carbonate barium excess baexcess total organic carbon toc and alkenone concentration the records show a consistent pattern that indicates enhanced productivity during dansgaard oeschger d o warm periods at the same time deep water conditions were favorable for organic matter preservation in the sediments as indicated by the variation in redox sensitive elements such as mn cr or v and by the 13c record of benthic foraminifers the alboran sea productivity variation during d o cycles is explained by the succession of two climatic scenarios that led to latitudinal shifts of the westerly wind system this mechanism would also account for the variability in the deep water ventilation of the western mediterranean sea

hydrological relationship between the north atlantic ocean and the mediterranean sea during the past 15 75 kyr the mediterranean sea hydrology at the time of the heinrich formation in the north atlantic ocean was analyzed by comparing sea surface temperatures ssts and oxygen isotope composition of seawater w changes during the past 75 kyr in two marine cores these were compared to the palynological variations derived in the mediterranean sea core during the last glacial the two oceanic sst records show similar and synchronous patterns with several long term cooling periods ending by abrupt sst increases at the time of the heinrich events cold ssts and low salinity prevailed in the mediterranean sea the freshwater budget was similar to the modern one permitting the presence of a mixed forest on the mediterranean borderlands the post heinrich periods are marked by a freshwater budget decrease limiting oak and fir tree growth in the mediterranean region increase of precipitation or reduction of evaporation is observed before the heinrich episode and is associated with a well developed mixed mediterranean forest

100 000 years of african monsoon variability recorded in sediments of the nile margin abstract multiproxy analyses were performed on core ms27pt recovered in hemipelagic sediments deposited on the nile margin in order to reconstruct nile river palaeohydrological fluctuations during the last 100 000 years the strontium and neodymium isotope composition of the terrigenous fraction and the major element distribution reveal large and abrupt changes in source oscillating between a dominant aeolian saharan contribution during arid periods and a dominant nile river contribution during pluvial periods iron content shows a strong correlation with strontium and neodymium isotopes this allows the use of a high resolution continuous fe record as a proxy of blue nile sediment input over the last 100 000 years the detailed fe record with approximately 10 years resolution during pluvial periods is consistent with subtropical african records of well dated lake level fluctuations and thus constitutes a first continuous high resolution record of the east african monsoon regime intensity over ethiopia the detailed fe record shows the two main known pluvial periods attributed to strengthening of the african monsoon over ethiopia the nabtian period from 14 to 8 ka cal bp and the saharan period from 98 to 72 ka bp for the first time the last glacial period marine isotope stage mis 2 3 and 4 is documented with a continuous record showing large oscillations between high and low east african palaeo monsoon regimes the end of the nabtian period occurred at 8 ka in core ms27pt i e much earlier than on the east equatorial african region where it ended around 5 5 ka we interpret this as evidence that the southward shift of the rain belt occurred 3000 years earlier over the eastern ethiopian highland and propose that the gradual southward migration of the rain belt was associated with highly variable intensity and longer rainy seasons from 8 to 5 ka during the last glacial period two wet periods are present around 60 50 ka bp and 38 30 ka bp these two humid periods are in phase with the rise of atmospheric ch4 concentrations suggesting that wetland tropical african area was one of the sources of the atmospheric ch4 during the mis 3 during the last glacial maximum and mis 4 high saharan aeolian influxes in phase with records of aeolian dust deposited in east antarctica are documented this study highlights the importance of reconstructions of monsoon rainfall fluctuation at high temporal resolution to better understand the link between low and high latitude climate variability at millennial timescales

effects of tidal amplitude on intertidal resource availability and dispersal pressure in prehistoric human coastal populations the mediterranean atlantic transition abstract in this paper i argue that there is a growing body of evidence supporting an increasingly central position of coastal environments in human evolution and dispersals rather than as merely peripheral habitats eustatic fluctuations during glacial cycles have meant that most prehistoric coastlines are now underwater and lack of evidence to date of a close relationship between people and the coast can be most plausibly ascribed to the limited studies so far on submerged sites coastal environments provide high diversity in food resources consisting of multiple ecotones in close proximity which reduces the need to forage widely one of the richest and most easily exploited coastal resources by human populations living on the coast are molluscs from marine rocky intertidal communities which recent evidence has highlighted as important as far back as the middle palaeolithic however the density of these resources is limited by a number of factors and this varies geographically one of the main large scale factors limiting rocky intertidal mollusc densities is tidal amplitude beyond which smaller scale local factors such as exposure to wave action and shore aspect further affect species distributions the area around the strait of gibraltar is used as a case study of an area which is affected by large variations in tidal amplitudes thus allowing for quantitative comparisons between taxonomically and climatically similar regions shorelines along the mediterranean coast with reduced tidal amplitudes exhibit compressed zonations and harbour fewer macro mollusc individuals with the reverse being the case along the atlantic coast which has significantly larger tides data from middle and upper palaeolithic sites along the strait are used to establish harvested species and present day data are used to model the potential distributions and associated variables such as calorific returns of key food species an optimal foraging model is used to explore the effects of differential levels of resource availability along these coastlines results suggest that the nature and variability of the coastline has a direct influence on the tempo and mode of subsistence strategy followed and whether certain strategies can be adopted at all the possible implications of these biogeographical distributions for foraging economics dispersals and social structures in homo are discussed

oceanic evidence for coherent fluctuations in fennoscandian and laurentide ice sheets on millennium timescales proxy temperature records from greenland ice cores1 2 and north atlantic sediment cores3 have provided evidence for a high degree of climate instability during the last glacial period much of this variability seems to be linked with the dynamics of the laurentide ice sheet that covered north america at this time3 which dis charged iceberg flotillas into the north atlantic that are now recorded in sediment cores as heinrich events4 how if at all this variability was manifested on the other side of the atlantic in the nordic seas and the ice sheets of northwest europe and scandinavia has been unclear here we present sediment micro fossil and oxygen isotope data from a sediment core in the norweg ian sea which reveal cooling events and iceberg discharges analogous to heinrich events we show that these climate fluctua tions in the norwegian sea were in phase or were phase locked with air temperatures over greenland suggesting that the rapid changes in heat fluxes in the north atlantic recorded in previous records3 were felt in this high latitude region the iceberg dis charges in our record seem to have come from the fennoscandian ice sheet implying that this and the laurentide ice sheets fluctu ated coherently on timescales shorter than those of milankovitch orbital cycles

vegetation history and palaeoclimate of the last glacial period at lago grande di monticchio southern italy a high resolution palynological study of a 51 m core from lago grande di monticchio southern italy has provided a palaeonvironmental record for the last glacill a annual lamination based chronology supported by radiometric and tephrochronological dates provides an absolute timescale for this record that spans 76 300 years correlations are established between the pollen stratigraphy the grip ice core 18o record and foraminiferal assemblages from atlantic core v23 81 both dansgaard oeschger and heinrich events are reflected by changes in the pollen stratigraphy revised dates are estimated for heinrich events h1 h6 a quantitative palaeoclimate reconstruction based upon the pollen data provides evidence of the climate changes in southern italy associated with these and other fluctuations during the last glacial

pressure temperature and timing of mineralization of the sedimentary rock hosted orogenic gold deposit at klipwal southeastern kaapvaal craton south africa gold mineralization in the klipwal shear zone ksz at the klipwal gold mine is confined to laminated quartz carbonate lodes stringers and associated alteration in sandstone and siltstone of the delfkom formation in the upper mozaan group of the mesoarchaean pongola supergroup the moderately dipping brittle ductile ksz strikes n s with an oblique reverse sinistral sense of shear the deformational events that are recognized include an early compressional phase that produced anastomosing shears defined by shear fabrics with numerous shear parallel laminated quartz carbonate fault fill veins and in places extensional quartz vein stockworks and a late brittle reactivation phase that produced fault breccias displacing earlier extensional veins three closely spaced economic reefs lodes are developed the main r reef constitutes the ksz while the j and h reefs represent footwall splays alteration comprises chlorite muscovite epidote feldspar and carbonates along with pyrite arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite pyrrhotite an inner alteration zone is dominated by laminated quartz carbonate veins with alternating quartz carbonate rich and muscovite chlorite rich laminae whereas the proximal zone is characterized by alteration halos of k feldspar albite epidote chlorite and muscovite along with carbonates and associated quartz veins chlorite thermometry from the inner and proximal zones yielded temperatures of 267 to 312 c arsenopyrite compositions provide temperatures in the same range 255 to 318 c fluid inclusion microthermometry and raman spectrometry of quartz veins in the mineralized reefs reveal the presence of metamorphogenic aqueous gaseous fluid with an average salinity of 6 5 wt nacl equiv fluid compositions and estimated pressure temperature p t range 1 1 to 2 5 kbar at 255 to 318 c are typical of orogenic gold deposits devolatilization during the regional facies metamorphism of the pongola supergroup is considered the likely fluid forming event with fluid flow focused into a compressional jog of the ksz shear induced pressure fluctuations generated a phase separation of the initial aqueous gaseous fluid producing a gaseous and low salinity aqueous fluid this together with fluid rock interaction and a decrease in fo2 lead to sulfide and gold precipitation at klipwal re os data from six sulfide samples constrain the age of sulfide precipitation and by inference gold mineralization to 2563 84 ma with an initial 187os 188os 0 29 0 08 mswd 0 38 this age is distinctly younger than the post pongola granites 2863 2721 ma ruling out the association of granite emplacement with mineralization this would suggest that mineralization is linked to the regional d3 folding event which reactivated the ksz after emplacement of the post pongola granites and that final brittle post mineralization reactivation is related to karoo age faulting low initial os values suggest that ore fluid interacted with mafic rocks leaching non radiogenic os the likely source being the deeper seated nsuze group volcanics and or the greenstone belts that underlie the pongola supergroup

ice rafted evidence of long term north atlantic circulation abstract the absolute and relative rates of deposition of ice rafted volcanic and terrigenous clastic material were determined for the interval from the base of oxygen isotope stage 5 127 000 yrs b p to the lower part of stage 3 50 000 yrs b p in five subpolar north atlantic deep sea cores during this time interval global climate changed from a full interglaciation to nearly a full glaciation for the sediment derived from the continents dominantly quartz and feldspar the eastward decrease in deposition rates during interglacial intervals and eastward increase during glacial intervals is best explained by a southeastward jump in the locus of iceberg melting during climates colder than that of today a similar model may explain the eastward increase in volcanogenic debris during glacial time intervals however the eastward increase of volcanogenic debris during interglacial stage 5 requires a stronger southeastward component of flow from greenland than is evident in the modern circulation

patterns of ice rafted detritus in the glacial north atlantic 40 55 n the observation by heinrich 1988 that during the last glacial period much of the input of ice rafted detritus to the north atlantic sediments may have occurred as a succession of catastrophic events rekindled interest on the history of the northern ice sheets over the last glacial period in this paper we present a rapid method to study the distribution of these events both in space and time using whole core low field magnetic susceptibility we report on approximately 20 cores covering the last 150 to 250 kyr well defined patterns of ice rafted detritus appear during periods of large continental ice sheet extent although these are not always associated within their maxima most of the events may be traced across the north atlantic ocean for the six most recent heinrich layers hl two distinct patterns exist hl1 hl2 hl4 hl5 are distributed along the northern boundary of the glacial polar front over most of the north atlantic between 40 and 50 n hl3 is more restricted to the central and eastern part of the northern atlantic the nd sr isotopic composition of the material constituting different heinrich events indicates the different provenance of the two patterns hl3 has a typical scandinavia arctic icelandic young crust signature and the others have a large component of northern quebec and northern west greenland old crust material these isotopic results obtained on core su 9008 from the north american basin are in agreement with the study by jantschik and huon 1992 who used k ar dating of silt and clay size fractions of an eastern basin core me 68 89 these data confirm the large spatial scale of these events and the enormous amount of ice rafted detritus they represent

foraminiferal record and high resolution seismic stratigraphy of the late holocene succession of the submerged ombrone river delta northern tyrrhenian sea italy abstract micropalaeontological data integrated with radiocarbon dates and seismic profiles allow for a reconstruction of the late holocene evolution of the ombrone river delta area during the last 6 0 ka seven cores collected in three distinct sectors of the submerged ombrone delta were studied the delta front cores nk7 nk8 bok5 and bok10 and prodelta slope core nk4 which are primarily affected by river input and the middle shelf cores nk2 and nk3 which is progressively less influenced by riverine impact seismostratigraphic interpretation indicated that the majority of the cores intercepted the most recent deposits of the late quaternary depositional sequence unit a whose base is dated at 2 8 100 ka bp the deepest and shallowest cores reveal a record of the ancient and the most recent evolution of the succession respectively although the most complete palaeoenvironmental evidence comes from the middle shelf core nk2 and prodelta slope core nk4 the oldest sedimentary phase is indicated by benthic foraminiferal assemblages and seismic profiles of the middle shelf core and correlates with the late transgressive systems tract unit b the following phase is attributed to the highstand systems tract unit a and spans the last 3 0 ka hierarchical cluster analysis hca q mode of the benthic foraminifera in the cores resulted in 10 foraminiferal assemblages that correspond to four distinct environments with various degrees of river influence

vegetation and climate of anatolia and adjacent regions during the last glacial period abstract reinterpretation of vegetation and climatic conditions of anatolia and neighboring regions during last glacial 30 15 cal ka bp have been done using a non quantitative biomization approach based on previously published plant functional types the results suggest that the climate was cold and humid before 25 cal ka bp and also during the period 23 19 cal ka bp except east anatolia forest vegetation was 80 90 of the land cover in the northwestern anatolia and black sea coast and 50 60 along the mediterranean coast at the same period during heinrich event 2 from 25 to 23 cal ka bp steppe vegetation dominated the anatolian region due to the sudden change to very cold and arid conditions approximately between 18 and 16 cal ka bp in the late glacial during heinrich event 1 a brief interval of cold and arid conditions resulted in weaker steppe vegetation over some part of anatolia around at 15 cal ka bp suitable climatic conditions for forest vegetation prevailed across a great part of anatolia except for eastern anatolia and western iran which are highlands

suborbital timescale variability of north atlantic deep water during the past 200 000 years we generated 200 kyr long proxy records of surface and deepwater variability from a subpolar north atlantic core v29 202 enabling us to assess the linkage between surface and deepwater changes on suborbital timescales in particular we used a benthic 13c record to evaluate the deep water response to dansgaard oeschger temperature oscillations and to heinrich events times of massive iceberg delivery to the north atlantic we found that the reduction of north atlantic deep water nadw production was generally associated with cold or dropping sea surface temperatures ssts as indicated by planktonic foraminiferal assemblages the nadw contribution to the site did not drop appreciably during heinrich events h4 through h2 probably because these events followed intervals of prolonged surface cooling already characterized by low rates of nadw production by contrast nadw reduction appears to have been synchronous with h5 sst rise associated with both dansgaard oeschger oscillations and heinrich events was usually accompanied by increasing nadw strength in a few cases the nadw recovery appeared to lag the sst rise however the apparent delay is most likely an artefact of the sedimentary record low concentrations of benthic foraminifera as a result of low benthic foraminiferal abundances during stage 6 the stage 6 benthic foraminiferal 13c record is of lower resolution than the younger part of the record the stage 6 proxy records for surface hydrography nevertheless reveal millennial scale oscillations similar to those seen in stage 3 the available 13c data suggest that nadw weakened in association with the cold portions of stage 6 sst oscillations we also sought to confirm a recent study which concluded that there was little nadw variability during the peak of the last interglaciation marine oxygen isotope substage 5e eemian isotope stage 5 was marked by a trend of increasing benthic 13c in v29 202 rising 13c through isotope stage 5 is also seen in tropical surface water records and at some deep atlantic sites and may reflect the common derivation of these water masses variations of 0 5 superimposed on this rising 13c trend within substage 5e in v29 202 are so far not evident in tropical feed waters and may therefore indicate that nadw production was weaker during the late than mid eemian an electronic supplement of this material may be obtained on a diskette or anonymous ftp from kosmos agu org login to agu s ftp account using anonymous as the username and guest as the password go to the right directory by typing cd apend type ls to see what files are available type get and the name of the file to get it finally type quit to leave the system paper 95pa02089 suborbital timescale variability of north atlantic deep water during the past 200 000 years by d w oppo and s j lehman diskette may be ordered from american geophysical union 2000 florida avenue n w washington dc 20009 15 00 payment must accompany order

non linear response of the golo river system corsica france to late quaternary climatic and sea level variations disentangling the impact of climatic and sea level variations on fluvio deltaic stratigraphy is still an outstanding question in sedimentary geology and geomorphology we used the golo river system corsica france as a natural laboratory to investigate the impact of late quaternary climate and sea level oscillations on sediment flux from a catchment and on fluvio deltaic stratigraphy we applied a numerical model pacmod which calculates catchment sediment production and transport and compared modeling output to the sedimentary record of the golo alluvial coastal plain whose chronology was reinterpreted using new optical stimulated luminescence osl ages on feldspars our modeling osl ages and geomorphological results indicate that the two main phases of braidplain development in the golo alluvial coastal plain occurred during the cold dry phases of mis5 and during the late mis4 early mis3 as a consequence of high catchment erosion rates and low water discharge incision and sediment reworking occurred during sea level low stand periods mis4 and late mis3 mis2 high sediment flux pulses from the catchment outlet were generated during the lateglacial and early holocene as a result of the release of sediments previously stored within the catchment and enhanced snowmelt our results suggest a non linear response of the golo river system to climatic and eustatic changes caused by sediment storage within the catchment and geomorphological thresholds this indicates that a direct comparison between palaeo climate and stratigraphy is not possible without considering catchment sediment storage and sediment transport delays out of the catchment

neandertal extinction and the millennial scale climatic variability of ois 3 population models seeking climate as a triggering factor for the extinction of neandertals and the colonisation of europe by anatomically modern humans are contradictory due to uncertainties in the dating methods in the cultural attribution of archaeological layers and to the lack of terrestrial continuous and well dated palaeoclimatic sequences this is particularly the case for the iberian peninsula where neandertal populations seem to have survived later than in other regions of europe a review of the available palaeoclimatic evidence for ois3 of iberia reveals that this mainly consists of low resolution fragmentary ill dated and often ill interpreted records correlation between palaeoenvironmental sequences from two images pollen rich deep sea cores and archaeological data from western europe the electronic archive of the radiocarbon dates is available at qsr website http www elsevier nl locate quascirev indicates that aurignacian moderns colonised france and the north of iberia at the onset of the h4 event during this cold episode a probable contraction of neandertal populations is recorded in southern iberia where no aurignacian settlements are detected such a decline in population density is correlated with the particular desert steppe like environments made up of artemisia chenopodiaceae and ephedra characterising the h4 of this area while reducing the size of neandertal populations this inhospitable environment may have favoured their persistence in this region mainly exploiting herds of herbivores adapted to graminees rich grasslands the aurignacian moderns were probably not interested in colonising these arid mediterranean biotopes and did that only after the h4 event

modelling tempo spatial signatures of heinrich events influence of the climatic background state abstract different sea surface temperature sst reconstructions for the last glacial maximum are applied to a hybrid coupled climate model the resulting oceanic states are perturbed by north atlantic meltwater inputs in order to simulate the effect of heinrich events on the atlantic thermohaline circulation thc and sst the experiments show that both the atlantic sst signature of the meltwater event and the time span of thc recovery strongly depend on the climatic background state data model comparison reveals that the overall spatial signature of sst anomalies is captured much better in the glacial meltwater experiments than in an analogous experiment under present day conditions in particular a breakdown of the modern thc would induce a much stronger temperature drop in high northern latitudes than did heinrich events during the ice age moreover our results suggest that the present day circulation can settle into a stable off mode whereas the glacial thc was mono stable mono stability may serve as an explanation for the recovery of the thc after heinrich event shutdowns during the last glaciation

variation of deepwater convection in the western mediterranean sea gulf of lion during the last 28 ka abstract the oxygen and carbon isotopes record from fossil foraminifera in deep sea sediments are commonly used as proxy for global thermohaline and productivity changes the last 28 ka record of oxygen and carbon isotopes are characterized by a slow transfer of isotopic signal from surface to deep mediterranean at the beginning of heinrich events h2 and h1 and during the bolling allerod these changes in deep waters properties occur some 180 years later indicating a decrease of ventilation in the beginning of these events the slowing of the thermohaline convection is more marked in the early holocene characterized by less than 500 years of lag time between the isotopic signals

marine mollusc exploitation as evidenced by the gorham s cave gibraltar excavations 1998 2005 the middle upper palaeolithic transition abstract there is increasing evidence that humans have exploited intertidal and shallow water species for much longer than has been previously considered and certainly not restricted to anatomically modern humans amh one of the principal reasons for the lack of evidence up till recently has been a lack of consideration for the temporal and spatial backdrop to such activities throughout human evolution in particular related to changes in sea level during the pleistocene bailey et al 2008 this study reports on the marine molluscs excavated from gorham s cave between 1998 and 2005 focussing in particular between levels iii and iv corresponding to the upper amh and middle palaeolithic neanderthals respectively given that gorham s cave was never more than approximately 2 km away from the coastline it still preserves evidence of exploitation of marine molluscs for food by neanderthals and in this article the data obtained are compared across the middle upper palaeolithic transition the results obtained suggest a high degree of consistency in the mode of marine mollusc exploitation between levels and comparisons with extant communities supports the contention that marine molluscs were exploited in direct proportion to their relative abundance and accessibility patterns in shell size distributions for some of the main species exploited are discussed as are possible anthropic valve selection and the marine climatic signals that can be extracted from such data the main difference that emerges between upper and middle palaeolithic levels was a lack of evidence of collection for decoration in middle palaeolithic levels but even here the relatively small size of the level iv sample precluded totally excluding this possibility based only on absence of evidence

turbiditic levee deposition in response to climate changes the var sedimentary ridge ligurian sea abstract article history received 31 may 2010received in revised form 25 october 2010accepted 25 october 2010available online 31 october 2010communicated by d j w piperkeywords last deglaciationoverbank depositsturbidity currentsvar sedimentary ridgeligurian sea the var turbiditic system located in the ligurian sea se france is an intermediate mud sand rich system theparticularityofthevardeep seafanisitssinglechannelwithabruptbendsanditsasymmetricandhyper developed levee on the right hand side the var sedimentary ridge long term sediment accumulation on thevar sedimentary ridge makes this an ideal target for studying the link between onshore climate change anddeep sea turbidite stratigraphy this paper focuses on the establishment of the rst detailed stratigraphy ofthe levee which is used to analyze the timing of overbank deposition throughout the last deglaciation mainresults indicate that high variability in turbidite frequencies and deposition rates along the var sedimentaryridgearedeterminedbytwomainparameters 1 theprogressivedecreaseoftheleveeheightcontrollingtheabilityofturbiditycurrentstospilloutfromthechannelontothelevee and2 climaticvariationsaffectingthedrainage basin in particular changes in glacial condition since late last glacial maximum to early holocene compared to other deep water areas this study con rms the ability of turbiditic systems to record pastclimatic events on millennial timescales and underlines the in uence of european deglaciation on theobserved decrease in turbidite activity in the var canyon the presence of a very narrow continental shelf andasingle largechannel leveesystemmakesthevarsedimentaryridgeauniqueexampleofclimate controlledturbiditic accumulations 2010 elsevier b v all rights reserved

melting history of antarctica during the past 60 000 years marked changes in the surface water hydrology of the southern ocean during the past 60 kyr are revealed by a detailed comparison of the oxygen isotopic composition of planktonic and benthic foraminifera from sediment cores and the surface water temperature estimated by a transfer function derived from the distribution of diatoms in the same sediments from 35 to 17 kyr bp the southern ocean polar front was covered by a melt water lid containing a significant contribution from melting icebergs calved from antarctic ice shelves these icebergs may have originated from a succession of surges of the ice shelves

thermohaline instability in the north atlantic during meltwater events stable isotope and ice rafted detritus records from core so75 26kl portuguese margin a benthic isotope record has been measured for core so75 26kl from the upper portuguese margin 1099 m water depth to monitor the response of thermohaline overturn in the north atlantic during heinrich events evaluating benthic 18o in ts diagrams in conjunction with equilibrium c fractionation implies that advection of mediterranean outflow water mow to the upper portuguese margin was significantly reduced during the last glacial 15 compared to 30 today the benthic isotope record along core so75 26kl therefore primarily monitors variability of glacial north atlantic conveyor circulation the 14c accelerator mass spectrometry ages of 13 54 07 and 20 46 12 ka for two ice rafted detritus ird layers in the upper core section and an interpolated age of 36 1 ka for a third ird layer deeper in the core are in the range of published 14c ages for heinrich events h1 h2 and h4 marked depletion of benthic 13c by 0 7 1 1 during the heinrich events suggests reduced thermohaline overturn in the north atlantic during these events close similarity between meltwater patterns inferred from planktonic 18o at site 609 and ventilation patterns inferred from benthic 13c in core so75 26kl implies coupling between thermohaline overturn and surface forcing as is also suggested by ocean circulation models benthic 13c starts to decrease 1 5 2 5 kyr before heinrich events hl and h4 fully increased values are reached 1 5 3 kyr after the events indicating a successive slowdown of thermohaline circulation well before the events and resumption of the conveyor s full strength well after the events benthic 13c changes in the course of the heinrich events show subtle maxima and minima suggesting oscillatory behavior of thermohaline circulation a distinct feature of thermohaline instability in numerical models inferrred gradual spin up of thermohaline circulation after hl and h4 is in contrast to abrupt wanning in the north atlantic region that is indicated by sudden increases in greenland ice core 18o and in marine faunal records from the northern north atlantic from this we infer that thermohaline circulation can explain only in part the rapid climatic oscillations seen in glacial sections of the greenland ice core record

holocene atmosphere ocean interactions records from greenland and the aegean sea we compare paleoclimate proxy records from central greenland and the aegean sea to offer new insights into the causes timing and mechanisms of holocene atmosphere ocean interactions a direct atmospheric link is revealed between aegean sea surface temperature sst and high latitude climate the major holocene events in our proxies of aegean sst and winter spring intensity of the siberian high gisp2 k record follow an 2300 year spacing recognised also in the 14c record and in worldwide holocene glacier advance phases suggesting a solar modulation of climate we argue that the primary atmospheric response involved decadal centennial fluctuations in the meridional pressure gradient driving aegean sst events via changes in the strength duration and or frequency of northerly polar continental air outbreaks over the basin the observed natural variability should be accounted for in predictions of future climate change and our timeframe for the aegean climate events in addition provides an independent chronostratigraphic argument to middle eastern archaeological studies

tyrrhenian sea tephrochronology of the oxygen isotope record for the past 60 000 years abstract a chronology of the marine oxygen isotope record of the past 60 ka is proposed by correlating eight marine ash layers with terrestrial volcanic deposits dated by the 14c and or k ar methods detailed oxygen isotope analyses were made on the planktonic foraminifera of three cores collected in the central tyrrhenian sea the origin of the ash layers was determined by major and trace elements analyses then the major pyroclastic terrestrial deposits were sampled and analysed in order to provide land sea correlations two ash layers occurred during the warm event that followed the first step of the deglaciation and which was dated at 12 6 0 5 ka b p another ash layer is present near the last glacial maximum that we have dated at 17 5 0 3 ka b p during isotopic stage 3 five ash layers were recognized and dated which allowed us to assign ages to the isotopically light oxygen peaks warmer interstadials at 31 1 5 ka and 33 4 1 6 ka denekamp at 37 5 2 ka hengelo and successively at 49 2 ka 52 4 2 2 ka 57 2 2 ka and 60 5 2 2 ka moershoofd complex

calcareous plankton response to orbital and millennial scale climate changes across the middle pleistocene in the western mediterranean abstract the paleoenvironmental conditions through mis 15 9 at the mediterranean ocean drilling program odp site 975 were interpreted by high resolution study of calcareous plankton assemblages compared with available 18o and 13c records and high resolution paleoclimate proxies from the atlantic ocean sea surface temperatures ssts have been estimated from planktonic foraminiferal assemblages using the artificial neural networks method calcareous plankton varied dominantly on a glacial interglacial scale as testified by the sst record foraminiferal diversity total coccolith abundance and changes in warm water calcareous nannofossil taxa a general increase in foraminiferal diversity and of total coccolith abundance is observed during interglacials warmest ssts are reached during mis 11 while mis 12 and mis 10 represent the coldest intervals of the studied record during mis 12 one of the most extreme glacials of the last million years occurrence of globorotalia inflata and of neogloboquadrinids indicates a shoaling of the interface between atlantic inflowing and mediterranean outflowing waters among calcareous nannofossils the distribution of gephyrocapsa margereli gephyrocapsa muellerae 4 m also supports a reduced atlantic mediterranean exchange during mis 12 superimposed on glacial interglacial variability six short term coolings are recognized during mis 12 and 10 which appear comparable in their distribution and amplitude to the heinrich type events documented in the atlantic ocean in the same interval during these h type events neogloboquadrina pachyderma s and g margereli g muellerae 4 m increase as a response to the enhanced inflow of cold atlantic water into the mediterranean via the strait of gibraltar mediterranean surface water hydrography appears to have been most severely affected at termination v during the h type event ht4 possibly as a response to a large volume of atlantic meltwater inflow via the strait of gibraltar and or to freshwater terrigenous input deriving from local mountain glaciers three additional sst coolings are recorded through mis 14 16 but these are not well correlated with heinrich type events documented in the atlantic ocean in the same interval during these cooling episodes only the subpolar turborotalita quinqueloba increases these results highlight the sensitive response of the mediterranean basin to millennial scale climate variations related to northern hemisphere ice sheet instability and support the hypothesis that the tight connection between high latitude climate dynamics and mediterranean sea surface water features can be traced through the middle pleistocene

detrital carbonate rich sediments northwestern labrador sea implications for ice sheet dynamics and iceberg rafting heinrich events in the north atlantic much of the bed of the central and eastern sectors of the laurentide ice sheet was underlain by paleozoic carbonates we propose that pulses of detrital carbonate rich sediments in two cores from the northwestern labrador sea reflect episodes when an ice stream from the hudson strait extended to the shelf break and delivered sediment onto the slope and deep sea plain atomic mass spectroscopy 14 c dating of planktonic foraminifera in cores hu75 009 iv 55 2 4 km water depth and hu87 033 009 1 4 km water depth and 150 km north northwest indicates that the youngest event occurred between ca 14 and 15 ka and another occurred between 19 and 21 ka the two carbonate intervals in northwestern labrador sea cores are coeval with heinrich events 1 and 2 in the eastern north atlantic lat 45 50 n long 20 w where they are associated with an increase in lithic fragments and a drastic reduction in the numbers of foraminifera these changes have been linked with the massive production of icebergs associated with ice sheet surges our evidence indicates that heinrich events 1 and 2 are associated with the dynamics of the hudson strait ice stream and denote considerable glaciological instability

the climate in western europe during the last glacial interglacial cycle derived from pollen and insect remains using the pollen sequence of la grande pile xx france we review problems with the application of transfer functions in paleoclimatic reconstructions one of them is to find modern analogues for the herbaceous vegetation of the cold periods we propose a method to distinguish between steppes and tundra vegetations for which the moderns are only partial analogues of the glacial periods another method to solve these problems is based on constraining by insect remains the two methods provide coherent reconstructions the results are also compared with other paleodata there is a good correlation with the six cold heinrich events between 70 and 15 ka b p a cooling event during the eemian period marked by high percentages of taxas at about 125 ka b p needs still to be correlated with high resolution ocean and ice cores

late quaternary stage 2 and 3 meltwater and heinrich events northwest labrador sea two major meltwater events are documented in cores from the nw labrador sea one occurred ca 20 000 14c yr b p in association with deposition of a major detrital carbonate unit both prior to and after this event 18o values of near surface planktonic foraminifera were 4 5 indicating fully enriched glacial values a younger event ca 14 000 14 c yr b p is characterized by a dramatic change in 18o from 4 5 to 2 0 and coincided with the retreat of ice from the outer se baffin shelf possibly into hudson strait these meltwater events coincide with heinrich h layers 1 and 2 from north atlantic sediments the 14 000 14c yr b p meltwater event indicates that the eastern margin of the laurentide ice sheet also underwent rapid retreat at approximately the same time as other ice sheet margins around the ne north atlantic a third major detrital carbonate event at the base of hu87 033 009 possibly correlative with heinrich layer 3 occurred ca 33 960 675 14 c yr b p however this is older than the accepted date for h 3 of 27 000 14c yr b p and may be h 4

reflection of scandinavian ice sheet fluctuations in norwegian sea sediments during the past 150 000 years the record of glacier fluctuations in western scandinavia as reconstructed from continental data has been correlated with records of ice rafted detritus ird from well dated sediment cores from the norwegian sea covering the past 150 000 yr b p the input of ird into the ocean is used as a proxy for ice sheet advances onto the shelf and thus for the calibration of a glaciation curve the marine results generally support land based reconstructions of glacier fluctuations and improve the time control on glacial advances the saalian ice sheet decayed very rapidly approximately 125 000 yr b p in the early weichselian a minor but significant ird maximum indicates the presence of icebergs in isotope substage 5b especially between 95 000 and 83 000 yr b p reduced amounts of calcareous nannofossils indicate that surface waters were influenced by meltwater discharges during isotope substages 5d and 5b an extensive build up of inland ice began again during isotope stage 4 but maximum glaciation was reached only in early stage 3 58 000 53 000 yr b p marine sediments have minimum carbonate content indicating strong dilution by lithogenic ice rafted material generally the ird accumulation rate was considerably higher in stages 4 2 than in stage 5 a marked peak in ird accumulation rates from 47 000 to 43 000 yr b p correlates well with a second middle weichselian ice sheet advance dated by the laschamp olby paleomagnetic event minimum ice extent during the alesund interstade 38 500 32 500 yr b p and several glacial oscillations during the late weichselian are also seen in the ird record of several late weichselian glacial oscillations on the shelf at least four correspond to the north atlantic heinrich events ice sheet behavior was either coupled or linked by external forcing during these events whereas internal ice sheet mechanisms may account for the noncoherent fluctuations

variations in terrigenous dilution in western mediterranean sea pelagic sediments in response to climate change during the last glacial cycle hemipelagic intervals in four giant calypso piston cores from the balearic abyssal plain western mediterranean sea were studied in order to determine fluctuations in the supply of terrigenous sediments to the basin during the last 130 000 years and possible climatic modulation of terrigenous sediment and particle flux carbonate records from hemipelagic intervals in these cores display distinct atlantic type cycles where glacial periods show on average 20 lower calcium carbonate contents than interglacial period equivalents the decrease in calcium carbonate seen during glacials may be the result of increased dilution by terrigenous aeolian and fluvial particles derived from aeolian and or fluvial sources higher glacial aeolian particle fluxes to the western mediterranean sea may have been caused by changes in the prevailing atmospheric conditions resulting in drier and colder climatic conditions in the source areas and more frequent and intense outbreaks of dust transport the colder and drier climatic conditions in combination with a lowered sea level would allow rivers to dump their sediment load closer to the shelf edge promoting enhanced fluvial input into the basin besides significant calcium carbonate variations that correlate with glacial interglacial cycles several short term abrupt changes in the calcium carbonate content are recorded which appear coincident with enhanced magnetic susceptibility values especially the events within marine isotope stage mis 3 the timing of these short term events may be linked with cooling events in the north atlantic particularly heinrich events and cold events within mis 5 these short term trends may possibly be explained by increased terrigenous particle transport due to drier and colder climate in the mediterranean borderlands our results further show that about 90 of the sedimentary sequence of the balearic abyssal plain consists of turbidites generally these appear not to have caused significant erosion and an almost complete continuous time stratigraphy is present in the intercalated hemipelagic intervals

eastern mediterranean surface water temperatures and d18o composition during deposition of sapropels in the late quaternary 0indices and d 18 o of planktonic foraminifer calcite d 18 ofc across late pleistocene sapropel intervals show that d 18 ofc decreased between 1 and 4 6 and sst increased between 0 7 and 6 7 c maximal d 18 oseawater depletion of eastern mediterranean surface waters at the transition is between 0 5 and 3 0 and in all but one case exceeded the depletion seen in a western mediterranean core the depletion in d 18 oseawater is most pronounced at sapropel bases in agreement with an initial sudden input of monsoon derived freshwater most sapropels coincide with warming trends of sst the density decrease by initial freshwater input and continued warming of the sea surface pooled fresh water in the surface layer and prohibited deep convection down to ageing deep water emplaced during cold and arid glacial conditions an exception to this pattern is glacial sapropel s6 its largest d 18 oseawater depletion 3 is almost matched by the depletion in the western mediterranean sea and it is accompanied by surface water cooling following an initially rapid warming phase a second period of significant isotopic depletion is in isotope stage 6 at the 150 kyr insolation maximum while not expressed as a sapropel due to cold sst it is in accord with a strengthened monsoon in the southern catchment index terms 1055 geochemistry organic geochemistry 1620 global change climate dynamics 3309 4267 oceanography general paleoceanography 9604 information related to geologic time cenozoic keywords mediterranean sea sapropels sea surface temperatures oxygen isotopes quaternary citation emeis k c et al eastern mediterranean surface water temperatures and d 18 o composition during deposition of sapropels

vegetation dynamics and climate during the deglaciation in the south adriatic basin from a marine record the pollen record of a marine core in the south adriatic basin that is radiometrically dated and correlated to the global climate variation by the oxygen isotope curve documents the vegetation changes which occurred around that basin since 17 ka thousands year bp during the end of the last glacial maximum at 16 7 15 ka the altitudinal range is occupied at low and high elevations by a desert and a semi desert dominated by the shrubby sage brush artemisia and at middle elevation by a grass steppe with stands of pine trees where soil conditions are favourable during the deglaciation between 15 and 10 ka a steppe forest with a succession of deciduous trees appears at middle elevation within the grass steppe but its development is interrupted by a set back a re expansion of the semi desert which is coeval with the younger dryas of higher european latitude the holocene is identified by the spread of the mixed deciduous and mediterranean forests which culminates between 8 6 and 6 ka during the end of the boreal and the atlantic chronozones while the most recent sapropel is formed in the deep marine basins of the eastern mediterranean including the south adriatic one between the cold and arid glacial maximum and the warmest and wettest climate optimum during the atlantic chronozone this vegetation dynamics is constrained by the availability of moisture at low elevation by temperature at high elevation and by a combination of both at middle elevation

quantitative interpretation of fossil pollen spectra dissimilarity coefficients and the method of modern analogs abstract dissimilarity coefficients measure the difference between multivariate samples and provide a quantitative aid to the identification of modern analogs for fossil pollen samples how eight coefficients responded to differences among modern pollen samples from eastern north america was tested these coefficients represent three different classes 1 unweighted coefficients that are most strongly influenced by large valued pollen types 2 equal weight coefficients that weight all pollen types equally but can be too sensitive to variations among rare types and 3 signal0to noise coefficients that are intermediate in their weighting of pollen types the studies with modern pollen allowed definition of critical values for each coefficient which when not exceeded indicate that two pollen samples originate from the same vegetation region dissimilarity coefficients were used to compare modern and fossil pollen samples and modern samples so similar to fossil samples were found that most of three late quaternary pollen diagrams could be reconstructed by substituting modern samples for fossil samples when the coefficients indicated that the fossil spectra had no modern analogs then the reconstructed diagrams did not match all aspects of the originals no modern analogs existed for samples from before 9300 yr b p at kirchner marsh minnesota and from before 11 000 yr b p at wintergreen lake michigan but modern analogs existed for almost all holocene samples from these two sites and brandreth bog new york

temperature and salinity records of the tyrrhenian sea during the last 18 000 years abstract we have used the modern analogue technique to derive sea surface temperature sst records of the last 18 000 years from two well dated deep sea cores recovered in the tyrrhenian sea results show two major cooling events synchronous with the european and north atlantic oldest and younger dryas events a later cooling of lower amplitude is observed between about 8000 and 4500 yr bp tyrrhenian ssts were similar to those of the upper holocene only during the bolling allerod event and at the beginning of the holocene we compared the sst and the planktonic foraminiferal oxygen isotope records to estimate the surface salinity variations our reconstruction shows that salinity decreased in the tyrrhenian sea during the three cold events whereas high ssts correlate with high salinities during most of the last 18 000 years tyrrhenian sea salinity variations were similar to those of the north atlantic ocean near the entrance of the mediterranean sea the salinity gradient between the two basins was thus constant indicating that the western mediterranean circulation pattern and the freshwater budget were not significantly different from the modern one the case was however different during the middle holocene when the strong salinity decrease associated with the sapropel deposit in the eastern mediterranean basin had no equivalent in the north atlantic ocean this peculiar event can only be explained by a local climatic change and an increase of precipitation

the trouble with seeing double 1 the recently discovered phase transition for mg fe sio3 from perovskite to post perovskite structure for pressure temperature conditions in the lowermost mantle provides a plausible mechanism to explain a several percent shear velocity increase detected at the top of the d region in many regions the phase transition has a large positive clapeyron slope and given the likely presence of a strong temperature increase just above the core mantle boundary d conditions may reintersect the phase boundary resulting in a thin layer of perovskite below a lens of post perovskite separated by a few percent velocity decrease detection of such a velocity decrease is shown to be much harder than detection of the shallower velocity increase due to fundamental properties of seismic waves purported observations in support of a double discontinuity are re evaluated based on waveform modeling waveform stacking procedures are required for reliable detection of the lower half of any double crossing of the phase boundary

provenance of icebergs during heinrich event 3 and the contrast to their sources during other heinrich episodes the sources of ice rafted debris ird from heinrich layer 3 h 3 in the north atlantic were studied by means of pb isotopic analyses of single and multiple grain samples of ice rafted feldspars from core v28 82 49 27 n 22 16 w pb ratios of h 3 grains point to multiple continental sources and are similar to the isotopic composition of the background sediment this similarity as well as previous observations about the age and the sr and nd isotopic composition of the fine fraction of h 3 in cores of the same area are all consistent with the hypothesis that in the eastern north atlantic along the latitude band of maximum ird deposition 40 50 n h 3 is a product of foraminifera dissolution and or low productivity in contrast analyses of composite samples of h 1 h 2 h 4 and h 5 plot in 206pb 204pb versus 206pb 204pb coordinates along the churchill province line supporting the premise that the hudson strait was the major pathway of iceberg drainage during these four events since an advance of the laurentide ice sheet during h 3 is demonstrated by increases in detrital carbonate at the level of h 3 in cores from the western north atlantic the results obtained here suggest that if indeed that advance took place the iceberg discharge melted mostly in the western basin

the north atlantic atmosphere sea surface 14c gradient during the younger dryas climatic event abstract we attempt to quantify the 14c difference between the atmosphere and the north atlantic surface during a prominent climatic period of the last deglaciation the younger dryas event yd our working hypothesis is that the north atlantic may have experienced a measurable change in 14c reservoir age due to large changes of the polar front position and variations in the mode and rate of north atlantic deep water nadw production we dated contemporaneous samples of terrestrial plant remains and sea surface carbonates in order to evaluate the past atmosphere sea surface 14c gradient we selected terrestrial vegetal macrofossils and planktonic foraminifera neogloboquadrina pachyderma left coiling mixed with the same volcanic tephra the vedde ash bed which occurred during the yd and which can be recognized in north european lake sediments and north atlantic deep sea sediments based on ams ages from two norwegian sites we obtained about 10 300 yr bp for the atmospheric 14c age of the volcanic eruption foraminifera from four north atlantic deep sea cores selected for their high sedimentation rates 10 cm kyr 1 were dated by ams 21 samples for each core the raw 14c ages assigned to the ash layer peak is significantly older than the 14c age obtained on land part of this discrepancy is due to bioturbation which is shown by numerical modelling nevertheless after correction of a bioturbation bias the mean 14c age obtained on the planktonic foraminifera is still about 11 000 11 100 yr bp the atmosphere sea surface 14c difference was roughly 700 800 yr during the yd whereas today it is 400 500 yr a reduced advection of surface waters to the north atlantic and the presence of sea ice are identified as potential causes of the high 14c reservoir age during the yd

mediterranean vegetation lake levels and palaeoclimate at the last glacial maximum the apparent conflict between pollen evidence for widespread artemisia steppe1 6 implying semi arid conditions and geomorphological evidence for high lake levels4 7 11 has produced controversy about the ice age palaeoclimate of the mediterranean region here we use a water balance model12 to predict catchment runoff and a biome model13 to predict vegetation type to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment around lake loannina a type locality for the northern mediterranean region we show that both sets of evidence are compatible with a summer dry winter wet regime with seasonal temperature anomalies similar to those predicted by atmospheric model simulations of the last glacial maximum14 18 the drying effect of the cold north atlantic ocean may have been counteracted in winter by increased storm frequency under a southward shifted jet stream as shown by several atmospheric models16 18

millennial scale iceberg discharges in the irminger basin during the last glacial period relationship with the heinrich events and environmental settings high resolution records of coarse lithic content and oxygen isotope have been obtained in a piston core from the irminger basin the last glacial period is characterized by numerous periods of increased iceberg discharges originating partly from iceland and corresponding to millennial scale instabilities of the coastal ice sheets and ice shelves in the nordic area a comparison with midlatitude sediment cores shows that ice rafted material corresponding to the heinrich events was deposited synchronously from 40 to 60 n there are thus two oscillating systems every 5 10 kyr massive iceberg armadas are released from large continental ice caps whereas more frequent instabilities of the coastal ice sheets in the high latitude regions occur every 1 2 3 8 kyr at the time of the heinrich events the synchroneity of the response from all the northern hemisphere ice sheets attests the existence of strong interactions between the two systems

environmental and climatic changes in the central mediterranean sea siculo tunisian strait during the last 30 ka based on dinoflagellate cyst and planktonic foraminifera assemblages abstract a high resolution micropalaeontological study of the core md 04 2797 cq recovered in the sicilian tunisian strait provides insights into the paleoclimatic history of the mediterranean sea at the transition between the western and eastern basin over the last 30 ka using the analysis of dinoflagellate cyst and planktonic foraminiferal assemblages we reconstruct the paleoenvironmental changes that took place in this region high abundances of cold temperate dinocyst species nematosphaeropsis labyrinthus spiniferites elongatus bitectatodinium tepikiense and the polar planktonic foraminifera neogloboquadrina pachyderma left coiling reveal three major cooling events synchronous with north atlantic henrich events 1 and 2 h1 and h2 and the european and north atlantic younger dryas event during the holocene the presence of warm dinocyst species spiniferites mirabilis and impagidinium aculeatum and planktonic foraminifera globorotalia inflata and globigerinoides ruber reflects a significant increase of sea surface temperatures in the western mediterranean basin but a full warming was not recorded until 1500 years after the onset of the holocene moreover our results show that the holocene was interrupted by at least four brief cooling events at 9 2 ka 8 ka 7 ka and 2 2 ka cal bp which may be correlated to climatic events recorded in greenland ice cores and in the atlantic ocean

abrupt climate change sea surface salinity and paleoproductivity in the western mediterranean sea gulf of lion during the last 28 kyr abstract the planktonic foraminiferal record of core md99 2346 gulf of lion shows a decrease of sea surface temperature sst at the time of heinrich event h2 24 23 5 cal kyr bp younger dryas and during the early to middle holocene these events were associated with a decrease of surface water salinity the salinity lowering events were similar and synchronous to those recorded in the north atlantic ocean during h1 h2 and the younger dryas they can be explained by a decrease in the salinity of the atlantic surface water entering the mediterranean through the strait of gibraltar this result indicates that the mediterranean sea remained a concentration basin and that its freshwater budget was not significantly different from the modern conditions at the time of these low salinity events higher abundances of the benthic foraminifer cibicidoides pachydermus at the time of heinrich events h2 and h1 may result from a seasonal and more pulsed supply of labile organic matter a high abundance of intermediate and deep infaunal taxa globobulimina spp during the warm bolling allerod period is interpreted as a result of an increased lateral advection of organic matter to the deeper environments of the gulf of lion surface water productivity as reflected by the organic flux to the benthic ecosystem reaches a maximum during the cold younger dryas period it is possible that cold conditions at the time of the younger dryas have allowed an enhanced vertical mixing and deep water cascading in the gulf of lion this may have resulted in an increase of primary and export production this putative intensification of deep water cascading would have occurred after the sustained rise of the global sea level from 16 to 12 5 cal kyr bp the deglacial sea level rise may also have played an important role in favouring the downslope movement of dense shelf water enriched in organic matter originating from the early rhone delta complex the conditions during the holocene were characterized by a low surface productivity and oligotrophic environment similar to the modern situation

linking onshore offshore sediment dispersal in the golo source to sink system corsica france during the late quaternary abstract spatial and temporal relationships between climate tectonics and sea level have a primary control on sediment transport storage and deposition in onshore and offshore depositional environments although many simplistic models have tried to predict onshore system behavior and sediment partitioning between onshore and offshore depositional environments in response to changes in these boundary conditions the alluvial response to changes in external forcings coupled with autogenic processes can be highly complex and unpredictable the golo source to sink system on the eastern margin of the island of corsica in the mediterranean sea provides an ideal laboratory to study sediment partitioning in both onshore and offshore realms the terrestrial part of the system consists of the golo river which debouches onto a narrow shelf 10 km which in turn passes into a narrow 45 km confined basin known as the corsica trough dominated by submarine fan deposits estimates on timing of late quaternary fluvial aggradation are compared with timing of sediment storage on the shelf and on the basin floor fan the results indicate that onshore deposition and storage of sediment in the fluvial system may occur both during sea level highstand transgression and lowstand volume calculations from the alluvial record show that onshore storage is relatively low 13 relative to the overall sediment budget comparing estimated deposition rates with a sediment prediction model further suggests that deep sea fan sedimentation rates at times may be up to 50 higher or 25 lower than what is being supplied by the river indicating temporary storage and release of sediment on the shelf on average however there is good agreement between predicted and calculated sediment volumes in the golo system the study demonstrates the value of investigating the entire source to sink system in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of sediment dispersal between onshore and offshore depositional environments over 104 year timescales observations suggest that alternating periods of aggradation and degradation of the golo river are controlled by system thresholds controlled from within the catchment comparison with climate proxy data and timing of major alluviation events elsewhere in the mediterranean region supports the notion that each source to sink system has a unique threshold that must be exceeded to induce regional aggradation and subsequent terrace formation the same is also inferred for timing of sediment dispersal to the deep sea environment in addition preservation of onshore sediment is controlled by local factors such as uplift rate and its impact on the aggradational response it is therefore expected that the onshore record may be diachronous on local regional and global scales making detailed correlation difficult except for the most extreme events finally stream incision rates appear to be one to two orders of magnitude higher than regional hinterland denudation rates indicating that the golo system is characterized by increasing landscape relief

evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250 kyr ice core record recent results1 2 from two ice cores drilled in central greenland have revealed large abrupt climate changes of at least regional extent during the late stages of the last glaciation suggesting that climate in the north atlantic region is able to reorganize itself rapidly perhaps even within a few decades here we present a detailed stable isotope record for the full length of the greenland ice core project summit ice core extending over the past 250 kyr according to a calculated timescale we find that climate instability was not confined to the last glaciation but appears also to have been marked during the last interglacial as explored more fully in a companion paper3 and during the previous saale holstein glacial cycle this is in contrast with the extreme stability of the holocene suggesting that recent climate stability may be the exception rather than the rule the last interglacial seems to have lasted longer than is implied by the deep sea specmap record4 in agreement with other land based observations5 6 we suggest that climate instability in the early part of the last interglacial may have delayed the melting of the saalean ice sheets in america and eurasia perhaps accounting for this discrepancy

benthic δ18o records in the north atlantic over the last glacial period 60 10 kyr evidence for brine formation four high resolution benthic isotope records from north atlantic and south norwegian sea cores are compared for the past 60 kyr the benthic records show light 18o peaks simultaneously to or following the heinrich events the amplitude of these light peaks varies between 1 for the most northern core enam93 21 and 0 35 for the deep north atlantic cores the high 18o gradient between the north atlantic cores and the pacific core v19 30 suggests a regional influence of 18o depleted meltwater to deeper depth during periods of iceberg discharges the most likely process for transferring 18o depleted meltwater to depth is sea ice formation induced by brine formation during heinrich events 4 and 3 this mecanism was of major importance compared to open ocean convection in the southern norwegian sea and at the northern boundaries of the atlantic leading to intermediate to deep water formation other 18o excursions appearing in all the records point to the contribution of both brine formation and global changes in the 18o of seawater associated with the heinrich event periods

changes in sea surface hydrology associated with heinrich event 4 in the north atlantic ocean between 40 and 60 n abstract the changes in distribution of sea surface temperature and salinity in the north atlantic between 40 and 60 n were reconstructed for the time interval between 40 and 30 kyr bp which includes the large iceberg discharge event associated with the deposition of heinrich layer 4 we found that the meltwater input during deposition of heinrich layer 4 resulted in a 1 2 kyr temperature decrease of about 2 c and a salinity decrease in the range of 1 5 3 5 between 40 and 50 n sites above 50 n did not experience significant salinity variations a much larger area was affected by the reduction in sea surface temperature the amplitude of the sea surface temperature shift was however much smaller than the atmospheric temperature changes over greenland at gisp and grip sites

enhanced aridity and atmospheric high pressure stability over the western mediterranean during the north atlantic cold events of the past 50 k y multiproxy paleoenvironmental records pollen and planktonic isotope from ocean drilling program site 976 alboran sea document rapid ocean and climate variations during the last glacial that follow the dansgaard oeschger climate oscillations seen in the greenland ice core records thus suggesting a close link of the mediterranean climate swings with north atlantic climates continental conditions rapidly oscillated through cold arid and warm wet conditions in the course of stadial interstadial climate jumps at the time of heinrich events i e maximum meltwater flux to the north atlantic western mediterranean marine microflora and microfauna show rapid cooling correlated with increasing continental dryness enhanced aridity conceivably points to prolonged wintertime stability of atmospheric high pressure systems over the southwestern mediterranean in conjunction with cooling of the north atlantic

evidence for massive discharges of icebergs into the north atlantic ocean during the last glacial period sediments in the north atlantic ocean contain a series of layers that are rich in ice rafted debris and unusually poor in foraminifera1 here we present evidence that the most recent six of these heinrich layers deposited between 14 000 and 70 000 years ago record marked decreases in sea surface temperature and salinity decreases in the flux of planktonic foraminifera to the sediments and short lived massive discharges of icebergs originating in eastern canada the path of the icebergs clearly marked by the presence of ice rafted detrital carbonate can be traced for more than 3 000 km a remarkable distance attesting to extreme cooling of surface waters and enormous amounts of drifting ice the cause of these extreme events is puzzling they may reflect repeated rapid advances of the laurentide ice sheet perhaps associated with reductions in air temperatures yet temperature records from greenland ice cores appear to exhibit only a weak corresponding signal moreover the 5 10 000 yr intervals between the events are inconsistent with milankovitch orbital periodicities raising the question of what the ultimate cause of the postulated cooling may have been

geomagnetic field control of 14c production over the last 80 ky implications for the radiocarbon time scale we have used a recent estimate of the geomagnetic dipole field strength over the last 80 ky to examine the extent to which changes in geomagnetic field intensity have affected the radiocarbon time scale the magnetic record was converted into a 14c production signal which was then used to produce a synthetic atmospheric 14c record using a two box model for the carbon cycle this calibration suggests that the geomagnetic field has been the main factor governing the production of cosmogenic 14c atoms over the period of time considered and that 14c changes due to other causes such as climatic changes have been of lesser importance the results indicate that the radiocarbon ages are 2 to 3 ky younger than true age in the interval 18 40 ky b p in good agreement with recent u th and 14c age comparisons moreover the results predict that a negligible difference between true and 14c ages should be observed around 45 50 ky

changes in east atlantic deepwater circulation over the last 30 000 years eight time slice reconstructions using 95 epibenthic 13c records eight time slices were reconstructed to trace the distribution of east atlantic deepwater and intermediate water masses over the last 30 000 years our results show that there have been three distinct modes of deepwater circulation near the stage 3 2 boundary the origin of north atlantic deep water nadw was similar to today mode 1 however after late stage 3 the source region of the nadw end member shifted from the norwegian greenland sea to areas south of iceland mode 2 a reduced nadw flow persisted during the last glacial maximum with constant preformed 13c values the nutrient content of nadw increased markedly near the azores fracture zone from north to south probably because of the mixing of upwelled antarctic bottom water aabw from below which then advected with much higher flux rates into the northeast atlantic later the spread of glacial meltwater over the north atlantic led to a marked short term ventilation minimum below 1800 m about 13 500 14c years ago mode 3 the formation of nadw recommenced abruptly north of iceland 12 800 12 500 years ago and reached a volume approaching that of the holocene in the younger dryas 10 800 10 350 years b p another short term shutdown of deepwater formation followed between 10 200 and 9 600 years b p linked to a further major meltwater pulse into the atlantic each renewal of deepwater formation led to a marked release of fossil co2 from the ocean the likely cause of the contemporaneous 14c plateaus over the last 9000 years deepwater circulation varied little from today apart from a slight increase in aabw about 7000 14c years ago it is also shown that the oxygenated mediterranean outflow varied largely independent of the variations in deepwater circulation over the last 30 000 years

response of the pelagic environment to palaeoclimatic changes in the central mediterranean sea during the late quaternary abstract three central mediterranean deep sea cores have been studied to reconstruct the palaeoclimatic history of the basin over the time interval 34 0 kyr bp the intensity and duration of the climatic events that occurred in the mediterranean sea during the last glacial postglacial transition were estimated by observing compositional changes in the planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannoplankton coccolithophores assemblages together with a reconstruction of sea surface temperatures using the modern analogue technique and u 37 k index the 18 o signal and pteropod fluxes the application of two independent and well established techniques for the determination of the past sst led to a number of considerations about the accuracy and efficacy of the use of such methodologies in the mediterranean sea notoriously dominated by local factors and characterised by a number of independent environments the recognition of millennial to centennial climatic instabilities in both the sst and microfossil records was possible because of the high resolution of the study a succession of nine main biozones and six sub zones based on the major changes in the planktonic foraminifera records has been recognised and compared with grip and gisp2 ice cores 18 o values and with records from four other studies from the central mediterranean sea during the early phase of the holocene a period characterised by relatively higher temperatures and lighter 18 o values has been recognised as being coeval with the climatic optimum between 10 5 and 6 1 kyr bp calendar age this interval was characterised by an abrupt drop in the pteropods relative abundances and fluxes the pteropodal fossil assemblage may have been affected by a possible event of selective dissolution of the aragonite driven by the shoaling of the acd a coeval change in the position of the pycnocline may have been responsible for a strong relative increase in abundance of neogloboquadrina pachyderma r c and a decrease in the abundance of globorotalia inflata in the western sector of the mediterranean sea

levantine intermediate water hydrodynamic and bottom water ventilation in the northern tyrrhenian sea over the past 56 000 years new insights from benthic foraminifera and ostracods abstract foraminifera and ostracods have been quantitatively studied in core md01 2472 from the upper continental slope at water depth of 501 m to evaluate their relationship with bottom water condition variability and decipher the control of the levantine intermediate water liw current on benthic faunas the occurrence of reworked ostracod species originating from the continental shelf and the presence of shallow water elphidium ammonia benthic foraminifera are used to estimate the degree of along slope transport at the core site this has revealed two intervals of along slope transport also associated with coarse grained contourite deposits deposited during the yd and hs2 episodes planktonic benthic foraminiferal and ostracod assemblages reflect climate oscillations peaks of the polar planktonic neogloboquadrina pachyderma left coiling s may be used to identify heinrich events interstadials are marked by abundant ostracod species such as paracypris sp argilloecia acuminata and cytheropteron alatum and the presence of benthic foraminifera like bulimina marginata bulimina costata and gyroidina altiformis the b a and holocene are characterized by abundant warm water species of planktonic foraminifera and by the ostracod species polycope sp we hypothesize that there is relationship between liw intensification during cold rapid climate events and benthic fauna assemblage variations due to changes in 1 bottom water ventilation and 2 the export of nutrients and or sediment particles by bottom currents

benthic isotope evidence for changes of the mediterranean outflow during the late quaternary a suit of sediment cores close to and south of the strait of gibraltar 12 36 n 500 2800 m water depth were analyzed for stable isotopes in epibenthic foraminifers cibicidoides wuellerstorfi and planulina ariminensis during peak glacial times the data exhibit higher 13c values of up to 1 6 at intermediate depths near the strait of gibraltar 36 n the values decrease to the south as evidenced by our data but also to the north as revealed by data of intermediate depth cores north of 38 n in duplessy et al 1987 thus the distribution pattern of 13c provides crucial evidence for an increased influence of nutrient depleted mediterranean outflow water mow on the glacial northeast atlantic hydrography during oxygen isotope terminations i and ii the meridional carbon isotope gradient indicates a significantly decreased but still active mow as deduced from the 18o fluctuations the temperatures of the mow in the atlantic were lower during glacial times by as much as 5 c during glacial times and during termination i the maximum 13c values of the mow correlate with minimum values of the north atlantic deep water nadw and vice versa this inverse response to climatic change of the carbon isotope signals of both water masses indicates that the supply of saline mow to the north atlantic may be less important for the formation of nadw than previously assumed

european climatic response to millennial scale changes in the atmosphere ocean system during the last glacial period abstract pollen foraminifer dinocyst and coarse lithic high resolution analyses and 18 o measurements have been carried out for the last glacial section of marine core md95 2042 located near the southwestern margin of the iberian peninsula the pollen data indicate a high frequency of vegetational changes on the adjacent continent during this period suggesting a climatic variability very similar to that of the dansgaard oeschger cycles recorded by the greenland ice cores the detailed direct correlation of the terrestrial and marine proxy data from core md95 2042 indicates a three phase pattern of heinrich events in land and ocean environments the first and last phases of the h5 and h4 events are characterized by a mild and humid climate in southwestern europe probably associated with the european origin of the ice rafted detritus the middle phase exhibits a cold and dry climate in iberia linked with the maximum input of ice rafted detritus this phase seems to correspond with the laurentide ice sheet surges between the heinrich events several cold and dry periods on land are correlated with stades of the dansgaard oeschger cycles the impact of the dansgaard oeschger stades in southwestern europe seems to be preferentially connected to the cold winter air masses reaching this mid latitude region

a 50 000 year record of climate oscillations from florida and its temporal correlation with the heinrich events oscillations of pinus pine pollen in a 50 000 year sequence from lake tulane florida indicate that there were major vegetation shifts during the last glacial cycle episodes of abundant pinus populations indicate a climate that was more wet than intervening phases dominated by quercus oak and ambrosia type ragweed and marsh elder the pinus episodes seem to be temporally correlated with the north atlantic heinrich events which were massive periodic advances of ice streams from the eastern margin of the laurentide ice sheet possible links between the tulane pinus and heinrich events include hemispheric cooling the influences of mississippi meltwater on sea surface temperatures in the gulf of mexico and the effects of north atlantic thermohaline circulation on currents in the gulf