Bibcode
Vidal, L.; Pothin, A.; Revel, M.; Tachikawa, K.; Garcia, M.; Sonzogni, C.; Bard, E.
Bibliographical reference
EGU General Assembly 2012, held 22-27 April, 2012 in Vienna, Austria., p.13012
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4
2012
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Climate variability of the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea during
the last deglaciation has been reconstructed from a marine sediment core
MD04-2722 (33°09 N; 33°49 E, 1780 m w.d.) retrieved in the
Levant basin. A multi-proxy approach provided records of surface waters
conditions and of detrital inputs to the core location through chemical
and mineralogical characterisation of the terrigenous fraction.
Planktonic foraminifera stable isotope results able to monitor
hydrological changes linked to North Atlantic climate influence (eg.
Heinrich event 1 (HE1) and Younger Dryas (YD)) while elemental ratios
(eg. Fe/Ti) coupled to mineralogical determination are used as
indicators of Blue Nile terrigenous discharge mainly influenced by the
latitudinal position of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
and/or Ethiopian African monsoon. Hydrological conditions show the
occurrence of N-S gradients in the Levant basin, during HE1. However the
influence of North Atlantic type climate during YD and HE1 needs to be
further explored. Terrigenous fraction component indicators document: i)
the dominance of aeolian dust contribution during the last glacial
period, and ii) enhanced Nile River sediment inputs during the early
Holocene which started before the initiation of Sapropel 1 (about 2.5
kyr). Taken together, we will discuss how both climate systems (North
Atlantic / ITCZ) interact and influence the eastern Mediterranean Sea
climate at millennial scale. These results give new insights about the
spatiotemporal hydrological changes in the Levant basin and allow the
study of the temporal evolution of E-W hydrological gradient.