Middle Pleistocene magnetostratigraphy and susceptibility stratigraphy: data from a carbonate aeolian system,Mallorca, Western Mediterranean

This study shows that successions of Pleistocene carbonate aeolian deposits can be placed successfully in a geochronologic framework using magnetostratigraphic and susceptibility stratigraphic analysis supplemented by luminescence dating, studies of wave-cut platforms, and biostratigraphic evidence. The investigated aeolian system covers a significant part of southernmost Mallorca and is exposed in impressive coastal cliff sections.At the study site at Els Bancals the aeolian system has a maximum thickness of 16 m and is composed of alternating dark red colluvial deposits and greyish red aeolian dune and sand-sheet deposits forming seven cyclostratigraphic units. Each cyclostratigraphic unit represents landscape stabilisation, colluviation, and soil formation followed by dunefield development, when marine carbonate sand was transported far inland by westerly or north-westerly winds. The aeolian system is located on top of a wave-cut marine platform 12–14 m a.s.l. This platform probably formed during a sea-level highstand in Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (427–364 ka), and renewed marine activity probably later in MIS 11 is indicated by the formation of beach deposits.Two sections at Els Bancals were sampled for a paleomagnetic study; additional samples were taken to detect variations in magnetic susceptibility (MS). The characteristic remanent magnetisation has been recovered for the most part of the succession in spite of diagenetic overprinting. There is evidence for two probably three reversal polarity excursions, possible connected to the Levantine, CR1 and CR0/Biwa III episodes. If this correlation is correct, the sampled succession represents a time interval in the Middle Pleistocene between ca 410 and ca 260 ka. This age estimate is supported by the MS study and by luminescence dates of 333±70 ka (aeolianite from lower part of the succession) and 275±23 ka (aeolianite from the top of the succession).The nature of the succession suggests deposition during alternating warm and moist (colluvial deposition; soil formation) and cold, dry and windy conditions (dunefield formation). The susceptibility signal can be correlated with the insolation signal at 65°N suggesting that environmental variation on Mallorca was linked to orbitally forced climate change, and it seems that aeolian activity and dunefield formation were linked to glacial or stadial periods.     

Pleistocene speleothems of Mallorca: implications for palaeoclimate and carbonate diagenesis in mixing zones

The Pleistocene speleothems of Sa Bassa Blanca cave, Mallorca, are excellent indicators of palaeoclimate variations, and are samples that allow evaluation of the products and processes of mixing‐zone diagenesis in an open‐water cave system. Integrated stratigraphic, petrographic and geochemical data from a horizontal core of speleothem identified two main origins for speleothem precipitates: meteoric‐marine mixing zone and meteoric‐vadose zone. Mixing‐zone precipitates formed at and just below the water–air interface of cave pools during interglacial times, when the cave was flooded as a result of highstand sea‐level. Mixing‐zone precipitates include bladed and dendritic high‐Mg calcite, microporous‐bladed calcite with variable Mg content, and acicular aragonite; their presence suggests that calcium‐carbonate cementation is significant in the studied mixing‐zone system. Fluid inclusion salinities, δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O compositions of the mixing‐zone precipitates suggest that mixing ratio was not the primary control on whether precipitation or dissolution occurred, rather, the proximity to the water table and degassing of CO₂ at the interface, were the major controls on precipitation. Thus, simple two‐end‐member mixing models may apply only in mixing zones well below the water table. Meteoric‐vadose speleothems include calcite and high‐Mg calcite with columnar and bladed morphologies. Vadose speleothems precipitated during glacial stages when sea level was lower than present. Progressive increase in δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of the vadose speleothems resulted from cooling temperatures and more positive seawater δ¹⁸O associated with glacial buildup. Such covariation could be considered as a valid alternative to models predicting invariant δ¹⁸O and highly variable δ¹³C in meteoric calcite. Glacio‐eustatic oscillations of sea‐level are recorded as alternating vadose and mixing‐zone speleothems. Short‐term climatic variations are recorded as alternating aragonite and calcite speleothems precipitated in the mixing zone. Fluid‐inclusion and stable‐isotope data suggest that aragonite, as opposed to calcite, precipitated during times of reduced meteoric recharge.     

Late Pleistocene records of littoral processes at the Tyrrhenian Coast (Central Italy): depositional environments and luminescence chronology

Two cliff-sites on the Tyrrhenian coast of central Italy have been investigated in order to investigate late Pleistocene depositional environments by microfacies analysis and chronostratigraphy by luminescence age estimations. Both sections cover the period from the Last Interglacial to the end of the Last Glaciation. In the Buca dei Corvi site an increasing rate of uplift is recognised, which is responsible for significant environmental change and formation of the modern coastal fault scarp at around 9 ka. In the Golfo di Baratti site the vertical succession of three marine horizons, previously recognised by Cortemiglia et al., (1983), is attributed to the OIS stages ⩾5c, 5a and 3 respectively. This cliff-section is affected by NNE–SSW orientated normal faults, confirming that extentional structural processes are still active. The coastal deposit of Stage 3, today located at 7 m a.s.l., suggests abnormal high uplift rate if the position of the palaeo-shoreline was assumed at −40 to −50 m. Both central Mediterranean coastal records strongly suggest that the eustatic sea-level has dropped to a smaller amount than that of the open oceans.     

Towards a chronology of the Late Pleistocene in the northern Alpine Foreland

Dating results from terrestrial records in the northern foreland of the Alps have been compiled in order to establish an independent chronostratigraphy for the climate history of this region. U/Th dates of peat deposited during the final phase of the Last Interglacial indicate that it lasted until at least c. 115 000 yr ago. The Early Würmian started with a period of severe cold climate causing a substitution of forest by tundra-like vegetation. It is assumed that during this period glaciers advanced to the margin of the foreland of at least the Western Alps. Sediments attributed to this glaciation are dated to about 103 000 yr. Three subsequent interstadials, all characterized by coniferous forest, were interrupted by cold stadials with steppe to tundra-like vegetation. The first interstadial is dated to about 95 000 yr. There is evidence for an interstadial with open coniferous woodland and three phases of steppe vegetation during the Middle Würmian, between c. 50000 and 30 000 yr ago. The last glaciation of the Alpine Foreland reached its maximum extension between 24 000 and 21 500 yr and glaciers rapidly collapsed before ˜17 500 yr ago. A series of minor re-advances during the Lateglacial is reported from within the Alps, but the glaciers barely reached the main Alpine valleys during this time. The last of these advances formed the Egesen moraine and occurred at about 11 800 yr ago during the Younger Dryas.     

Sea‐level and climatic controls on Late Pleistocene coastal aeolianites in the Cap Bon peninsula,northeastern Tunisia

Elmejdoub, N., Mauz, B. & Jedoui, Y. 2010: Sea‐level and climatic controls on Late Pleistocene coastal aeolianites in the Cap Bon peninsula, northeastern Tunisia. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2010.00162.x. ISSN 0300‐9483. The chronology of coastal dunes (aeolianites) along the western littoral of the Cap Bon peninsula (northeastern Tunisia) was investigated using an optical dating technique to examine their tentative correlation with the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) record. These dunes, formed under a northwesterly wind regime and supplied by sand from the shore, are an indicator of sea‐level and climate changes. We obtained optically stimulated luminescence ages for these aeolianites ranging from 112±10 to 53±2 ka and clustering around the last interglacial period (～125–75 ka), implying that the former stratigraphic allocation of these dunes is inaccurate. The optical chronology suggests dune formation during MIS 5 in association with a sea level lower than today but higher than the glacial sea‐level lowstand.     

Late Pleistocene and Holocene cool‐water carbonates of the Western Mediterranean Sea

Post‐glacial, neritic cool‐water carbonates of the Western Mediterranean Sea were examined by means of hydroacoustic data, sediment surface sampling and vibrocoring to unravel geometries and to reconstruct sedimentary evolution in response to the last sea‐level rise. The analysed areas, located on the Alboran Ridge, in the Bay of Oran, and at the southern shelf of the island of Mallorca, are microtidal and bathed by oligotrophic to weakly mesotrophic waters. Seasonal water temperature varies between 13 °C and 27 °C. Echosounder profiles show that the Bay of Oran and the southern shelf of Mallorca are distally steepened ramps, while the Alboran Ridge forms a steep‐flanked rugged plateau around the Alboran Island. In the three areas, an up to 10 m thick post‐glacial sediment cover overlies an unconformity. In Oran and Mallorca, stacked lowstand wedges occur in water depths of 120 to 130 m. On the Alboran Ridge and in the Bay of Oran, highstand wedges occur at 35 to 40 m. Up to 5 m long cores of upper Pleistocene to Holocene successions were recovered in water depths between 40 and 81 m. Deposits contain more than 80% carbonate, with mixed carbonate‐volcaniclastics in the lower part of some cores in Alboran. The carbonates consist of up to 53% of aragonite and up to 83% of high magnesium calcite. Radiocarbon dating of bivalve shells, coralline algae and serpulid tubes indicates that deposits are as old as 12 400 cal yr bp . The carbonate factories in the three areas are dominated mostly by red algae, but some intervals in the cores are richer in bivalves. A facies rich in the gastropod Turritella, reflecting elevated surface productivity, is restricted to the Mallorca Shelf. Rhodoliths occur at the sediment surface in most areas at water depths shallower than 70 m; they form a 10 to 20 cm thick veneer overlying rhodolith‐poor bioclastic sediments which, nonetheless, contain abundant red algal debris. This rhodolith layer has been developing for the past 800 to 1000 years. Similar layers at different positions in the cores are interpreted as reflecting in situ growth of rhodoliths at times of reduced net sedimentation. Sedimentary successions in the cores record the post‐glacial sea‐level rise and the degree of sediment exposure to bottom currents. Deepening‐upward trends in the successions are either reflected by shallow to deep facies transitions or by a corresponding change of depth‐indicative red algae. There are only weak downcore variations of carbonate mineralogy, which indicate that no dissolution or high magnesium to low magnesium calcite neomorphism occurs in the shallow subsurface. These new data support the approach of using the Recent facies distribution for interpretation of past cool‐water, low‐energy, microtidal carbonate depositional systems. Hydroacoustic data show that previous Pleistocene transgressive and highstand inner ramp deposits and wedges were removed during sea‐level lowstands and accumulated downslope as stacked lowstand wedges; this suggests that, under conditions of high‐amplitude sea‐level fluctuations, the stratigraphic record of similar cool‐water carbonates may be biased.     

Pleistocene aeolianites at Cape Spencer,South Australia; record of a vanished inner neritic cool‐water carbonate factory

Aeolianites are integral components of many modern and ancient carbonate depositional systems. Southern Australia contains some of the most impressive and extensive late Cenozoic aeolianites in the modern world. Pleistocene aeolianites on Yorke Peninsula are sculpted into imposing seacliffs up to 60 m high and comprise two distinct imposing complexes of the Late Pleistocene Bridgewater Formation. The lower aeolianite complex, which forms the bulk of the cliffs, is a series of stacked palaeodunes and intervening palaeosols. The diagenetic low Mg‐calcite sediment particles are mostly bivalves, echinoids, bryozoans and small benthic foraminifera. This association is similar to sediments forming offshore today on the adjacent shelf in a warm‐temperate ocean. By contrast, the upper aeolianite complex is a series of mineralogically metastable biofragmental carbonates in a succession of stacked lenticular palaeodunes with impressive interbedded calcretes and palaeosols. Bivalves, geniculate coralline algae and benthic foraminifera, together with sparse peloids and ooids, dominate sediment grains. Fragments of large benthic foraminifera including Marginopora vertebralis, a photosymbiont‐bearing protist, are particularly conspicuous. Palaeocean temperatures are interpreted as having been sub‐tropical, somewhat warmer than offshore carbonate factories in the region today. The older aeolianite complex is tentatively correlated with Marine Isotope Stage 11, whereas the upper complex is equivalent to Marine Isotope Stage 5e. Marine Isotope Stage 5e deposits exposed elsewhere in southern Australia (Glanville Formation) are distinctive with a subtropical biota, including Marginopora vertebralis. Thus, in this example, palaeodune sediment faithfully records the nature of the adjacent inner neritic carbonate factory. By inference, aeolianites are potential repositories of information about the nature of long‐vanished marine systems that have been removed due to erosion, tectonic obliteration or are inaccessible in the subsurface. Such information includes not only the nature of marine environments themselves but also palaeoceanography.     

Late Pleistocene glacial chronology of the Taylor Valley,Antarctica, and the global climate

Carbonate-rich lacustrine and deltaic deposits, containing thin beds of finely laminated carbonates and thick beds of silt, crop out at several sites in the Taylor Valley and have been encountered in cores obtained by the Dry Valley Drilling Project (DVDP). Fragments of the more indurated carbonate beds have widespread occurrence as part of the desert “lag gravel” which covers much of the valley floor. Analysis of the carbonates suggests that they were deposited as algal limestones from waters derived from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet via the Taylor Glacier at times which correspond to the previous three global interglacial periods, as evidenced by the ice volumes deduced from oxygen-isotopic analysis of oceanic cores. The lacustrine carbonates have been found up to 30 km beyond the present terminus of the Taylor Glacier, and up to 100 m above the level of Lake Bonney, into which the Taylor Glacier at present discharges. It is concluded that the Taylor Glacier has advanced during each of the previous three interglaciations, and it is suggested that this has been caused by a thickening of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during the interglaciations.     

Late Pliocene and Pleistocene small mammal chronology in the Italian peninsula

The abundant documentation of small mammals in the Italian peninsula, collected over recent years, furnishes a detailed biochronological sequence mainly from the Late Pliocene onwards. An updated stratigraphic framework is here presented, based on the European small mammal biozonation. The Early Villanyian is characterized by Mimomys hassiacus, M. stehlini, and, later, poorly documented M. polonicus. The Late Villanyian localities are well characterized with M. pliocaenicus, M. pitymyoides and M. tigliensis. The older part of the Early Biharian is documented by assemblages containing Microtus (Allophaiomys) ex gr. pliocaenicus, M. pusillus, M. cf. ostramosensis and M. tornensis, while the later part of the Early Biharian, is characterized by advanced Microtus (Allophaiomys) species occurring together with M. pusillus or M. blanci. In the Late Biharian M. savini, Microtus hintoni-gregaloides, Microtus (Iberomys) ex gr. huescarensis-brecciensis and Terricola arvalidens occur. The Early Toringian with A. mosbachensis, Allocricetus bursae, Pliomys episcopalis and small-sized Microtus brecciensis, and the Late Toringian with A. terrestris in diversified associations are quoted. The most important faunal events are calibrated by independent chronological controls, thanks to the record of small mammals from lacustrine deposits. Several figures illustrate the most significant rodent species occurring in the succession of selected Italian localities.     

晚更新世以来内蒙古哈素海钻孔地层记录及其年龄

“河套古大湖”对于研究区域环境及气候演化具有重要的意义,然而,其形成与消亡的时代仍存在争议。依托于哈素海西南岸边获取的HSH钻孔,采用AMS14C、OSL测年方法确定了沉积物年代,结合岩心的岩性、沉积结构等特征,分析了哈素海的演化历史,并探讨了河套古大湖存亡的时期。结果表明,哈素海地区晚更新世以来的沉积环境主要经历了以下转变过程：150~70 ka为较稳定的湖泊,70~55 ka湖泊水位下降,为滨湖相沉积,55~27 ka为湖沼沉积,27~0 ka为滨湖相沉积。根据哈素海的沉积演化历史,结合河套盆地相关研究成果,认为河套古大湖早在150~110 ka就已形成,其后水位下降,直至55 ka之后,萎缩消亡,河套盆地局部地区形成湖沼沉积,但已不再是统一的大湖。研究结果对于深入探讨河套盆地演化历史乃至黄河的变迁具有重要意义。     

Late Quaternary sapropel sediments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Faunal variations and chronology

Distinctive planktonic foraminiferal assemblages which characterize particular late Quaternary sapropel layers in deep basin sediments from the eastern Mediterranean Sea have been identified using cluster analysis. Three distinct clusters allow for identification and intercore correlation of the nine sapropels deposited during the last 250,000 yr. Cluster 1, representing sapropel layers S1 and S9, exhibits low abundances of Neogloboquadrina dutertrei and high abundances of Globigerinoides ruber; Cluster 2, which groups S3, S5, and S7, contains high abundances of G. ruber, N. dutertrei, and Globigerina bulloides, and Cluster 3, which includes samples from S4, S6, and S8, is marked by extremely abundant N. dutertrei and G. bulloides, and rare G. ruber. Analysis of sedimentation rates in 14 cores reveals the following approximate ages for the sapropel layers: S2 = 52,000 yr B.P.; S3 = 81,000–78,000 yr B.P.; S4 = 100,000–98,000 yr B.P.; and S5 = 125,000–116,000 yr B.P. As previously suggested, sedimentation rates on the Mediterranean Ridge were determined to be relatively constant during the last 127,000 yr. In contrast, basin sedimentation rates have fluctuated markedly from lower rates during interglacial stage 5 to higher rates during the last glacial episode. These glacial/interglacial differences are most pronounced in the northern Ionian Basin, because of increased terrigenous sediment deposition during glacial episodes. Unusually high biogenic sedimentation rates occurred in an arc south of Crete during the deposition of sapropel S5, probably due to higher productivity in this region.     

Pleistocene chronology: Long or short?

European geologists, in general, have tended to favor a “short” chronology for the glacial Pleistocene, with four major glacial cycles in the past 500,000 or 600,000 yr. Interpretation of ocean floor sediments by Emiliani and others has accorded with this view, in contrast to the “long” chronology of Ericson and Wollin and their followers, who spread the four North American glacial episodes over a 2-m.y. period. An examination of the available radiometric dates and age estimates from paleomagnetic polarity zones serves to confirm Richmond's view that the four major European glacials do not equate with the four North American glacials in a simple one-to-one manner, but that the Illinoian matches the Elster (Mindel) rather than the Saale (Riss). The Alpine Günz is then equated broadly with the Kansan and overlaps in time with the Jaramillo normal polarity event at about 900,000 y.a. The Nebraskan is older than 1.2 m.y. and is thus coeval with the European Upper Villafranchian, within which the Donau and Biber glacial events may be traced. Montane glaciation certainly extended back into the Tertiary but cold pulses of sufficient duration to produce continental glaciation were more marked through the past 1.5 m.y. More critical studies of the terrestrial record are needed before firm correlations can be made.     

Glacial drainage towards the Mediterranean during the Middle and Late Pleistocene

To a varying degree the Middle and Late Pleistocene ice sheets in northern Eurasia redirected the drainage of major catchments in Europe and western Siberia from the North Sea and Arctic Ocean south to the Caspian, Black Sea, and ultimately the Mediterranean. During the Late Weichselian, glacial meltwater reached the Mediterranean through the Dniepr and Don catchments and to a minor extent through the Danube. During the Warthe Substage of the Saalian, meltwater from the Volga was most likely added. During the Drenthe Substagc of the Saalian the watershed shifted Par to the east, and meltwater reached the Mediterranean also from the Oh. Irtysh, Yenisei, and Tunguska catchments in Siberia. Depending on the extent of the ice sheets, the increase in freshwater supply during deglaciations resulted in reductions of Mediterranean overflow into the North Atlantic. Such overflow reductions may have reduced vapour transport to the ice sheets and thus accelerated wastage.     

A robust feldspar luminescence dating method for Middle and Late Pleistocene sediments

Luminescence dating is used extensively to provide absolute chronologies for Late Pleistocene sediments. Nowadays, most optical dates are based on quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). However, the application of this signal is usually limited to the last ～100 ka because of saturation of the quartz luminescence signal with dose. In contrast, the feldspar infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) dose–response curve grows to much higher doses; this has the potential to extend the datable age range by a factor of 4–5 compared with quartz OSL. However, it has been known for several decades that this IRSL signal is unstable, and this instability often gives rise to significant age underestimation. Here we test against independent age control the recently developed feldspar post‐IR IRSL approach to the dating of sediments, which appears to avoid signal instability. A physical model explaining our observations is discussed, and the method is shown to be accurate back to 600 ka. The post‐IR IRSL signal is reduced by exposure to daylight more slowly than that from quartz and low‐temperature IRSL, preventing its general application to young (e.g. Holocene) sediments. Nevertheless, this new approach is widely applicable (feldspar of appropriate luminescence behaviour is even more ubiquitous than quartz). These characteristics make this a method of great importance for the dating of Middle and Late Pleistocene deposits.     

Late Pleistocene chronology and environment of the “ice-free corridor” of northwestern Alberta

Pollen and macrofossil analyses of two radiocarbon-dated lake sediment cores in the upper Peace River district were used to investigate the controversial late-glacial geochronology of the “ice-free corridor.” The basal mineral-rich sediments contain reworked, radiogenically “dead” palynomorphs, as well as intrusive “modern” carbon. Analyses of the basal sediments from Boone Lake show that two ¹⁴C ages greater than 12,000 yr B.P. are spuriously old due to contamination by organic matter of Cretaceous age. The data support occlusion or near occlusion of Laurentide and Cordilleran ice in the Peace River area during the late Wisconsinan period. The sediment record began around 12.000 yr B.P. in the ice-dammed and enlarged Boone Lake. An initially open, sedge-dominated cover was invaded by sage, willow, grass, and poplar by 11,700 yr B.P., suggesting that a habitable landscape has existed in the area for at least 12 millennia. The data, however, do not support the ice-free corridor arguments of B. O. K. Reeves (1973, Arctic and Alpine Research5,1–16; 1983, In “Quaternary Coastlines and Marine Archaeology: Towards the Prehistory of Land Bridges and Continental Shelves” (P. M. Masters and N. C. Fleming, Eds.), pp. 389–411. Academic Press. New York), who suggests that ice occlusion did not occur in the Peace River Valley during the last 55,000 yr.     

The Late Pleistocene megafauna of the Chulym River basin,southeastern West Siberian Plain: chronology and stable isotope composition

New data were obtained for the Chulym River basin in the southeastern part of the West Siberian Plain, one of the understudied parts of Siberia in terms of age and composition of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes for Late Pleistocene megafauna. The ¹⁴C dates from the Sergeevo outcrop, the most complete section of Late Quaternary deposits in the region, are mostly greater than ~30 550 bp. Other localities yielded ¹⁴C values in the range from >44 500 to ~19 300 bp. The finite date of ~42 270 bp for the Khozarian steppe elephant (Mammuthus trogontherii chosaricus) from Asino is intriguing because previously it was not detected in the Late Pleistocene of Siberia after the last interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e), ~115 000–130 000 years ago. Stable isotope data show both similarities and differences compared to the pre-Last Glacial Maximum megafaunal species in other parts of Siberia.     

Late Pleistocene remains of giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus Blumenbach) in Scandinavia: chronology and environment

This article presents new data on the Late Pleistocene giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus (Blumenbach), describing its distribution in time and space, geographical and sexual variation and general biology. Twenty‐three south Scandinavian fossils found in situ in lacustrine sediments or redeposited in glaciofluvial material form the basis of this investigation. Fourteen C dates show that the giant deer inhabited southern Scandinavia in the ice‐free late Middle Weichselian from c. 40000 to 28000 BP (the Sandnes Interstadial) and again in the Late Weichselian from c. 12000 to 10700 BP (Older Dryas, Allerød and early Younger Dryas Chronozones), corresponding to a calibrated range from c. 14300 to 12400 cal. yr BP. Osteometric analyses show that the Scandinavian giant deer belonged to the upper size range of the lateglacial Irish population and that a marked sexual dimorphism existed, the males being 10–11% larger than the females. Investigations furthermore point at an antler cycle similar to that among extant northern cervids, and subsequently at a rutting season in autumn. The skeletal remains also prove the occurrence of twin delivery and the possibility of reaching an ontogenetic age of at least 23 years. During both occurrences the Scandinavian giant deer population was part of the northernmost distribution of the species in Europe and the palaeogeographical settings and palaeoenvironmental conditions of the two periods show striking similarities. Clearly, the giant deer were able to colonize and survive in a landscape dominated by grasses and sedges with scattered shrubs and dwarf shrubs. They came as close as 200–250 km to the ice front and their distribution included coastal areas along a cold sea with drifting icebergs. They were present in the area at least from March until November. However, the pure arctic conditions created during the early phase of the Younger Dryas event led to a new local extinction around 10700 ¹⁴C yr BP. This was the beginning of a total Eurasian extinction which, at least in Europe, was completed before the Pleistocene/Holocene transition.