Volcanic Tuffs,Red- and Usual-Colored Clayey Rocks in Upper Riphean–Vendian Deposits in the Middle and Southern Urals: Comparison of Lithochemical Characteristics

Lithology and Mineral Resources - In the lower part of Upper Vendian deposits on the East European Platform, packs of chocolate-brown clayey rocks/tuff-argillites containing intercalations of...     

Last straw versus Blitzkrieg overkill: Climate-driven changes in the Arctic Siberian mammoth population and the Late Pleistocene extinction problem

A set of radiocarbon dates on woolly mammoth were obtained from several regions of Arctic Siberia: the New Siberian Islands (n = 68), north of the Yana-Indigirka Lowland (n = 43), and the Taimyr Peninsula (n = 18). Based on these and earlier published dates (n = 201) from the East Arctic, a comparative analysis of the time-related density distribution of ¹⁴C dates was conducted. It was shown that the frequencies of ¹⁴C dates under certain conditions reflect temporal fluctuations in mammoth numbers. At the end of the Pleistocene the number of mammoths in the East Arctic changed in a cyclic manner in keeping with a general “Milankovitch-like” trend. The fluctuations in numbers at the end of the Pleistocene occurred synchronously with paleoenvironmental changes controlled by global climatic change. There were three minima of relative mammoth numbers during the last 50 000 years: 22 000, 14 500–19 000, and 9500 radiocarbon years ago, or around 26 000, 16–20 000, and 10 500 calendar years respectively. The last mammoths lived on the New Siberian Islands, which were connected to the continent at that time, 9470 ± 40 radiocarbon years ago (10 700 ± 70 calendar years BP). This new youngest date approximates the extinction time of mammoths in the last continental refugium of the Holarctic. The adverse combination of environmental parameters was apparently a major factor in the critical reduction in mammoth numbers. The dispersal of humans into the Arctic areas of Siberia no later than 28 000 radiocarbon years ago did not overtly influence animal numbers. Humans were not responsible for the destruction of a sustainable mammoth population. The expanding human population could have become fatal to mammoths during strong the minima of their numbers, one of which occurred at the very beginning of the Holocene.     

Late Quaternary Paleoceanography of the Gulf of Aqaba (Elat), Red Sea

The quantitative distribution of planktonic foraminifera, pteropods, and coccolithophorids, as well as oxygen-isotope variations were analyzed in four deep-sea cores from the Gulf of Aqaba (Elat) and the northernmost Red Sea. The core record covers about 150,000 yr. Detailed stratigraphic subdivision is facilitated by combining all calcareous plankton groups. Time-stratigraphic correlation and dating beyond the radiocarbon range are possible by comparison of the oxygen-isotope curves. During the glacial maximum salinity rose to more than 50‰, while winter temperature of the upper waters fell by at least 4°C compared to the present. The rise in salinity can be accounted for by sea-strait dynamics and lowering of sea level. The Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea were continuously connected through the Straits of Tiran, and there is no indication of desiccation during the glacial maximum.     

Estimation of wave heights during cyclonic conditions using wave propagation model

Natural Hazards - Data from satellites are invaluable for applications including long-term climate studies and engineering design. Most present applications of wind-wave research for coastal...     

Integrating Stalagmite, Vertebrate, and Pollen Sequences to Investigate Holocene Vegetation and Climate Change in the Southern Midwestern United States

Speleothem carbon and oxygen isotopic records from Onondaga Cave, south-central Missouri, and Beckham Creek Cave, north-central Arkansas, are compared with the Cupola Pond and Oldfield Swamp pollen series from southeastern Missouri and the Rodgers Shelter and Modoc Shelter vertebrate biostratigraphic sequences from central Missouri and southwestern Illinois. Similar, and roughly contemporaneous, shifts between deciduous forest and steppe indicators throughout the Holocene are revealed in each database. These independent proxies record steppe conditions between approximately 9000 and 1500 cal yr B.P. A shift toward lighter speleothem carbon may reflect a change from warm and dry to cool and dry conditions between 4500 and 3000 yr B.P. The sensitive response of speleothem δ¹³C to changes in vegetation emphasizes their importance as paleoclimate records in an area containing few other millenial-scale climate proxies.     

Stone Age settlement and Holocene shore displacement in the Narva‐Luga Klint Bay area,eastern Gulf of Finland

Based on geological and archaeological proxies from NW Russia and NE Estonia and on GIS‐based modelling, shore displacement during the Stone Age in the Narva‐Luga Klint Bay area in the eastern Gulf of Finland was reconstructed. The reconstructed shore displacement curve displays three regressive phases in the Baltic Sea history, interrupted by the rapid Ancylus Lake and Litorina Sea transgressions c. 10.9–10.2 cal. ka BP and c. 8.5–7.3 cal. ka BP, respectively. During the Ancylus transgression the lake level rose 9 m at an average rate of about 13 mm per year, while during the Litorina transgression the sea level rose 8 m at an average rate of about 7 mm per year. The results show that the highest shoreline of Ancylus Lake at an altitude of 8–17 m a.s.l. was formed c. 10.2 cal. ka BP and that of the Litorina Sea at an altitude of 6–14 m a.s.l., c. 7.3 cal. ka BP. The oldest traces of human activity dated to 8.5–7.9 cal. ka BP are associated with the palaeo‐Narva River in the period of low water level in the Baltic basin at the beginning of the Litorina Sea transgression. The coastal settlement associated with the Litorina Sea lagoon, presently represented by 33 Stone Age sites, developed in the area c. 7.1 cal. ka BP and existed there for more than 2000 years. Transformation from the coastal settlement back to the river settlement indicates a change from a fishing‐and‐hunting economy to farming and animal husbandry c. 4.4 cal. ka BP, coinciding with the time of the overgrowing of the lagoon in the Narva‐Luga Klint Bay area.     

Early-indicator signals of groundwater contamination: the case of seawater encroachment

 An early indication of groundwater contamination occurs when pollutant concentrations start to fluctuate and exceed background values of ambient fresh groundwater. An analysis of a characteristic situation of this type uses data from Israel's coastal phreatic granular aquifer. The pollutant is generally seawater, and the contamination process involves replacement of freshwater by encroaching sea- or other saltwater, a process augmented by human activity. The contamination process involves three stages: (1) groundwater composition remains relatively stable with small salinity content; (2) small salinity changes are perceptible with reversible fluctuations; and (3) salinity concentration increases at a sharply higher rate. The second stage is a useful early-indicator signal of contamination. Early-indicator signals of groundwater pollutant concentrations involve "minor" fluctuations in water chemistry at the advent of the contamination process. The intensity and magnitude of such a salinization/pollution process at any given location depends upon lithologic matrix, aquifer heterogeneity, and resultant flow domain characteristics, as well as contaminant properties. If such "signs" are detected at a sufficiently early stage, appropriate management steps may be taken to rectify further seawater and/or saltwater encroachment. Received: 23 July 1996 · Accepted: 25 June 1997     

Abnormal composition of carbon isotopes in underground alkaline waters of Kuzbass

The first data on abnormally high δ¹³С values in hydrocarbonates (НСО ₃^-) dissolved in underground waters of coal deposits of Kuzbass (up to +30.9‰) are reported. It is shown that such an unusual isotope composition of waters results from the long, strictly directed interaction in the water–rock–gas–organic material system occurring under the conditions of hindered water exchange. Extensive fractionation of C isotopes is the result of the evolution of the water–rock–gas–coal system after penetration of infiltration waters into the coal deposits and their long interaction with all these components, rather than metamorphism of organic material upon its transformation into coal. With respect to such an approach, the isotope composition of dissolved C may indicate the duration of the evolution in the water–rock–gas–organic material system.