Stable isotopic fractionation, climate change and episodic stagnation in the eastern Mediterranean during the late Quaternary
Vergnaud-Grazzini, C.; Ryan, W.B.F.; Cita, M.B. (1977). Stable isotopic fractionation, climate change and episodic stagnation in the eastern Mediterranean during the late Quaternary. Mar. Micropaleontol. 2(4): 353-370
In: Marine Micropaleontology. Elsevier: Amsterdam; New York; Oxford; Tokyo. ISSN 0377-8398; e-ISSN 1872-6186, more
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| Keywords |
Fossils > Animal fossils > Fossil foraminifera
Geological time > Phanerozoic > Geological time > Cenozoic > Quaternary
Isotopes
Palaeo studies > Climatology > Palaeoclimatology
Marine/Coastal |
| Authors | | Top |
- Vergnaud-Grazzini, C.
- Ryan, W.B.F.
- Cita, M.B.
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| Abstract |
Fluctuations in the delta18 O composition of planktonic foraminifers in eastern Mediterranean piston cores indicate cycles with amplitudes much greater than those which can be attributed alone to global ice-volume changes. Isotopic values become markedly negative within lithostratigraphic levels characterized by the apparition of organic-rich sapropels. These owe their origin to the development of euxinic bottom water during episodes of basin-wide stagnation. The depletion of delta18 O in many of the sapropels is accompanied by the occurrence of poorly diversified planktonic faunas, and both phenomena are attributed to a strong dilution of the local eastern Mediterranean surface water mass by a combination of glacial run off from large continental ice sheets and by an important increase of regional precipitation synchronous with the transition from pleniglacial to kataglacial climate. Although sapropel accumulation occurs generally during intervals of warming of the Mediterranean region as determined from a quantitative evaluation of planktonic foraminiferal assemblages, the pre-125 000 years, local warming of eastern Mediterranean surface water lagged the acme of glacial melting by up to 15 000 years. Climatic and isotopic cycles are correlative within the eastern Mediterranean for lateral distances in excess of 1000 km and, except for amplitude and phase, they are in most aspects remarkably similar to those recorded in the equatorial Pacific and Caribbean. |
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