- Email: [email protected]
Investigating the CH4 and N2O budget over the last 3 millennia with stable isotope measurements from ice core air
426
Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 346–461
landscape composition, hydrology and greenhouse gas exchange also in areas with extensive peat plateaus, which presently experience stable permafrost conditions.
VARIABILITY OF INDIAN SUMMER MONSOON DURING LAST 100 KA AND ITS LINK TO GLACIAL-INTERGLACIAL CYCLE Prasanta Sanyal. Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, India
FUNCTIONAL VARIABILITY IN MAGDALENIAN OF NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE Katsuhiro Sano. Tohoku University, Japan E-mail address: [email protected]
Traceological analyses of lithic artefacts from the Magdalenian sites of Eyserheide in the Netherlands, Bois Laiterie Cave in Belgium, and Gönnersdorf K-II in Germany were undertaken in order to reveal site functions in north-western Magdalenian. The Eyserheide assemblages indicate that the occupants at this quarry-workshop prepared not only lithic blanks, but also some hard organic artefacts. However, overall scarcity of usewear on lithic implements means that lithic blank production was probably the most important task at Eyserheide. On the other hand, a large number of lithics from Bois Laiterie Cave shows impact fractures due to projectile use. Scars relating to other activities are not abundant and only few animal remains were recovered from this cave. The high frequency of hunting traces and less evidence for other activities imply that the Bois Laiterie Cave was involved hunting activities, but the subsequent butchering and processing of carcass remains were probably undertaken elsewhere. The lithic assemblages at Gönnersdorf K-II exhibit diverse, intensive usewear traces caused by a series of activities including hunting, butchery, processing of carcass remains, and stone-working. The abundant and multiple usewear traces on Gönnersdorf flints indicate no specialised function of this site, but rather a wide range of activities which may have been repeatedly performed there. Thus, this study shows three completely different aspects of Magdalenian life represented by traces on lithic implements. This functional variability reflects a glimpse of the complementary site functions within the Magdalenian settlement-subsistence system in north-western Europe. PALEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN THE TAGUS RIVER ESTUARY DURING THE LAST 14 KYR Célia Santos. LNEG, Portugal E-mail address: [email protected]
Estuaries represente areas of high biological productivity that are particularly sensitive to global and regional environmental and climatic changes. In order to understand the interactions between the Tagus system (landriver) and the ocean we have studied a 53 m long core collected at the upper Tagus estuary off Vila Franca de Xira (VFX-38 560 2400 N; 8 560 1900 W, 2 m elevation). The age model for this core was based on 6 AMS 14C dates and covers the last 14 calendar (cal) kyr BP (1 kyr ¼1000 yr). Sea surface temperature (SST), marine/estuarine productivity and river input has been reconstructed with a high resolution, multi-proxy study of diatoms, phytoliths, C37 alkenones, higher plant n-alkanes and n-alkan-1-ols, Fe and Ca content derived from XRF analysis and Total Organic Carbon (TOC). Although discontinuous, the SST record shows a decreasing trend from Early to Late Holocene, following the Tagus prodelta SST record. Important terrigenous input is recorded during the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition as sea level rise allows sediment accumulation inside the estuary. Diatom (marine and brackish genera) and C37 alkenones appear between ca. 11.5 – 4 cal kyr BP supporting the existence of a marine to brackish water environment, as previously suggested. During this time interval, relative maxima in diatoms, C37 alkenones and TOC show a cyclic increase in local productivity that can be explained as being a response to coastal water inflow and/or fluvial supply of nutrients. Higher terrigenous input episodes are recorded at this site and are synchronous with flood events and/or increased fluvial activity detected in the Tagus River and in the Iberian Peninsula. Although higher resolution and a more accurate age model are needed to improve the understanding of this estuarine record, the hydro-sedimentary dynamics, particularly during the Holocene transgression, appears to be controlling the terrigenous input and the local productivity recorded at this site.
E-mail address: [email protected]
During the late Quaternary global climate has oscillated between the glacial and interglacial cycle. There are records to show that the Indian summer monsoon also responded to this climatic change. However, the response of Indian monsoon in terms of hydrological budget is not clearly understood. Towards this, three cores viz. Kalpi (KP), IITK and Firozpur (FP) have been sampled for soil carbonate. The d18O values of soil carbonate analyzed from the three cores range from w8.3 to w4.1 &. The variations in d18O values from the cores suggest that during 100 to 18 ka interval, the monsoon intensified at around 100, 40 and 25 ka. Although, marine records show relatively high monsoon during MIS 3, drier phase observed at around 50 and 35 ka indicate high wind speed in ocean does not always maintain continental wetness. The estimation of rainfall variations using amount effect show that 7 to 20 % change and the maximum lowering (w20 %) is observed around 18 ka corresponding to the Last Glacial Maxima (LGM). SIMULTANEOUS STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF METHANE AND NITROUS OXIDE ON SMALL ICE CORE SAMPLES – A NEW METHOD AND LABORATORY INTERCOMPARISON Célia Julia Sapart. University of Utrecht, Institute for Marine and At, Netherlands E-mail address: [email protected]
Methane and nitrous oxide are important greenhouse gases which show a strong increase in concentration since the preindustrial time. To predict their future concentrations, their present budget and past variations need to be understood. Stable isotope analyses are a key tool for improving our understanding. However, high-precision isotope measurements on ice samples are challenging because of the high vulnerability to contamination during the extraction and the small amount of air available. Here, we present a dry extraction system for simultaneous CH4 and N2O stable isotope analysis from ice core air, using an ice grating device. Air released during grating is collected in a vacuum extraction line, and the purified gases are isotopically analyzed on two isotope ratio mass spectrometry systems. The method is compared to a standard wet extraction method and it is shown that for both gases, the reproducibility of the isotope data is better for dry extraction. For N2O measurements, about 5 to 10% of the total amount of N2O is lost by the wet extraction, compared to the dry extraction. For both gases, an small-scale intercalibration exercise was conducted in collaboration with four other institutes, which shows consistency among the 5 laboratories. The extraction method allows high-precision measurements on small ice samples (250-480g) for dD(CH4) (d ¼2.8&), d 13C(CH4) (d ¼0.21&), d 15N(N2O) (d ¼0.9&), d 18O(N2O) (d ¼1.1&) and d 15N(NO+ fragment)(d ¼1.6&). Increasing the sample size by 20% will decrease the standard deviation for N2O stable isotopes by about 38% for d 15N(N2O), 50% for d 18O(N2O) and 27% for d 15N(NO+ fragment). The amount of ice is at the low end for high quality N2O isotope measurements, and measurements with reference air indicate that increasing the sample size by 20% will strongly (disproportionally) decrease the standard deviations. INVESTIGATING THE CH4 AND N2O BUDGET OVER THE LAST 3 MILLENNIA WITH STABLE ISOTOPE MEASUREMENTS FROM ICE CORE AIR Célia Julia Sapar. University of Utrecht, Institute for Marine and At, Netherlands E-mail address: [email protected]
Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases after CO2. Their mixing ratios in the atmosphere have increased strongly since pre-industrial times, but the underlying changes in the individual source and sink terms of the global budget are
Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 346–461
not well quantified. In order to reliably predict the evolution of their mixing ratios in the future, their present budget and past variations are being examined with various techniques. A useful tool to constrain the atmospheric budget of trace gases is the analysis of their stable isotope ratios. For CH4, isotope data have recently elucidated the origin of the observed variations on millennial timescales, but numerous open issues remain concerning the smaller scale changes and the interhemispheric gradient. For N2O, only a limited amount of isotope data exists from the late Holocene. We will present high-temporal resolution datasets over the last millennia of mixing ratio and stable isotope composition for CH4 and N2O extracted from firn and ice core air from the “North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling program” (NEEM). For CH4, our dataset is the first North Hemisphere hightemporal resolution dataset for the last 3 millennia and in comparing this dataset to existing literature, we will investigate the evolution of the interhemispheric gradient. The N2O isotope data will enable us to reconstruct how the natural and early anthropogenic sources evolved in the recent past. HOLOCENE NATURAL AND MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AS RECORDED IN LAKE SEDIMENTS OF NW RUSSIA Tatyana Sapelko. Institute of Limnology, Russian Federation E-mail address: [email protected]
During the last time we study the paleolimnological archives with archaeological sites. The first attempt to compare the results from natural and man-made environmental types of sediment sections has been made lately within the framework of paleoenvironmental studies in the Karelian Isthmus (NW Russia) when lake and peat sediments were sampled in parallel with an archaeological site (Dolukhanov et.al, 2007; Sapelko et al., 2009). Detailed reconstructions based on the pollen data collected for all the study sites were then confirmed by the results of other analyses, which, in turn, allowed us to reveal main environmental changes throughout the Holocene, and more specifically, major natural trends in the development of the vegetation cover at the regional level. Pollen records from peat sediments were found to reflect more local vegetation changes, while in the archaeological sediment sequence, indications of several periods of human impact on the surroundings were observed during the Holocene. Available pollen data from the archaeological site have therefore prevented us from misinterpretation of the vegetation changes that could otherwise have been mistakenly explained as a result of climatic fluctuations. Last time we have received new data from lakes and archaeological site (in the Leningrad region, on the Kola Peninsula and in the Karelian Isthmus too). EVIDENCE OF HIPPOPOTAMUS REMAINS IN THE MIDDLE VILLAFRANCHIAN FAUNAL ASSEMBLAGES OF ANAGNI BASIN (CENTRAL ITALY): EVIDENCE FOR AN EARLY DISPERSAL OF THE GENUS IN EUROPE Raffaele Sardella. Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy E-mail address: [email protected]
The Anagni basin is particularly rich in palaeontological sites, spanning between the earliest Early Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. Since the end of 1970’s this area was investigated by researchers of the “Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana (IsIPU), through field surveys, sampling, and excavations. Vertebrate remains have been collected from fluviolacustrine deposits cropping out in these localities: Coste San Giacomo, Fontana Acetosa, Valle Catenaccio. In 2009, during the survey for the drilling activity, some new mammal fossil remains were found at Coste San Giacomo where a middle Villafranchian faunal assemblage is documented (Coste San Giacomo Faunal Unit). In particular, among them, an upper incisor referable to Hippopotamus sp. The occurrence of the hippo in late Villafranchian faunal assemblages (Olivola and Tasso FUs) has been recentely questioned, and the earliest presence of the taxon in Europe was considered that from Venta Micena. Reimann & Strauch (2008) stated the occurrence of a partial skull of a hippo in a middle Villafranchian faunal assemblage from Elis (Peloponnesus, Greece). Thus the fossils from the Anagni basin, together with the Grecian remains, can be considered as an
427
evidence for a dispersal of the hippo in Europe earlier than supposed before, suggesting the diffusion of an African faunal element at approximately 2 Ma. GLACIER LOSS ON MOUNT AGRI (ARARAT) AND ITS CLIMATIC SIGNIFICANCE Mehmet Akif Sarikaya. Fatih University, Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]
Present glaciers of Middle East are typically small in size and situated on isolated lofty mountains reaching above the local snowlines. They are considered the remnants of more extensive Late Quaternary valley glaciations, from which they retreated to high-elevation cirques on northern slopes where climate, orographic factors and slope orientation are favorable to protect them. However, little is known about their current fluctuations and sensitivity to ongoing climate changes, precluding the local and global interpretations and correlations to other climate proxy data from the region. Thus, immediate assessments of glacial conditions of these glaciers are critically important to report and provide baseline data for future investigations. As a part of the international Global Land Ice Measurement from Space (GLIMS) project, we presented the last three decades (1976-2008) ice cap retreat from the legendary Mount Agri (also known as Ararat, 5137 m above sea level), located in the Eastern Turkey. We used a range of multi-temporal satellite imagery to measure the ice extent, and long-term climate data recorded by the local meteorological stations to examine temperature and precipitation patterns. The results show that the ice cap has been significantly retreating. It has been lost its total area by 30%, with a rate of w0.07 km2 year-1. Similar shrinking patterns are also evident from other glaciers in Turkey and long-term temperature and precipitation measurements from nearby meteorological stations support this shrinking trend. LATE QUATERNARY GLACIATIONS IN TURKEY Mehmet Akif Sarikaya. Fatih University, Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]
Over the last decade, the knowledge of Late Quaternary glacial geology of Turkey has been increased significantly. The cosmogenic exposure ages obtained from glacial landforms in several Turkish mountains provided significant information regarding the timing of glaciations, which were previously assigned by relative age determination techniques. These results are first in the region and essentially used as a basis to reconstruct glacio-chronology and paleoclimate of Turkey. Here, we provided a synthesis of extent and chronology of Late Quaternary glaciations using up-to-date results. Glacier-related landforms occur in three major regions of Turkey; (1) the Taurus Mountains, along the Mediterranean coast and southeast Turkey, (2) mountain ranges along the Eastern Black Sea Region, and (3) volcanoes and independent mountain chains scattered across the Anatolian Plateau. 10Be, 26Al ages from the Eastern Black Sea Region, Dedegöl Mountains and Uluda, and 36Cl ages from Mount Sandras and Mount Erciyes show the oldest and most extensive mountain glaciers were developed during the Last Glacial Maximum, about 21 ka (1 ka¼1000 calendar years) ago. Late glacial advances took place between 16 ka and 11 ka ago. Unusually extensive Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene glaciations, dated to 9.3 ka and 12.4 ka, were also reported from Mount Erciyes and Aladalar, respectively. Late Holocene and Little Ice Age advances were less extensive than older glaciations, and developed only at certain locations, as predecessor of the present glaciers of Turkey. CONTERMINOUS WET AND DRY LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM CLIMATES OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN Mehmet Akif Sarikaya. Fatih University, Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]
The reconstruction of the last ice-age paleoclimate and the understanding of the glacial atmospheric circulation mechanisms of the Eastern Mediterranean have been remained problematic. The moisture conditions
Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 346–461
landscape composition, hydrology and greenhouse gas exchange also in areas with extensive peat plateaus, which presently experience stable permafrost conditions.
VARIABILITY OF INDIAN SUMMER MONSOON DURING LAST 100 KA AND ITS LINK TO GLACIAL-INTERGLACIAL CYCLE Prasanta Sanyal. Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, India
FUNCTIONAL VARIABILITY IN MAGDALENIAN OF NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE Katsuhiro Sano. Tohoku University, Japan E-mail address: [email protected]
Traceological analyses of lithic artefacts from the Magdalenian sites of Eyserheide in the Netherlands, Bois Laiterie Cave in Belgium, and Gönnersdorf K-II in Germany were undertaken in order to reveal site functions in north-western Magdalenian. The Eyserheide assemblages indicate that the occupants at this quarry-workshop prepared not only lithic blanks, but also some hard organic artefacts. However, overall scarcity of usewear on lithic implements means that lithic blank production was probably the most important task at Eyserheide. On the other hand, a large number of lithics from Bois Laiterie Cave shows impact fractures due to projectile use. Scars relating to other activities are not abundant and only few animal remains were recovered from this cave. The high frequency of hunting traces and less evidence for other activities imply that the Bois Laiterie Cave was involved hunting activities, but the subsequent butchering and processing of carcass remains were probably undertaken elsewhere. The lithic assemblages at Gönnersdorf K-II exhibit diverse, intensive usewear traces caused by a series of activities including hunting, butchery, processing of carcass remains, and stone-working. The abundant and multiple usewear traces on Gönnersdorf flints indicate no specialised function of this site, but rather a wide range of activities which may have been repeatedly performed there. Thus, this study shows three completely different aspects of Magdalenian life represented by traces on lithic implements. This functional variability reflects a glimpse of the complementary site functions within the Magdalenian settlement-subsistence system in north-western Europe. PALEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN THE TAGUS RIVER ESTUARY DURING THE LAST 14 KYR Célia Santos. LNEG, Portugal E-mail address: [email protected]
Estuaries represente areas of high biological productivity that are particularly sensitive to global and regional environmental and climatic changes. In order to understand the interactions between the Tagus system (landriver) and the ocean we have studied a 53 m long core collected at the upper Tagus estuary off Vila Franca de Xira (VFX-38 560 2400 N; 8 560 1900 W, 2 m elevation). The age model for this core was based on 6 AMS 14C dates and covers the last 14 calendar (cal) kyr BP (1 kyr ¼1000 yr). Sea surface temperature (SST), marine/estuarine productivity and river input has been reconstructed with a high resolution, multi-proxy study of diatoms, phytoliths, C37 alkenones, higher plant n-alkanes and n-alkan-1-ols, Fe and Ca content derived from XRF analysis and Total Organic Carbon (TOC). Although discontinuous, the SST record shows a decreasing trend from Early to Late Holocene, following the Tagus prodelta SST record. Important terrigenous input is recorded during the Younger Dryas/Holocene transition as sea level rise allows sediment accumulation inside the estuary. Diatom (marine and brackish genera) and C37 alkenones appear between ca. 11.5 – 4 cal kyr BP supporting the existence of a marine to brackish water environment, as previously suggested. During this time interval, relative maxima in diatoms, C37 alkenones and TOC show a cyclic increase in local productivity that can be explained as being a response to coastal water inflow and/or fluvial supply of nutrients. Higher terrigenous input episodes are recorded at this site and are synchronous with flood events and/or increased fluvial activity detected in the Tagus River and in the Iberian Peninsula. Although higher resolution and a more accurate age model are needed to improve the understanding of this estuarine record, the hydro-sedimentary dynamics, particularly during the Holocene transgression, appears to be controlling the terrigenous input and the local productivity recorded at this site.
E-mail address: [email protected]
During the late Quaternary global climate has oscillated between the glacial and interglacial cycle. There are records to show that the Indian summer monsoon also responded to this climatic change. However, the response of Indian monsoon in terms of hydrological budget is not clearly understood. Towards this, three cores viz. Kalpi (KP), IITK and Firozpur (FP) have been sampled for soil carbonate. The d18O values of soil carbonate analyzed from the three cores range from w8.3 to w4.1 &. The variations in d18O values from the cores suggest that during 100 to 18 ka interval, the monsoon intensified at around 100, 40 and 25 ka. Although, marine records show relatively high monsoon during MIS 3, drier phase observed at around 50 and 35 ka indicate high wind speed in ocean does not always maintain continental wetness. The estimation of rainfall variations using amount effect show that 7 to 20 % change and the maximum lowering (w20 %) is observed around 18 ka corresponding to the Last Glacial Maxima (LGM). SIMULTANEOUS STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF METHANE AND NITROUS OXIDE ON SMALL ICE CORE SAMPLES – A NEW METHOD AND LABORATORY INTERCOMPARISON Célia Julia Sapart. University of Utrecht, Institute for Marine and At, Netherlands E-mail address: [email protected]
Methane and nitrous oxide are important greenhouse gases which show a strong increase in concentration since the preindustrial time. To predict their future concentrations, their present budget and past variations need to be understood. Stable isotope analyses are a key tool for improving our understanding. However, high-precision isotope measurements on ice samples are challenging because of the high vulnerability to contamination during the extraction and the small amount of air available. Here, we present a dry extraction system for simultaneous CH4 and N2O stable isotope analysis from ice core air, using an ice grating device. Air released during grating is collected in a vacuum extraction line, and the purified gases are isotopically analyzed on two isotope ratio mass spectrometry systems. The method is compared to a standard wet extraction method and it is shown that for both gases, the reproducibility of the isotope data is better for dry extraction. For N2O measurements, about 5 to 10% of the total amount of N2O is lost by the wet extraction, compared to the dry extraction. For both gases, an small-scale intercalibration exercise was conducted in collaboration with four other institutes, which shows consistency among the 5 laboratories. The extraction method allows high-precision measurements on small ice samples (250-480g) for dD(CH4) (d ¼2.8&), d 13C(CH4) (d ¼0.21&), d 15N(N2O) (d ¼0.9&), d 18O(N2O) (d ¼1.1&) and d 15N(NO+ fragment)(d ¼1.6&). Increasing the sample size by 20% will decrease the standard deviation for N2O stable isotopes by about 38% for d 15N(N2O), 50% for d 18O(N2O) and 27% for d 15N(NO+ fragment). The amount of ice is at the low end for high quality N2O isotope measurements, and measurements with reference air indicate that increasing the sample size by 20% will strongly (disproportionally) decrease the standard deviations. INVESTIGATING THE CH4 AND N2O BUDGET OVER THE LAST 3 MILLENNIA WITH STABLE ISOTOPE MEASUREMENTS FROM ICE CORE AIR Célia Julia Sapar. University of Utrecht, Institute for Marine and At, Netherlands E-mail address: [email protected]
Methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases after CO2. Their mixing ratios in the atmosphere have increased strongly since pre-industrial times, but the underlying changes in the individual source and sink terms of the global budget are
Abstracts / Quaternary International 279-280 (2012) 346–461
not well quantified. In order to reliably predict the evolution of their mixing ratios in the future, their present budget and past variations are being examined with various techniques. A useful tool to constrain the atmospheric budget of trace gases is the analysis of their stable isotope ratios. For CH4, isotope data have recently elucidated the origin of the observed variations on millennial timescales, but numerous open issues remain concerning the smaller scale changes and the interhemispheric gradient. For N2O, only a limited amount of isotope data exists from the late Holocene. We will present high-temporal resolution datasets over the last millennia of mixing ratio and stable isotope composition for CH4 and N2O extracted from firn and ice core air from the “North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling program” (NEEM). For CH4, our dataset is the first North Hemisphere hightemporal resolution dataset for the last 3 millennia and in comparing this dataset to existing literature, we will investigate the evolution of the interhemispheric gradient. The N2O isotope data will enable us to reconstruct how the natural and early anthropogenic sources evolved in the recent past. HOLOCENE NATURAL AND MAN-MADE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AS RECORDED IN LAKE SEDIMENTS OF NW RUSSIA Tatyana Sapelko. Institute of Limnology, Russian Federation E-mail address: [email protected]
During the last time we study the paleolimnological archives with archaeological sites. The first attempt to compare the results from natural and man-made environmental types of sediment sections has been made lately within the framework of paleoenvironmental studies in the Karelian Isthmus (NW Russia) when lake and peat sediments were sampled in parallel with an archaeological site (Dolukhanov et.al, 2007; Sapelko et al., 2009). Detailed reconstructions based on the pollen data collected for all the study sites were then confirmed by the results of other analyses, which, in turn, allowed us to reveal main environmental changes throughout the Holocene, and more specifically, major natural trends in the development of the vegetation cover at the regional level. Pollen records from peat sediments were found to reflect more local vegetation changes, while in the archaeological sediment sequence, indications of several periods of human impact on the surroundings were observed during the Holocene. Available pollen data from the archaeological site have therefore prevented us from misinterpretation of the vegetation changes that could otherwise have been mistakenly explained as a result of climatic fluctuations. Last time we have received new data from lakes and archaeological site (in the Leningrad region, on the Kola Peninsula and in the Karelian Isthmus too). EVIDENCE OF HIPPOPOTAMUS REMAINS IN THE MIDDLE VILLAFRANCHIAN FAUNAL ASSEMBLAGES OF ANAGNI BASIN (CENTRAL ITALY): EVIDENCE FOR AN EARLY DISPERSAL OF THE GENUS IN EUROPE Raffaele Sardella. Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy E-mail address: [email protected]
The Anagni basin is particularly rich in palaeontological sites, spanning between the earliest Early Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. Since the end of 1970’s this area was investigated by researchers of the “Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana (IsIPU), through field surveys, sampling, and excavations. Vertebrate remains have been collected from fluviolacustrine deposits cropping out in these localities: Coste San Giacomo, Fontana Acetosa, Valle Catenaccio. In 2009, during the survey for the drilling activity, some new mammal fossil remains were found at Coste San Giacomo where a middle Villafranchian faunal assemblage is documented (Coste San Giacomo Faunal Unit). In particular, among them, an upper incisor referable to Hippopotamus sp. The occurrence of the hippo in late Villafranchian faunal assemblages (Olivola and Tasso FUs) has been recentely questioned, and the earliest presence of the taxon in Europe was considered that from Venta Micena. Reimann & Strauch (2008) stated the occurrence of a partial skull of a hippo in a middle Villafranchian faunal assemblage from Elis (Peloponnesus, Greece). Thus the fossils from the Anagni basin, together with the Grecian remains, can be considered as an
427
evidence for a dispersal of the hippo in Europe earlier than supposed before, suggesting the diffusion of an African faunal element at approximately 2 Ma. GLACIER LOSS ON MOUNT AGRI (ARARAT) AND ITS CLIMATIC SIGNIFICANCE Mehmet Akif Sarikaya. Fatih University, Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]
Present glaciers of Middle East are typically small in size and situated on isolated lofty mountains reaching above the local snowlines. They are considered the remnants of more extensive Late Quaternary valley glaciations, from which they retreated to high-elevation cirques on northern slopes where climate, orographic factors and slope orientation are favorable to protect them. However, little is known about their current fluctuations and sensitivity to ongoing climate changes, precluding the local and global interpretations and correlations to other climate proxy data from the region. Thus, immediate assessments of glacial conditions of these glaciers are critically important to report and provide baseline data for future investigations. As a part of the international Global Land Ice Measurement from Space (GLIMS) project, we presented the last three decades (1976-2008) ice cap retreat from the legendary Mount Agri (also known as Ararat, 5137 m above sea level), located in the Eastern Turkey. We used a range of multi-temporal satellite imagery to measure the ice extent, and long-term climate data recorded by the local meteorological stations to examine temperature and precipitation patterns. The results show that the ice cap has been significantly retreating. It has been lost its total area by 30%, with a rate of w0.07 km2 year-1. Similar shrinking patterns are also evident from other glaciers in Turkey and long-term temperature and precipitation measurements from nearby meteorological stations support this shrinking trend. LATE QUATERNARY GLACIATIONS IN TURKEY Mehmet Akif Sarikaya. Fatih University, Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]
Over the last decade, the knowledge of Late Quaternary glacial geology of Turkey has been increased significantly. The cosmogenic exposure ages obtained from glacial landforms in several Turkish mountains provided significant information regarding the timing of glaciations, which were previously assigned by relative age determination techniques. These results are first in the region and essentially used as a basis to reconstruct glacio-chronology and paleoclimate of Turkey. Here, we provided a synthesis of extent and chronology of Late Quaternary glaciations using up-to-date results. Glacier-related landforms occur in three major regions of Turkey; (1) the Taurus Mountains, along the Mediterranean coast and southeast Turkey, (2) mountain ranges along the Eastern Black Sea Region, and (3) volcanoes and independent mountain chains scattered across the Anatolian Plateau. 10Be, 26Al ages from the Eastern Black Sea Region, Dedegöl Mountains and Uluda, and 36Cl ages from Mount Sandras and Mount Erciyes show the oldest and most extensive mountain glaciers were developed during the Last Glacial Maximum, about 21 ka (1 ka¼1000 calendar years) ago. Late glacial advances took place between 16 ka and 11 ka ago. Unusually extensive Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene glaciations, dated to 9.3 ka and 12.4 ka, were also reported from Mount Erciyes and Aladalar, respectively. Late Holocene and Little Ice Age advances were less extensive than older glaciations, and developed only at certain locations, as predecessor of the present glaciers of Turkey. CONTERMINOUS WET AND DRY LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM CLIMATES OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN Mehmet Akif Sarikaya. Fatih University, Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]
The reconstruction of the last ice-age paleoclimate and the understanding of the glacial atmospheric circulation mechanisms of the Eastern Mediterranean have been remained problematic. The moisture conditions