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Saharan Dust Transport and High-Latitude Glacial Climatic Variability: The Alboran Sea Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ana Moreno ,
Isabel Cacho ,
Miquel Canals ,
Maarten A. Prins ,
María-Fernanda Sánchez-Goñi ,
Joan O. Grimalt  and
Gert Jan Weltje
Ana Moreno
Affiliation:
CRG Marine Geosciences, Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences, Faculty of Geology, University of Barcelona, Campus de Pedralbes, C/Martí i Franqués, s/n° Barcelona, E-08028, Spain
Isabel Cacho
Affiliation:
CRG Marine Geosciences, Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences, Faculty of Geology, University of Barcelona, Campus de Pedralbes, C/Martí i Franqués, s/n° Barcelona, E-08028, Spain Department of Environmental Chemistry (ICER-CSIC), Jordi Girona, 18, Barcelona, 08034, Spain
Miquel Canals*
Affiliation:
CRG Marine Geosciences, Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences, Faculty of Geology, University of Barcelona, Campus de Pedralbes, C/Martí i Franqués, s/n° Barcelona, E-08028, Spain
Maarten A. Prins
Affiliation:
Faculty of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, The Netherlands
María-Fernanda Sánchez-Goñi
Affiliation:
EPHE, Département Géologie et Océanographie, UMR-CNRS 5805, University Bordeaux 1, France
Joan O. Grimalt
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Chemistry (ICER-CSIC), Jordi Girona, 18, Barcelona, 08034, Spain
Gert Jan Weltje
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Earth Sciences, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5028, Delft, NL-2600 GA, The Netherlands
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +34 93 402 13 40. E-mail: miquel@natura.geo.ub.es.
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Abstract

Millennial to submillennial marine oscillations that are linked with the North Atlantic's Heinrich events and Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles have been reported recently from the Alboran Sea, revealing a close ocean-atmosphere coupling in the Mediterranean region. We present a high-resolution record of lithogenic fraction variability along IMAGES Core MD 95-2043 from the Alboran Sea that we use to infer fluctuations of fluvial and eolian inputs to the core site during periods of rapid climate change, between 28,000 and 48,000 cal yr B.P. Comparison with geochemical and pollen records from the same core enables end-member compositions to be determined and to document fluctuations of fluvial and eolian inputs on millennial and faster timescales. Our data document increases in northward Saharan dust transports during periods of strengthened atmospheric circulation in high northern latitudes. From this we derive two atmospheric scenarios which are linked with the intensity of meridional atmospheric pressure gradients in the North Atlantic region.

Keywords

Saharan dustDansgaard–Oeschger cyclesHeinrich eventsMediterranean regionend-member modellingteleconnections

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2002 , pp. 318 - 328
Copyright
University of Washington

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