10Be in Lake Lisan sediments — A proxy for production or climate?

Abstract

The geochemical behavior of 10Be in the modern Dead Sea hydrological–limnological system was studied in order to evaluate the feasibility of using Dead Sea and Lake Lisan (the late Pleistocene precursor of the Dead Sea) sediments as archives of the variations in the 10Be production rate. 10Be concentrations in detrital and aragonite material from Lake Lisan laminated sediments were compared to those measured in modern dust, terra rossa soil (aeolian in origin), loess from the Negev Desert, flood suspended load and waters along a rain-flood development pathway (the transition from rain to incipient runoff and fully developed floods). 10Be concentrations decreased throughout the flood development profile, from 8.2 × 10 3 atoms g − 1 in the runoff down to ~ 1 × 10 3 atoms g − 1 in Dead Sea brine due to fast removal of 10Be by the soil and dust particles. Thus, most of the 10Be in the lake is contained within the detrital sediments that collect the 10Be transported by particles from the surrounding terrain (e.g. desert dust with 1.6 ± 0.8 × 10 8 atoms g − 1 and terra rossa soil-material with up to 12.5 ± 0.5 × 10 8 atoms g − 1 ). The high-stand periods of Lake Lisan were characterized by annual deposition of silty-detritus sediments reflecting rapid transfer of desert dust to the lake by floods. Indeed, the bulk sediments of Lake Lisan (in which 10Be is associated mainly with silty-detritus) display 10Be concentrations similar to those of desert dust. This demonstrates that 10Be variations were modulated by climate (i.e., particle transport). Significant positive 10Be peaks (up to 1.6 × 10 8 atoms g − 1 ) appear during intervals of geomagnetic anomalies in Lake Lisan stratigraphy and in the global record (i.e. during the Laschamp geomagnetic event at ~ 41 ka BP). This indicates that 10Be atmospheric production signal is superimposed on the climatic 10Be variations. We conclude that after “de-trending” of the climatic signal, Lake Lisan sediments may be used as an archive for atmospheric 10Be production.