Clay-mineral record in Lake Baikal sediments: The Holocene and Late Glacial transition

Abstract

We analyse the clay-mineralogical composition of two 1-m long cores from elevated plateaus in the southern and northern basins of Lake Baikal. Our aim is to test the limits of classically used clay proxies for climate reconstructions. Mineralogical signature is determined by X-ray diffraction on oriented aggregates from Holocene and Late Glacial sediments. Mineralogical results are presented on a palaeomagnetic-derived time scale. Sampling at a centimeter resolution allows for a sub-millenial order reconstruction. The evolution of clay-derived climate proxies (smectite/illite peak intensity ratio, S/I) is compared between the two locations, with respect to other climate reconstructions for the Lake Baikal area and Siberia. During the Late Glacial punctual increases of S/I are related to changes of particle source rather than any climate change. At both sites the most intense chemical weathering conditions occured during the Subboreal, lagging the Eurasian middle Atlantic climate optimum. S/I follows a gradual but irregular increase through the Holocene, probably related to slow warming favourable to the development of the Siberian soils. The different sensitivity to hydrolysing conditions in northern and southern sites can be explained by a combination of local lithological and topographical parameters.