Obliquity forcing of Quaternary glaciation and environmental changes in NE Siberia

Abstract

Reconstructing Quaternary glacial and environmental changes in the vast, high-northern latitudes of Siberia is essential for a better understanding of global past climate variability and its potential solar forcings. Two sediment outcrops in the Dyanushka Valley in the southwestern foreland of the Verkhoyansk Mountains, northeast Siberia, were investigated using a multi-proxy approach (lithostratigraphy, geochemistry, palynology, and radiocarbon and IRSL dating). Three piedmont glaciations reached the outcrop sites. The glacial advances are dated to >140, ∼119–92 and ∼78–53 ka and thus, within dating uncertainties, correspond to obliquity minima during marine isotope stages (MIS) 6, 5d, and 4. This chronology corroborates and refines previous studies that have documented the successively more restricted glacial extents in Siberia during the course of the last glacial cycle. The observed glaciation pattern is out of phase with global ice volume estimates and probably indicates a strong aridisation trend. Additionally, the results show that the geochemical and mineralogical composition of the sediments contains information about provenance. Sediments originating from the Verkhoyansk Mountains are generally enriched in TiO 2, MgO, P 2O 5, Fe 2O 3, Cr, illite, and chlorite, whereas sediments derived from the Lena River contain more expandable clay minerals, Ba, Sr. Alkane patterns as biomarker proxies turn out to be particularly valuable where poor preservation of pollen is an issue, and, generally speaking, vegetation reconstruction helps distinguishing between ‘warm versus cold mode’ sediments.