Abstract
Abstract. A high resolution continuous reconstruction of last glacial wind directions is based on provenance analysis of eolian sediments in a sediment core from the Dehner dry Maar in the Eifel region (Germany). This Maar is suitable to archive easterly wind directions due to its location west of the Devonian carbonate basins of the Eifel-North-South-Zone. Thus, eolian sediments with high clastic carbonate content can be interpreted as an east wind signal. The detection of such east wind sediments is applied by a new module of the RADIUS grain size analyze technique. The investigated time period from 40.3–12.9 ka BP can be subclassified in three units: The first unit covers the periods of the ending GIS-9, H4, and GIS-8. With the exception of H4 (40–38 ka BP) the content of organics in our record is relatively high. With the end of GIS-8 (38–36.5 ka) the content of organics decrease and the content of dust increases rapidly. The second time slice (36–24 ka BP) has an increased content of dust accumulation and a high amount of east winds layers (up to 19% of the dust storms per century came from the east). In comparison, the subsequent period (24–12.9 ka BP) is characterized by lower east wind sediments again. Increased frequencies of east wind occur during the time intervals corresponding with the Heinrich events H1 and H2. The unusual H3 show no higher east wind frequency but so do its former and subsequent Greenland stadials. The late LGM (21–18 ka BP) is characterized by a slightly elevated east wind frequency again.
Highlights
The climate situation in Central Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Late Pleniglacial is characterized by high wind activity and relatively low precipitation (Huijzer and Vandenberghe, 1998; Hatteet al., 1998)
The investigated time period from 40.3–12.9 ka BP can be subclassified in three units: The first unit covers the periods of the ending Greenland Interstadial (GIS)-9, H4, and GIS-8
The sediment core De3 for this study comes from the Dehner Maar, which lies in the northwest of the western Eifel volcanic field (WEVF), north of the town of Reuth (Germany)
Summary
The climate situation in Central Europe during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Late Pleniglacial is characterized by high wind activity and relatively low precipitation (Huijzer and Vandenberghe, 1998; Hatteet al., 1998). The methods of generating proxy data contain relict dune forms in Central Belgium (Vandenberghe, 1991) and Poland (Godzik, 1991), grain size trends of cover sand and loess in the Netherlands (van Huissteden et al, 2001), provenance analyses by heavy mineral composition (Krook, 1993) and wind polished rock surfaces (Christiansen, 2004; Christiansen and Svensson, 1998; Vandenberghe et al, 1999) The balancing of these data with climate model results allows wind direction reconstruction for Central Europe for the LGM and the Late Pleniglacial (Renssen et al, 2007). Brauer et al (2008) have shown an abrupt increase in the strength of the westerlies during the YD at the Meerfelder Maar in the Eifel region Both models confirm the possibility of a higher number of east winds during the modeled periods. According to Hostetler et al (1999) the second phase, a combination of a lowered ice sheet thickness and an increased post-surge SST during the winter simulation, shows a high pressure cell over
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