Dead Sea drawdown and monsoonal impacts in the Levant during the last interglacial
Introduction
The Dead Sea is a hypersaline, terminal lake occupying the lowest surface on Earth's continents, whose water surface is currently at ∼428 m below mean sea level (mbsl), and whose large (∼40 000 km2) watershed spans the Mediterranean and the Saharo–Arabian climate zones (Fig. 1). Its volume increases during glacials and declines during interglacials, with amplified positive and negative responses of its levels, respectively. The mineralogy, grain sizes, and chemical and isotope compositions of the lake deposits reflect the regional climate during past glacial-interglacial cycles (Enzel et al., 2008, Stein, 2001). Studies of the Holocene Dead Sea, the last glacial Lake Lisan, and earlier Pleistocene lake cycles (i.e., Lake Amora), based mainly on exposed deposits along the lake margins, show close connections between Northern Hemisphere (NH) climate changes and water levels, water chemistry, and sediment lithology on glacial-interglacial to millennial time-scales (Bartov et al., 2003, Haase-Schramm et al., 2004, Kushnir and Stein, 2010, Prasad et al., 2004, Torfstein et al., 2013b). For example, since the Last Glacial Maximum and during the last deglaciation (∼24–11 ka), lake level dropped from its glacial high-stand of ∼160 mbsl to below 460 mbsl at the Bølling–Allerød (Stein et al., 2010), stabilizing at a Holocene (average) level of ∼400 mbsl. However, margin exposures cover limited time-intervals and mainly sediments deposited during the last glacial Lake Lisan (e.g., Bartov et al., 2002); continuous sedimentation has occurred only in the deepest part of the lake. The Dead Sea Deep Drilling Project (DSDDP) conducted in 2010–2011 under the auspices of the Intercontinental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), recovered a detailed sedimentary record going back to MIS7, from the deepest basin of the modern lake (Neugebauer et al., 2014). The drilling took place at a lake depth of 297 m, and the coring reached 456 m below the lake floor (mblf), recovering otherwise hidden sedimentary sections of the last interglacial low-stand lake.
This study presents a 200 kyr climate record from the DSDDP core and focuses on the climate history of the Levant during the last interglacial MIS5. This time interval has relevance in the context of climate models indicating a more arid Middle East with increasing global temperatures (e.g., Held and Soden, 2006), thus implying increased future fresh water scarcity in a water-starved and politically unstable region. Because the last interglacial peak (MIS5e, between ∼135–116 ka; Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005) was characterized by stronger insolation, warmer global temperatures, higher sea levels, and smaller continental ice sheets compared to the Holocene, the DSDDP core record provides a test of such predictions; thus, it serves as an analogue for a future warmer world. Our results show both extreme hyperaridity during MIS5e, including an unprecedented drawdown of Dead Sea water levels, as well as important impacts of a particularly strong precession-controlled African monsoon that generated a major sapropel (S5; Rohling et al., 2002, Rossignol-Strick, 1985) in the eastern Mediterranean.
Section snippets
Sedimentary records of the Dead Sea lakes and their hydroclimate connection
Previous studies on marginal terraces and short cores drilled along the Dead Sea shores have revealed that the lithology of the lacustrine sections directly reflects the watershed hydro-climatology (e.g., Begin et al., 1974, Bookman (Ken-Tor) et al., 2004, Haase-Schramm et al., 2004, Migowski et al., 2006, Stein et al., 1997, Yechieli et al., 1993). A wet hydrological regime is represented by summer deposition of primary (evaporitic) aragonitic laminae. These laminae alternate with detrital
UTh ages and age model
UTh ages were obtained on primary aragonites that comprise thin laminae of the aad facies throughout the core. Analytical procedures are summarized in the Supplementary Material. The approach to achieve UTh (calendar) ages from the primary aragonites of the late Quaternary Dead Sea lacustrine sections was developed over several decades of research (Haase-Schramm et al., 2004, Kaufman, 1971, Kaufman et al., 1992, Schramm et al., 2000, Torfstein et al., 2013a). The Dead Sea aragonites have been
Chronology and stratigraphy of the DSDDP MIS5 interval
From the DSDDP core litho-stratigraphy, a first order observation is that glacial terminations and interglacials are characterized by halite, gypsum, and laminated silt clastics (Fig. 2). The glacial intervals display thick sequences of the aad facies with some gypsum and silts during drier intervals (Fig. 2). Here, we focus on the last interglacial MIS5 interval (328–177 mblf), comprising thick halite sequences interspersed with intermittent gypsum, sequences of silt layers, and some sequences
Climate control on the East Mediterranean–Levant hydrology
The DSDDP sedimentary column provides a surprising perspective on the last interglacial climate in the Levant. Based on the long term relationships between sedimentary facies and climate in the Dead Sea basin, a more arid-related sediment facies (halite, gypsum and silt) would be expected to dominate during NH summer insolation maxima (MIS 5a, c, e) and wetter facies (silt and aad) during summer insolation minima (MIS5b, d). Accordingly, the MIS5e interglacial peak at ∼128–122 ka is expected to
Summary and conclusions
Recent drilling by the Dead Sea Deep Drilling Project in the deepest basin of the hypersaline Dead Sea at ∼723 mbsl recovered sediment cores that record the late Quaternary limnological history of the lake and the hydro-climatic history of its watershed between the present day and MIS7 at ∼200 ka. This study focuses on the last interglacial period (MIS5), including new observations regarding the impacts of particularly intense precession-driven monsoons at the mid subtropical latitude of the
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the International Continental Scientific Drilling Foundation (ICDP), Israel Science Foundation (ISF), and US NSF (grant EAR 11-15312 to SLG and Emi Ito) for funding the coring, and DOSECC (Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earth's Continental Crust) for performing the drilling operation. The cores were opened and described by a large team under the auspices of the Professor A. Brauer at GFZ-Potsdam. We wish to thank the many participants who took part in the drilling
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