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Muted climate variations in continental Siberia during the mid-Pleistocene epoch

Nature volume 418, pages 65–68 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

The large difference in carbon and oxygen isotope data from the marine record between marine oxygen isotope stage 12 (MIS 12) and MIS 11, spanning the interval between about 480 and 380 kyr ago, has been interpreted as a transition between an extremely cold glacial period and an unusually warm interglacial period, with consequences for global ice volume, sea level and the global carbon cycle1,2,3,4. The extent of the change is intriguing, because orbital forcing is predicted to have been relatively weak at that time5. Here we analyse a continuous sediment record from Lake Baikal, Siberia, which reveals a virtually continuous interglacial diatom assemblage, a stable littoral benthic diatom assemblage and lithogenic sediments with ‘interglacial’ characteristics for the period from MIS 15a to MIS 11 (from about 580 to 380 kyr ago). From these data, we infer significantly weaker climate contrasts between MIS 12 and 11 than during more recent glacial–interglacial transitions in the late Pleistocene epoch (about 130 to 10 kyr ago). For the period from MIS 15a to MIS 11, we also infer an apparent lack of extensive mountain glaciation.

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Figure 1: Lake Baikal palaeoclimate proxy records of the Brunhes chron.

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Acknowledgements

This study was implemented as a part of the Baikal Drilling Project, and was supported by the US National Science Foundation, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Ministry of Geology, the Science and Technology Agency (STA) of Japan, and the Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina. We acknowledge the efforts of the research groups of the Institute of Geochemistry and the Limnological Institute, Irkutsk, Russia, the team of Nedra Drilling Enterprise, Yaroslavl, Russia, and the crew of RV Ulan-Ude.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological Sciences, University of South Carolina, South Carolina, 29208, Columbia, USA

    Alexander A. Prokopenko, Douglas F. Williams & Eugene B. Karabanov

  2. United Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

    Alexander A. Prokopenko

  3. Institute of Geochemistry, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia

    Mikhail I. Kuzmin & Eugene B. Karabanov

  4. Institute of Geological Sciences, Minsk, 220141, Belarus

    Galina K. Khursevich

  5. Department of Geology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, 44325-4101, USA

    John A. Peck

Authors
  1. Alexander A. Prokopenko
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  2. Douglas F. Williams
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  3. Mikhail I. Kuzmin
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  4. Eugene B. Karabanov
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  5. Galina K. Khursevich
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  6. John A. Peck
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Correspondence to Alexander A. Prokopenko.

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Prokopenko, A., Williams, D., Kuzmin, M. et al. Muted climate variations in continental Siberia during the mid-Pleistocene epoch. Nature 418, 65–68 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00886

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