500,000 Years of Environmental History in Eastern Anatolia: The PALEOVAN Drilling Project

Abstract

International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) drilled a complete succession of the lacustrine sediment sequence deposited during the last ~500,000 years in Lake Van, Eastern Anatolia (Turkey). Based on a detailed seismic site survey, two sites at a water depth of up to 360 m were drilled in summer 2010, and cores were retrieved from sub-lake-floor depths of 140 m (Northern Basin) and 220 m (Ahlat Ridge). To obtain a complete sedimentary section, the two sites were multiple-cored in order to investigate the paleoclimate history of a sensitive semi-arid region between the Black, Caspian, and Mediterranean seas. Further scientific goals of the PALEOVAN project are the reconstruction of earthquake activity, as well as the temporal, spatial, and compositional evolution of volcanism as reflected in the deposition of tephra layers. The sediments host organic matter from different sources and hence composition, which will be unravelled using biomarkers. Pathways for migration of continental and mantle-derived noble gases will be analyzed in pore waters. Preliminary 40Ar/39Ar single crystal dating of tephra layers and pollen analyses suggest that the Ahlat Ridge record encompasses more than half a million years of paleoclimate and volcanic/geodynamic history, providing the longest continental record in the entire Near East to date. <br><br> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2204/iodp.sd.14.02.2012" target="_blank">10.2204/iodp.sd.14.02.2012</a>

Abrupt climate and vegetation variability of eastern Anatolia during the last glacial

“…1b) during the ICDP (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program) project PALEOVAN in summer 2010 Litt et al, 2012). Here we present data of the uppermost 3.87-41.72 m of the event-corrected composite record (mcblf-nE; depth scale, which excludes volcanic ash layers and mass flow deposits; Stockhecke et al, 2014a), representing the time span from 9.48-111.39 ka BP.…”

“…However, the interpretation of δ 18 O bulk is complex as it can be influenced by a number of climate variables, such as air and water temperature, seasonality of precipitation, moisture source and precipitation-to-evaporation ratio. According to Litt et al (2012Litt et al ( , 2009) and Lemcke and Sturm (1997), the δ 18 O bulk values of carbonates at Lake Van are primarily controlled by evaporation processes. Furthermore, Kwiecien et al (2014) and Pickarski et al (2015) mention that changes in seasonal rainfall have a significant effect on lake water isotope values.…”

“…Since the first long lacustrine sediment sequences were recovered at Lake Van in summer 2010 Litt et al, 2012), numerous high-resolution data have been gathered, providing insight into short-term changes in past climatic and environmental conditions in eastern Anatolia (e.g., XRF measurements described by Kwiecien et al, 2014; total organic carbon content (TOC), Stockhecke et al, 2014a). The sensitivity of this region was already welldocumented by previous palynological data sets covering the Late Glacial and the Holocene periods (Litt et al, 2009;Wick et al, 2003).…”

A new high-resolution pollen sequence at Lake Van, Turkey: insights into penultimate interglacial–glacial climate change on vegetation history

“…3) Previous studies at Lake Van (e.g., Kwiecien et al, 2014;Lemcke and Sturm, 1997;Litt et al, 2012Litt et al, , 2009Wick et al, 2003) have shown that the stable isotope signature of lake carbonates reflects the complex interaction between both regional climatic variables and local site-specific factors. Such climate variables are the moisture source, in this case the eastern Mediterranean Sea surface water and the storm trajectories coming from the Mediterranean Sea, as well as temperature changes.…”

“…357 m water depth; Fig. 1) was collected during the ICDP drilling campaign (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, www.icdp-online.org) PALEO-VAN in summer 2010 Litt et al, 2012). The ca.…”