Middle and Late Pleistocene humid periods recorded in palaeolake deposits of the Nafud desert, Saudi Arabia

Rosenberg, Thomas M.; Preusser, Frank; Risberg, Jan; Plikk, Anna; Kadi, Khalid; Matter, Albert; Fleitmann, Dominik

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.03.017

Cited by 107 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…For northern Arabia, dates from interdune lacustrine and palustrine carbonates in the Nefud (JQ1, Petraglia et al, 2012) could potentially support relative stability of dune cores in these areas since c. MIS 7. Previous investigations (Rosenberg et al, 2013) identified a series of interdunal lakes across the Nefud dated to MIS 5, indicating that the main dune fields were in place before this period and likely played an important role in determining subsequent lake basin morphology. However, substantially refined Quaternary dune field Fig.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…In southern Arabia, additional moisture during these wetter episodes was produced by shifts in the northern limit of the Indian Ocean summer monsoon (Burns et al, 1998;Neff et al, 2001;Fleitmann et al, 2003Fleitmann et al, , 2007. While any potential incursion of Mediterranean moisture into northern Arabia (Waldmann, 2010;Blome et al, 2012;Drake et al, 2013) was likely spatially limited (see Vaks, 2010Vaks, , 2013, the enhancement of the East-African monsoon may have bought increased moisture to central and north-western Arabia (Herold and Lohmann, 2009;Rosenberg et al, 2013) broadly synchronously with the Indian Ocean Monsoon incursion into southern Arabia, and with a further potential contribution from low-level synoptic troughs along the Red Sea (Waldmann et al, 2010;Almazroui, 2011;de Vries et al, 2013). These climatic effects are linked to increased continental solar insolation with episodes of peak rainfall suggested to follow an eccentricity modulated precessional pattern (Blome et al, 2012;Drake et al, 2013;.…”

Section: Palaeohydrology and Hominin Dispersals In The Arabian Peninsulamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These climatic effects are linked to increased continental solar insolation with episodes of peak rainfall suggested to follow an eccentricity modulated precessional pattern (Blome et al, 2012;Drake et al, 2013;. Key wet phases are documented during marine isotope stages (MIS) 11 and 9 (Rosenberg et al, 2013) and 6, 5, 3 and 1 (see Parker, 2009;Drake et al, 2013 for detailed reviews).…”

Section: Palaeohydrology and Hominin Dispersals In The Arabian Peninsulamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Select radiocarbon dates were taken from lower wadi terraces in these systems during the QPSA studies (Al-Sayari and Z€ otl, 1978;Jado and Z€ otl, 1984). However, in light of the unreliability of some early radiocarbon dating highlighted by recent studies (Rosenberg et al, 2011(Rosenberg et al, , 2013, and the identification of Pleistocene terraces in more minor drainage elsewhere re-evaluation of some of these dates may be needed, and further Pleistocene terraces, if identifiable, could provide valuable data. There are now a series of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and UraniumeThorium (U/Th) dates indicating that varying levels of fluvial activity have occurred in south-central Arabia during wetter intervals of the midelate Pleistocene (Maizels, 1987;Blechschmidt et al, 2009;Mclaren et al, 2009;Parton et al, 2010Parton et al, , 2013Rose et al, 2011;Sitzia et al, 2012;Atkinson et al, 2013;Parton et al, 2015a), and these provide valuable data on local catchment activity.…”

Section: Requirements For Paleohydrological Mappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When in proximity to volcanic terrains the latter also contained igneous minerals such as hornblende and anorthite. Erroneous detections (27% of assessed deposits) were largely within the dune fields and consisted of either bleached white sands, often associated with palaeodune systems (particularly in the western Nefud-see Rosenberg et al, 2013) or weakly-incipient palaeosols with rhyzoliths ( Fig. 8; G and H).…”

Section: Palaeolake Field Accuracy Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Remote sensing and GIS techniques for reconstructing Arabian palaeohydrology and identifying archaeological sites

Breeze

Drake

Groucutt

et al. 2015

Quaternary International

107

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a b s t r a c tFreshwater availability is critical for human survival, and in the Saharo-Arabian desert belt repeated fluctuations between aridity and humidity over the Quaternary mean the distribution of freshwater was likely a primary control upon routes and opportunities for hominin dispersals. However, our knowledge of the spatio-temporal distribution of palaeohydrological resources within Arabia during MideLate Pleistocene episodes of climatic amelioration remains limited. In this paper we outline a combined method for remotely mapping the location of palaeodrainage and palaeolakes in currently arid regions that were formerly subject to more humid conditions. We demonstrate the potential of this approach by mapping palaeochannels across the whole Arabian Peninsula, and palaeolakes and marshes for select regions covering c. 10% of its surface. Our palaeodrainage mapping is based upon quantitative thresholding of HydroSHEDs data, which applies flow routing to Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, while our palaeolake mapping uses an innovative method where spectral classification of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery is used to detect palaeolake deposits within endorheic (closed) basins, before modelling maximum lake extents by flooding the basin to the level of the elevation of the highest detected deposit. Field survey in the Nefud desert and the Dawadmi and Shuwaymis regions of Saudi Arabia indicates accuracies of 86% for palaeodrainage mapping, and 96% for identifying former palaeolake basins (73% accuracy of classification of individual deposits). The palaeolake mapping method has also demonstrated potential for identifying surface and stratified archaeological site locations, with 76% of the surveyed palaeolake basins containing archaeological material, including stratified Palaeolithic archaeology. Initial examination of palaeodrainage in relation to archaeological sites indicates a relationship between mapped features and previously recorded Palaeolithic sites. An example of the application of these data for period-specific regional palaeohydrological and archaeological reconstructions is presented for a region of Northern Saudi Arabia covering the southern Nefud desert and adjacent lava fields.

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Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Palaeohydrology and Hominin Dispersals In The Arabian Peninsulamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Palaeohydrology and Hominin Dispersals In The Arabian Peninsulamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Requirements For Paleohydrological Mappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Palaeolake Field Accuracy Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Remote sensing and GIS techniques for reconstructing Arabian palaeohydrology and identifying archaeological sites

Breeze

Drake

Groucutt

et al. 2015

Quaternary International

107

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The unexpectedly short Holocene Humid Period in Northern Arabia

Neugebauer¹,

Dinies²,

Plessen³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The early to middle Holocene Humid Period led to a greening of today's arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. While this phase is well defined in North Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from Northern Arabia is lacking. Here we fill this gap with unprecedented annually to sub-decadally resolved proxy data from Tayma, the only known varved lake sediments in Northern Arabia. Based on stable isotopes, micro-facies analyses and varve and radiocarbon dating, we distinguish five phases of lake development and show that the wet phase in Northern Arabia from 8800-7900 years BP is considerably shorter than the commonly defined Holocene Humid Period (~11,000-5500 years BP). Moreover, we find a two century-long peak humidity at times when a centennial-scale dry anomaly around 8200 years BP interrupted the Holocene Humid Period in adjacent regions. The short humid phase possibly favoured Neolithic migrations into Northern Arabia representing a strong human response to environmental changes.

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Low‐latitude Holocene hydroclimate derived from lake sediment flux and geochemistry

Parker

Preston

Parton

et al. 2016

J Quaternary Science

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24This study investigates hydrological responses to climatic shifts using sediment flux data derived 25 from two dated palaeolake records in southeast (SE) Arabia. Flux values are generally low 26 during the early Holocene humid period (EHHP) (~9.0 to 6.4 k cal a BP) although several short-27 lived pulses of increased detrital input are recorded, the most prominent of which is dated 28 between ~8.3 and 7.9 k cal a BP. The EHHP is separated from the mid-Holocene humid period is noted that the abrupt, short-term phases of aridity observed in both records are coeval with 35 intervals of rapid climate change globally, which triggered non-linear, widespread landscape 36 reconfigurations throughout SE Arabia. 37 38

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Middle and Late Pleistocene humid periods recorded in palaeolake deposits of the Nafud desert, Saudi Arabia

Cited by 107 publications

References 55 publications

Remote sensing and GIS techniques for reconstructing Arabian palaeohydrology and identifying archaeological sites

Remote sensing and GIS techniques for reconstructing Arabian palaeohydrology and identifying archaeological sites

The unexpectedly short Holocene Humid Period in Northern Arabia

Low‐latitude Holocene hydroclimate derived from lake sediment flux and geochemistry

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