Environmental magnetism, geochemical measurements and colour reflectance of two sediment cores: GeoB4905-4 off Cameroon and GeoB4906-3 off Gabon, supplement to: Itambi, Achakie C; von Dobeneck, Tilo; Adegbie, Adesina T (2010): Millennial-scale precipitation changes over Central Africa during the late Quaternary and Holocene: evidence in sediments from the Gulf of Guinea. Journal of Quaternary Science, 25(3), 267-279

• Main Author: Itambi, Achakie C
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2010
• Subjects: Gravity corer Kiel type; M41/1; Meteor 1986; Center for Marine Environmental Sciences MARUM; ice core
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.734354; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.734354

We combine environmental magnetism, geochemical measurements and colour reflectance to study two late Quaternary sediment cores: GeoB 4905-4 at 2° 30 N off Cameroon and GeoB 4906-3 at 0° 44 N off Gabon. This area is suitable for investigating precipitation changes over Central and West Africa because of its potential to record input of aeolian and fluvial sediments. Three magnetozones representing low and high degree of alteration of the primary rock magnetic signals were identified. The magnetic signature is dominated by fine-grained magnetite, while residual haematite prevails in the reduced intervals, showing increase in concentration and fine grain size at wet intervals. Our records also show millennial-scale changes in climate during the last glacial and interglacial cycles. At the northern location, the past 5.5 ka are marked by high-frequency oscillations of Ti and colour reflectance, which suggests aeolian input and hence aridity. The southern location remains under the influence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and thus did not register aeolian signals. The millennial-scale climatic signals indicate that drier and/or colder conditions persisted during the late Holocene and are synchronous with the 900 a climatic cycles observed in Northern Hemisphere ice core records.