A speleothem perspective on millennial-scale climate change in south-eastern Europe during the last glacial

• Main Authors: Michael STAUBWASSER, Virgil DRAGUSIN, Sergey ASSONOV, Dirk L. HOFFMANN, Vasile ERSEK, Bogdan P. ONAC, Daniel VERES
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: „Ștefan cel Mare” University Press 2014
• Subjects: high-resolution stable o isotope; Science; Q; Science (General); Q1-390; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/284f412cea214fd3a04c411e5d4b99c1

High-resolution stable O isotope data from two U-Th dated speleothems from Romania, one from Tăuşoare cave in N Romania spanning the last 68 ka, and one from Ascunsă cave in S Romania spanning the interval between 47 ka and 30 ka BP record a regional N-S climate contrast in SE Europe during marine isotope stage 3. The Tăuşoare data-set records "Heinrich-stadial" type cold events (low δ18O) throughout MIS 3. While the magnitude of speleothem δ18O variability in N Romania is much less pronounced in comparison to Sofular cave in NW Turkey, the pacing is generally similar. That suggests a common response to Atlantic millennial scale climate variability as observed in the Greenland record, but without the magnification of the δ18O signal observed in NW Turkey due to a local Black Sea source effect. The short time-interval recorded in Ascunsă cave (S Romania), however, shows virtually no similarity in δ18O with the corresponding section at Tăuşoare in N Romania, but instead resembles the record from Soreq cave (Israel).