Reconstruction of past climate conditions over central Europe from groundwater data

• Published in: Quaternary Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Corcho Alvarado, J.A., Leuenberger, M., Kipfer, R., Paces, T., Purtschert, R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2011
• Subjects: groundwater; climate reconstruction; noble gases; stable isotopes; Holocene; last glacial maximum; Ice; Ice Sheet; permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.09.003

Here we present a 30 000 years low-resolution climate record reconstructed from groundwater data. The investigated site is located in the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, in the corridor between the Scandinavian ice sheet and the Alpine ice field. Noble gas temperatures (NGT), obtained from groundwater data, preserved multicentennial temperature variability and indicated a cooling of at least 5–7 °C during the last glacial maximum (LGM). This is further confirmed by the depleted δ 18 O and δ 2 H values at the LGM. High excess air (ΔNe) at the end of the Pleistocene is possibly related to abrupt changes in recharge dynamics due to progression and retreat of ice covers and permafrost. These results agree with the fact that during the LGM permafrost and small glaciers developed in the inner valleys of the Giant Mountains (located in the watershed of the aquifers). A temporal decrease of deuterium excess from the pre-industrial Holocene to present days is linked to an increase of the air temperatures, and probably also to an increase of water pressure at the source region of precipitation over the past few hundred years.