A Late Younger Dryas-Early Holocene tephrostratigraphy for Fosen, Central Norway

• Published in: Journal of Quaternary Science
• Main Authors: Lind, Ewa M., Wastegard, Stefan, Larsen, Jeppe J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2013
• Subjects: Greenland; Norway; Saksunarvatn; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/43859/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/43859/1/Lind.pdf; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/43859/2/LindSup1.docx; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/43859/3/LindSup2.docx; https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.2676

A number of rapid climate oscillations occur during the Lateglacial–Early Holocene, 15–8 ka BP period and a well-developed tephrostratigraphy in association with these oscillations increases the possibilities to correlate climate archives around the North Atlantic. This paper presents a tephrostratigraphy for Fosen peninsula, Central Norway. Both the Vedde Ash ca.12.1 ka BP and the Saksunarvatn Ash ~10.3 ka BP are important isochrones for correlations of Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental records in the North Atlantic region and have been assigned ages in GICC05. Beside these tephras we have also identified a new tephra, the Fosen Tephra, with a Borrobol-type geochemistry that occurs above both the Vedde Ash and the Saksunarvatn Ash with an age ~10.2 ka BP. Several tephras with Borrobol-type geochemistry have been identified around the North Atlantic. One group is the Borrobol/Penifiler tephras dated to Greenland Interstadial-1 and another group is dated to the Early Holocene. We suggest that some of the Early Holocene Borrobol-type tephras and the Fosen Tephra may actually be the same layer. If so, the Fosen Tephra is spread over a large area of the North Atlantic and has the potential to become an important marker for short-term climate variability in Scandinavia and in the northern hemisphere.