Sediment Cores from White Pond, South Carolina, contain a Platinum Anomaly, Pyrogenic Carbon Peak, and Coprophilous Spore Decline at 12.8 ka

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Moore, Christopher R., Brooks, Mark J., Goodyear, Albert C., Ferguson, Terry A., Perrotti, Angelina G., Mitra, Siddhartha, Listecki, Ashlyn M., King, Bailey C., Mallinson, David J., Lane, Chad S., Kapp, Joshua D., West, Allen, Carlson, David L., Wolbach, Wendy S., Them, Theodore R., Harris, M. Scott, Pyne-O’Donnell, Sean
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Greenland; White Pond; Carbon Peak
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1624501; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1624501; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51552-8

A widespread platinum (Pt) anomaly was recently documented in Greenland ice and 11 North American sedimentary sequences at the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) event (~12,800calyr BP), consistent with the YD Impact Hypothesis. We report high-resolution analyses of a 1-meter section of a lake core from White Pond, South Carolina, USA. After developing a Bayesian age-depth model that brackets the late Pleistocene through early Holocene, we analyzed and quantifed the following: (1) Pt and palladium (Pd) abundance, (2) geochemistry of 58 elements, (3) coprophilous spores, (4) sedimentary organic matter (OC and sedaDNA), (5) stable isotopes of C (δ13C) and N (δ15N), (6) soot, (7) aciniform carbon, (8) cryptotephra, (9) mercury (Hg), and (10) magnetic susceptibility. We identifed large Pt and Pt/Pd anomalies within a 2-cm section dated to the YD onset (12,785±58calyr BP). These anomalies precede a decline in coprophilous spores and correlate with an abrupt peak in soot and C/OC ratios, indicative of large-scale regional biomass burning. We also observed a relatively large excursion in δ15N values, indicating rapid climatic and environmental/hydrological changes at the YD onset. Our results are consistent with the YD Impact Hypothesis and impact-related environmental and ecological changes.