Global and Planetary Change / Quaternary sediment sources and loess transport pathways in the Black Sea : Caspian Sea region identified by detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology

• Published in: Global and Planetary Change
• Main Authors: Költringer, Chiara, Stevens, Thomas, Lindner, Martin, Baykal, Yunus, Ghafarpour, Amin, Khormali, Farhad, Taratunina, Natalia, Kurbanov, Redzhep
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V. 2022
• Subjects: Detrital zircon U–Pb dating; Loess; Provenance; Sediment routing; East European Plain; Caspian Sea; glacier
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2022.103736; https://eplus.uni-salzburg.at/doi/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2022.103736; https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubs:3-23928

Constraining the controls on the distribution of sediment at a continental scale is a critical step in understanding long-term landscape and climate evolution. In particular, understanding of the role of rivers in wider sediment routing and impacts on aeolian loess formation on a continental scale remains limited. Extensive Quaternary loess deposits are present on the East European Plain and in the Black Sea - Caspian Sea region and are associated with major rivers draining numerous surrounding cratonic and orogenic hinterland areas. Coupled with this, complex changes in local and global sea level have affected the extent and drainage of the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, and Quaternary glaciations have impinged on the northern margin of the East European Plain. This suggests that sediment routing and loess formation may show complex patterns and controls. Here, we apply Usingle bondPb dating of detrital zircons from fluvial, marine and aeolian (dominantly loess) sedimentary records on the East European Plain and in the Black Sea - Caspian Sea region. This shows a strong control of large rivers on the distribution of sediments at a continental scale in the region, through long-distance transport of several 1000 km, sourced from continental and mountain glacier areas prior to marine or atmospheric reworking and transportation. Strong spatial variability in zircon Usingle bondPb data from loess deposits on the East European Plain reveals multiple diverse sources to the different individual loess sections, whereas no significant temporal variability in loess source is detected during the Late Pleistocene of the Lower Volga loess in South Russia. While the sediment supply from glacial areas via rivers plays an important role for the provenance of East European Plain loess deposits, our data indicate that the stark spatial diversity in loess provenance on the East European Plain is often driven by the input of multiple local sources. Similar to the loess, marine sediments from different basins of the Black Sea and ...