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www.clim-past-discuss.net/5/2157/2009/
doi:10.5194/cpd-5-2157-2009
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under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
The reconstruction of paleo wind directions for the Eifel region (Central Europe) during the period 40.3–12.9 ka BP
Institute for Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
Abstract. A continuous reconstruction of last glacial wind directions is based on provenance analysis of eolian sediments in a sediment core from the Dehner dry Maar in the Eifel region (Germany). This Maar is suitable to archive paleo wind directions due to its location west of the Devonian carbonate basins of the Eifel-North-South-Zone. Thus, eolian sediments with high clastic carbonate content can be interpreted as an east wind signal. The detection of such east wind sediments is applied by a new module of the RADIUS grain size analyze technique. Increased frequencies of east wind occur during the time intervals corresponding with the Heinrich events H1 and H2. The unusual H3 show no higher east wind frequency but so do its former and subsequent Greenland stadials. The LGM (21–18 ka BP) is characterized by a slightly elevated east wind activity. The investigated time period from 40.3–12.9 ka BP can be subclassified in three units: The first time period during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (40.3–36 ka BP) is controlled by relative warm climate leading to an enriched content of organic matter in the sediment. Thus, there is only little accumulation of dust in the Eifel region and Heinrich 4 is not recorded in the archive by our dust proxy. The second time slice (36–24 ka BP) has an increased content of dust accumulation and a high amount of east winds layers (up to 19% of the dust storms per century came from the east). In comparison, the subsequent period (24–12.9 ka BP) is characterized by lower east winds sediments again.
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Notice on Discussion StatusCitation: Dietrich, S. and Seelos, K.: The reconstruction of paleo wind directions for the Eifel region (Central Europe) during the period 40.3–12.9 ka BP, Clim. Past Discuss., 5, 2157-2176, doi:10.5194/cpd-5-2157-2009, 2009. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
