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Dust transport and palaeoclimate during the Oldest Dryas in Central Europe — implications from varves (Lake Constance)

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Abstract

This paper evaluates evidence for seasonal loess deposits in peri-Alpine Lake Constance at the end of the last Glacial (Oldest Dryas chronozone). The usefulness of such lacustrine deposits for palaeoclimatic interpretations is discussed. The sedimentology of laminated couplets comprising yellow and grey silts has been investigated to test the hypothesis that the couplets are varves (i.e. annual rhythmites) comprising alternations of loess and glacial silt and clay. The laminae are mostly less than 1 mm thick and include from bottom to top: (1) a matrix of well-sorted, non-graded fine yellow silt with sand-size intraclasts, (2) coarsening-upward grey silt with a cap of fining-upward silt to clay. The latter is typical for varves in modern proglacial lakes and reflects summer and winter deposits (silt and clay, respectively). We propose that the lack of grading and the matrix supported fabric is indicative of aeolian transport and therefore interpret the yellow laminae as loess deposits. Volcanic glass intraclasts in the loess layers are probably derived from volcanic terrain to the west of the lake, indicating an easterly palaeowind direction. Deposition of loess in the lake occurred regularly at the beginning of each annual cycle, suggesting that the palaeowinds were associated with winter and/or spring conditions. Two transport scenarios are suggested to explain the sand grains scattered in this deep-water lacustrine record. 1. The grains may have been transported as bedload over the annual winter ice-cover of the lake under moderate wind strengths, frozen into the ice, and released for deposition during spring melt. 2. The sand grains were blown directly out onto the lake water by very strong winds during spring. The first scenario is contrary to the general view that loess was transported during summer, and that loess deposits thus reflect summer conditions only. Loess input to the lake shows a transitional decrease after ca. 14.3 kyr BP and cessation at ca. 14 kyr BP, probably as a result of a change of wind behaviour, increased humidity and/or vegetational changes during the Oldest Dryas in central Europe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Institute, ETH Zentrum, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Frank Niessen & Guy Lister

  2. Limnological Institute, University of Constance, Mainaustrasse 212, W-7750, Konstanz, Germany

    Federico Giovanoli

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  1. Frank Niessen
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  2. Guy Lister
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Niessen, F., Lister, G. & Giovanoli, F. Dust transport and palaeoclimate during the Oldest Dryas in Central Europe — implications from varves (Lake Constance). Climate Dynamics 8, 71–81 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00209164

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