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Past climate and continentality inferred from ice wedges at Batagay megaslump in the Northern Hemisphere’s most continental region, Yana Highlands, interior Yakutia

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posted on 2023-06-09, 18:34 authored by Thomas Opel, Julian MurtonJulian Murton, Sebastian Wetterich, Hanno Meyer, Kseniia Ashastina, Frank Günther, Hendrik Grotheer, Gesine Mollenhauer, Petr P Danilov, Vasily Boeskorov, Grigoriy N Savvinov, Lutz Schirrmeister
Ice wedges in the Yana Highlands of interior Yakutia – the most continental region of the Northern Hemisphere –were investigated to elucidate changes in winter climate and continentality that have taken place since the Middle Pleistocene. The Batagay megaslump exposes ice wedges and composite wedges that were sampled from three cryostratigraphic units: the lower ice complex of likely pre-Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 age, the upper ice complex (Yedoma) and the upper sand unit (both MIS 3 to 2). A terrace of the nearby Adycha River provides a Late Holocene (MIS 1) ice wedge that serves as a modern reference for interpretation. The stable-isotope composition of ice wedges in the MIS 3 upper ice complex at Batagay is more depleted (mean d18O about-35‰) than those from 17otherice-wedge study sites across coastal and central Yakutia. This observation points to lower winter temperatures and therefore higher continentality in the Yana Highlands during MIS 3. Likewise, more depleted isotope values are found in Holocene wedge ice (mean d18O about-29‰) compared to other sites in Yakutia. Ice-wedge isotopic signatures of the lower ice complex (mean d18O about -33‰) and of the MIS 3–2 upper sand unit (mean d18O from about-33‰ to-30‰) are less distinctive regionally. The latter unit preserves traces of fast formation in rapidly accumulating sand sheets and of postdepositional isotopic fractionation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Climate of the Past

ISSN

1814-9324

Publisher

European Geosciences Union

Volume

15

Page range

1443-1461

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-08-06

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-08-06

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-08-05

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