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Paper No. 133-8
Presentation Time: 3:40 PM
PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTION OF A SPELEOTHEM FROM THE EL-KASSARAT CAVE, LEBANON
The paleoclimate reconstruction of a speleothem from El-Kassarat Cave, Lebanon (EKC-01), provides valuable information about the climate over the last ~62,000 years. The first round of dating and isotope analyses on the stalagmite was done at the Neptune Isotope Lab, University of Miami. The second round, which was sponsored by National Cave and Karst Research Institute and done at the Radiogenic Isotope Lab, University of New Mexico, provided a more detailed chronology. The oldest age is 62,000 years before present (yr BP) and the youngest is 400 yr BP. Two major hiatus periods were documented, one between 18,000 and 4,000 yr BP and one much older between 59,000 and 32,000 yr BP. The first hiatus is consistent with the one in Jeita Cave (Verheyden et al. 2008), located a few kilometers to the north, but lasted much longer. It might be related to a change in climatic conditions or maybe a shift in source water resulting from an earthquake, which is less likely because the growth rate in all stages of development is the same at 0.2 mm/year. Only the top part, the “candle stick,” was isotopically studied and some of that is Late Holocene growth with relatively “light” isotope values between 3,900 to 2,900 yr BP, which is exactly coeval with a wetter period defined in stalagmite JeG-stm-1 (Verheyden et al. 2015) from Jeita Cave. Another lighter isotopic period between 20,000 to 18,000 yr BP is comparable to other nearby records; however, lighter than the ones from Jeita Cave (Verheyden et al. 2008, 2015). While stalagmite growth is intermittent, we consider an interpretation that all the periods of growth in stalagmite EKC-01 could indicate wetter periods.
References
Verheyden, S., Nader, F. H., Cheng, H. J., Edwards, L. R., & Swennen, R. (2008). Paleoclimate reconstruction in the Levant region from the geochemistry of a Holocene stalagmite from the Jeita cave, Lebanon. Quaternary Research, 70(3), 368-381.
Verheyden, S., Nader, F., Swennen, R., and Genty, D. 2015. Paleoclimatic reconstructions for the Levant region: Stable isotopic signatures in cave water, recent calcite and speleothems from the Jeita and Qadisha caves, Lebanon. Séminaire EDYTEM.