Sub‐millennial climate shifts in the western Mediterranean during the last glacial period recorded in a speleothem from Mallorca, Spain

Abstract

Very few high‐resolution and directly dated terrestrial archives of the last glacial period exist for the western Mediterranean region, yet this is a key locality for recording sub‐millennial North Atlantic and Mediterranean climate change. Here, we present evidence of effective precipitation changes based on growth history and δ 13 C of calcite in a Mallorcan stalagmite that grew between 112 and 48 ka. Effective precipitation in Mallorca appears to have been sensitive to proximal sea surface temperature variations and at certain times, ca. 76 ka for example, changed rapidly from moist to arid conditions in only a few centuries. A sea‐level highstand during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a interrupted growth. Regrowth started promptly after this, but effective precipitation decreased markedly for much of the later part of MIS 5a, and also for shorter periods correlative with Heinrich events H8 (ca. 90 ka) and H6 (ca. 65 ka), with growth ceasing during H5 (ca. 48 ka). Arid episodes in Mallorca appear to be expressions of extremely cold periods recorded further north in Europe and occur contemporaneously with rapid decreases in Greenland temperature. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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