Registro de la variabilidad climática de escala milenaria durante el último cliclo glaciar en los sedimentos de la cuenca Argelo-Balear

Abstract

bulk element composition and grain-size distribution to characterize the temporal evolution of the terrigenous input to this area throughout the last 50 ka. The high-resolution elementary profiles show high frequency oscillations, particularly of Si, Ti and K contents, associated with terrigenous input variability. These fluctuations mark significant changes in the source areas and/or in the nature of transport and sedimentation processes most likely related to abrupt changes in oceanographic and atmospheric conditions. The Menorca core records were compared with the geochemical results of a previously studied core from the Alboran Sea, from where it became obvious a similar behaviour in some of the terrigeneous elements at both core locations. The obtained records vary with a clear Dansgaard-Oeschger periodicity reaching higher values during the North Atlantic's Heinrich Events. These results evidence the presence of a millennial-scale synchronous pattern in the Western Mediterranean in terms of deposition of terrigenous material. In addition, grain-size analyses of Menorca core reveal rhythmic episodes of coarser particle inputs during the Holocene likely related to shifts in the intensity of deep-water currents.