The Eastern Mediterranean paleoclimate as a reflection of regional events:Soreq cave, Israel

The climate of the Eastern Mediterranean region of the last 60 ky was deter mined by a high resolution study of the oxygen and carbon isotopic composit ion (1500 measurement pairs) of speleothems from the Soreq cave, Israel, wi th chronology provided by 53 precise Th-230-U-234 (TIMS) ages. The high pre cision of the speleothem TIMS ages permits us to determine the timing of re gional climatic events in the Eastern Mediterranean region and to see if th ey correlate with global events. During the period from 60 to 17 ky, the de lta(18)O and delta(13)C values were generally 2-2-5 parts per thousand high er than during the period from 17 ky to present. This is consistent with th e climatic transition from glacial to interglacial. Within the 60 to 17 ky period, the Soreq cave stable isotope profile includes four cold peaks (at 46, 35, 25 and 19 ky) and 2 warm peaks (at 54 and 36 ky). In addition, the period <17 ky has two more cold peaks at 16.5 and from 13.2 to 11.4 ky. The ages of four of the six cold peaks correlate well with the ages of three H einrich events (H1, H2, H5) and with the age of the Younger Dryas. However, the other two Heinrich events are not reflected in the Soreq cave record. Several other isotope peaks which appear during the last 7 ky are contempor aneous with regional climatic events in the Middle East and Noah Africa. In addition to the drop in delta(18)O and delta(13)C observed between the l ast glacial and the Holocene, sharp simultaneous drops in (U-234/U-238)(0) ratios, Sr concentrations and in Sr-87/Sr-86 are also observed, suggesting that the latter are climate related. These variations are interpreted in te rms of major changes in the temperature, the mean annual rainfall and its i sotopic composition, the isotopic composition of the Mediterranean vapor so urce, the soil moisture conditions, and in the mixing proportions of source s with different Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios (sea spray, dust particles and dolomiti c host rock). (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.