A 7.6-m core recovered from Lough Inchiquin, western Ireland provides evidence for rapid and long-term climate change from the Late Glacial period to the Mid-Holocene. We determined percentage of carbonate, total organic matter, mineralogy, and δ18Ocalcite values to provide the first high-resolution record of climate variability for this period in Ireland. Following deglaciation, rapid climate amelioration preceded large increases in GISP2 δ18Oice values by ∼2300 yr. The Oldest Dryas (15,100 to 14,500 cal yr B.P.) Late Glacial event is documented in this record as a decrease in δ18Ocalcite values. Brief warming at ∼12,700 cal yr B.P. was followed by characteristic Younger Dryas cold and dry climate conditions. A rapid increase in δ18Ocalcite values at ∼10,500 cal yr B.P. marked the onset of Boreal warming in western Ireland. The 8200 cal yr B.P. event is represented by a brief cooling in our record. Prior to general warming, a larger and previously undescribed climate anomaly between 7300 and 6700 cal yr B.P. is characterized by low δ18Ocalcite values with high-frequency variability.

No abstract

Microfossils from Cretaceous coal-bearing strata can be used to establish key stratigraphic surfaces that mark marine flooding events with intermediate-frequency (fourth-order) and high-frequency (fifth-order) periodicities. We document several examples of this cyclicity from the transgressive and regressive facies at the land-sea transition of the Greenhorn Marine Cycle on the Colorado Plateau. Estuarine strata from the upper Cenomanian Dakota and middle Turonian Straight Cliffs Formations yield four primary fossil assemblages: Assemblage A, the lagoonal assemblage, comprising a rich agglutinated foraminiferal population of Trochammina and Verneuilinoides and brackish ostracodes and molluscs in a skeletal shell accumulation; Assemblage B, the proximal estuarine assemblage, comprising the brackish ostracode Fossocytheridea, charophytes, and smooth admetopsid gastropods within bituminous coal zones giving rise to distal estuary with the addition of brackish gastropods and sparse agglutinated foraminifera in sandy marlstones; Assemblage C, the open-bay (distal estuarine) assemblage, comprising the ostracodes Fossocytheridea posterovata, Cytheromorpha, Looneyella, and Cytheropteron, the foraminifera Trochammina and Ammobaculites, and ornate brackish molluscs in calcareous shelly mudstones; and Assemblage D, the marsh, comprising an exclusive population of the foraminifera Trochammina, Miliammina, and Ammobaculites in rooted lignites. Intermediate flooding surfaces are marked by normal marine taxa that are superimposed on the background of a primary marginal marine assemblage. In general, intermediate flooding events approximate lithologic and biostratigraphic boundaries and record basin-wide paleoenvironmental changes with the advancing Greenhorn Sea. We correlate coal zones from the coast to maxima in calcium carbonate and planktic foraminifera in the offshore. The intermediate cycles approximate ammonite biostratigraphic zones and therefore maintain periodicities within the 100-400 kyr bandwidth. The onshore-offshore correlations suggest that a regional and perhaps global sea-level mechanism controlled the stratigraphic position of the coal zones. Superimposed on the intermediate cycles are higher-frequency cycles that represent short-lived flooding events. As many as six high-frequency cycles constitute an intermediate cycle, and therefore periodicities fall within an approximate 10-25 kyr range. The general asymmetry of the packages suggests that a combination of oceanographic, climatic, and autogenic processes influenced the high-frequency stratal architecture. Overall, the primary mechanism controlling the stratigraphic position of the coals was tectono-eustasy. Compactional processes and/or climate modulations contributed to the observed internal coalzone cyclicity that we interpret as a secondary coal-forming process.

No abstract

The southwestern region of the Dominican Republic (Enriquillo Valley) contains exceptionally well-preserved, relict marine and saline lake deposits of mid-Holocne age. Abundant euryhaline ostracodes found in this deposit include Cyprideis salebrosa, C. mexicana, C. similis, and C. edentata. Morphometric and geochemical analyses performed on Cyprideis spp. provide high d 18 O and d 13 C values that are coincident with relative abundances of irregularly shaped pores that permeate the ostracode carapace. We recognize three stratigraphic intervals with distinct ostracode pore shape and stable isotope trends: (I) a 4.5-5.0m interval that contains ostracodes with highly irregular shaped pores (multiradiate) and high amplitude variability in d 18 O and d 13 C values; (II) a 5.0-5.6m interval comprised of ostracodes with circular pores and an overall trend towards low d 18 O and d 13 C values; and (III) a 5.6-6.5m interval containing ostracodes with an upward increasing abundance of circular pore shapes coincident with decreasing d 18 O and d 13 C values. When the Enriquillo lagoon was first separated from the Caribbean Sea approximately 4.3 ka, an arid and evaporative climate led to hypersaline water in a restricted lagoon environment. By the middle to late-Holocene, increased precipitation in the valley resulted in a coastal lake system that became progressively oligohaline. Moderate to small amplitude variability in the salinity proxy data (d 18 O) suggest short-term oscillations in the precipitation-evaporation budgets at that time. At least two marine incursions likely contributed to the observed variability in ostracode d 18 O and d 13 C values. Evidence for abrupt changes in base level indicate that climatic factors or also tectonic activity may have contributed to the observed paleoenvironmental trends recorded in these deposits.