Lake-level changes during the past 100,000 years at Lake Baikal, southern Siberia

Abstract

Lake-level changes inferred from seismic surveying and core sampling of the floor of Lake Baikal near the Selenga River delta can be used to constrain regional climatic history and appear to be correlated to global climate changes represented by marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS). The reflection pattern and correlation to the isotope stages indicate that the topset and progradational foreset sediments of the deltas formed during periods of stable lake levels and warm climatic conditions. During warm stages, the lake level was high, and during cold stages it was low. The drop in the lake level due to cooling from MIS 5 through MIS 4 is estimated to be 33–38 m; from MIS 3 through MIS 2, it fell an additional 11–15 m. Because the lake level is chiefly controlled by evaporation and river input, we infer that more water was supplied to Lake Baikal during warm stages.

When environmental changes do not cause geographic separation of fauna: differential responses of Baikalian invertebrates

“…(a) Inferred lake water level (relative to present) based on seismic survey of the delta of the Selenga River. The two lines (NW and SE) represent results obtained using the northwestern and southeastern (respectively) blocks of the delta (see reference [32] for details); adapted from reference [32], (b) changes in population size in G. fasciatus and M. herderiana (mean estimates; obtained in this study) and (c) diatom abundance inferred from sedimentary drill core BDP-93-2 (redrawn from [21]). In (c), solid triangles are the radiocarbon dates for the core BDP-93-1 [82,83] and squares are for core BDP-93-2; the arrow indicates the 50.3 Kyr BP correlation tie point for BDP-93 record [29].…”

“…Numerous strong environmental changes were identified during the Upper and Middle Pleistocene [21,26-29] and the Holocene [18,30,31]. Also there is evidence for water level fluctuations during periods of climatic cooling [32,33]. While Lake Baikal is known to have been affected by environmental changes, the lake's geological structure suggests that these changes have not affected the connectivity of habitats.…”

Catastrophic outburst and tsunami flooding of Lake Baikal: U–Pb detrital zircon provenance study of the Palaeo-Manzurka megaflood sediments

“…This shows a distinct peak at either 117 ± 28 or 126 ± 24 ka if the youngest and oldest TL ages are rejected. Either of these two values overlap within their large error bars with the timing of a 40 m drop in the water level of Lake Baikal, as having happened during the marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 5 on the basis of seismic profiling (Urabe et al 2004). If this water level drop is associated with the outburst flooding of the Palaeo-Manzurka, then the second 10-20 m water drop at MIS 3 is logically attributed to catastrophic outburst flooding of the Angara.…”

“…If this water level drop is associated with the outburst flooding of the Palaeo-Manzurka, then the second 10-20 m water drop at MIS 3 is logically attributed to catastrophic outburst flooding of the Angara. It should be mentioned that Urabe et al (2004) favoured the palaeoclimatic explanation for the water level changes. Figure 10.…”

“…Figure 10. Age probability histogram for TL ages (Trofimov et al 1999) recalculated using ISOPLOT v. 3.0 (Ludwig 2003 in comparison with reconstruction of the palaeo-level of Lake Baikal (Urabe et al 2004). The top figure shows the relative drop in water level during marine isotope stages (MIS) 5 and 3.…”