Holocene storminess inferred from sediments of two lakes on Adak Island, Alaska

The abundance of sedimentary organic material from two lakes was used to infer past Holocene storminess on Adak Island where frequent storms generate abundant rainfall and extensive cloud cover. Andrew and Heart Lakes are located 10 km apart; their contrasting physical characteristics cause the sedimentary organic matter to respond differently to storms. Their records were synchronized using correlated tephra beds. Sedimentation rates increased between 4.0 and 3.5 ka in both lakes. Over the instrumental period, Andrew Lake biogenic-silica content (BSi) is most strongly correlated with winter sunlight availability, which influences photosynthetic production, and river input, which influences the dilution of BSi by mineral matter. Heart Lake BSi is likely affected by wind-driven remobilization of sediment, as suggested by correlations among BSi, the North Pacific Index, and winter storminess. The results indicate relatively stormy conditions from 9.6 to 4.0 ka, followed by drying between 4.0 and 2.7 ka, with the driest conditions from 2.7 to 1.5 ka. The stormiest period was between AD 500 and 1200, then drying from 1150 to 1500 and more variable until 1850. This record of Holocene storminess fills a major gap at the center of action for North Pacific wintertime climate.

Holocene · Period (music) · Physical geography · Sediment · Sedimentary rock · Sedimentation · Storm · Tephra · Volcano · Geological formations and processes · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena · Oceanography · Paleontology

• A 7300-yr-old environmental history of seabird, human, and volcano impacts on Carlisle Island (the Islands of Four Mountains, eastern Aleutians, Alaska)

  Open Access•E A Kuzmicheva, O I Smyshlyaeva et al.•Quaternary Research•2019

  Incluir item

• Reconstructing postglacial hydrologic and environmental change in the eastern Kenai Peninsula lowlands using proxy data and mass balance modeling

  Open Access•Ellie Broadman, Darrell S Kaufman et al.•Quaternary Research•2022

  Incluir item

• Instances of avian osteoarthritis from the Unalaska Sea Ice Project, Unalaska Island, Alaska

  Open Access•Ariel Taivalkoski, C Funk et al.•International Journal of…•2021

  Incluir item

• Late Quaternary distal tephra-fall deposits in lacustrine sediments, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

  Open Access•Christian S de Fontaine, Darrell S Kaufman et al.•Quaternary Research•2007

  Incluir item

• Regional atmospheric circulation change in the North Pacific during the Holocene inferred from lacustrine carbonate oxygen isotopes, Yukon Territory, Canada

  Open Access•Lesleigh Anderson, Mark B Abbott et al.•Quaternary Research•2005

  Incluir item

• Methods and code for ‘classical’ age-modelling of radiocarbon sequences

  Open Access•Martijn Blaauw, Maarten Blaauw•Quaternary Geochronology•2010

  Incluir item

• Macintosh Program performs time‐series analysis

  Open Access•Didier Paillard, Laurent Labeyrie et al.•Eos•1996

  Incluir item

• The Mt Logan Holocene—late Wisconsinan isotope record

  Open Access•David Fisher, E C Osterberg et al.•The Holocene•2008

  Incluir item