Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

Sedimentology, clay mineralogy and grain-size as indicators of 65 ka of climate change from El’gygytgyn Crater Lake, Northeastern Siberia

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Journal of Paleolimnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

El’gygytgyn Crater Lake, NE Siberia was investigated for sedimentological proxies for regional climate change with a focus on the past 65 ka. Sedimentological parameters assessed relative to magnetic susceptibility include stratigraphy, grain size, clay mineralogy and crystallinity. Earlier work suggests that intervals of high susceptibility in these sediments are coincident with warmer (interglacial-like) conditions and well-mixed oxygenated bottom waters. In contrast, low susceptibility intervals correlate with cold (glacial-like) conditions when perennial ice-cover resulted in anoxia and the dissolution of magnetic carrier minerals.

The core stratigraphy contains both well-laminated to non-laminated sequences. Reduced oxygen and lack of water column mixing preserved laminated sequences in the core. A bioturbation index based upon these laminated and non- laminated sequences co-varies with total organic carbon (TOC) and magnetic susceptibility.

Clay mineral assemblages include illite, highly inter-stratified illite/smectite, and chlorite. Under warm or hydrolyzing conditions on the landscape around the lake, chlorite weathers easily and illite/smectite abundance increase, which produces an inverse relationship in the relative abundance of these clays. Trends in relative abundance show distinct down-core changes that correlate with shifts in susceptibility. The mean grain-size (6.92 µm) is in the silt-size fraction, with few grains larger than 65 µm. Terrigenous input to the lake comes from over 50 streams that are filtered through storm berms, which limits clastic deposition into the lake system. The sedimentation rate and terrigenous input grain-size is reduced during glacial intervals. Measurements of particle-size distribution indicate that the magnetic susceptibility fluctuations are not related to grain size.

Lake El’gygytgyn’s magnetic susceptibility and clay mineralogy preserves regional shifts in climate including many globally recognized␣events like the Younger Dryas and Bolling/Allerod. The sedimentary deposits reflect the climatic transitions starting with MIS4 through the Holocene transition. This work represents the first extensive sedimentological study of limnic sediment proxies of this age from Chukotka (Fig. 1).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

References

  • Andersen DW, Wharton RA Jr, Squyres SW (1993) Terrigenous clastic sedimentation in Antarctic Dry Valley Lakes. Antarct Res Ser 59:71–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson PM, Lozhkin AV (eds) (2002) Late Quaternary vegetation and climate of Siberia and the Russian far east: a palynological and radiocarbon database. NOAA Paleoclimatology and North East Science Center, Magadan, pp 369

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson PM, Lozhkin AV, Brubaker LB (2002) Implications of a 24,000-yr palynological record for a Younger Dryas cooling and for boreal forest development in northeastern Siberia. Quaternary Res 57:325–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson PM, Edwards ME, Brubaker LB (2004) Results and paleoclimate implications of 35 years of paleoecological research in Alaska. Development in Quaternary Science: the quaternary period in the United States, vol I. pp 427–440

  • Al-Borno A, Tomson MB (1994) The temperature dependence of the solubility product constant of vivianite. Geochim Cosmochim Ac 58:5373–5378

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ariztegui D, Chondrogianni C, Lami A, Guilizzoni P, Lafargue EJ (2001) Lacustrine organic matter and the Holocene paleoenvironmental record of Lake Albano (central Italy). J Paleolimnol 26:283–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Behl RJ (1995) Sedimentary facies and sedimentology of the Late Quaternary Santa Barbara Basin (ODP Site 893) Proc. O.D.P., Sci. Res., 146: part II, College Station, TX (Ocean Drilling Program), pp 295–308

  • Behl RJ, Kennett JP (1996) Brief interstadial events in the Santa Barbara Basin, NE Pacific, during the past 60 kyr. Nature 379:243–246

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Belyi VF (1982) The El‘gygytgyn lake basin—meteoritic crater or geological structure of the newest stage of the evolution of the Central Chukotka? [in Russian] Pacific Geology 5:85–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Belyi VF, Chereshnev IA (eds) (1993) The nature of the El’gygytgyn Lake Hollow. [in Russian] Magadan FEB Russ Ac Sci, p 250

  • Belyi VF, Belya BV, Raikevich MI, (1994) Pliocene deposits of upstream of the Enmyvaam River and the age of impactogenesis in the El’gygytgyn Lake Hollow. [in Russian]. Magadan, NESRI FEB Russ Ac Sci, p 24

  • Berner RA (1971) Principles of chemical sedimentation. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 270

    Google Scholar 

  • Biscaye PE (1964) Distinction between kaolinite and chlorite in recent sediments by X-ray diffraction. Am Mineral 49:1281–1289

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Blaise B (1989) Clay-mineral assemblages from late Quaternary deposits on Vancouver Island, southwester British Columbia, Canada. Quaternary Res 31:41–56

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brigham-Grette J, Melles M, Minuk PS (2007) Overview and significance of a 250 ka Paleoclimate Record from El’gygytgyn Crater Lake, NE Russia. J Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9017-6 (this issue)

  • Brigham-Grette J, Lozhkin AV, Anderson PM, Glushkova OY (2004) Paleoenvironmental conditions in Western Beringia before and during the Last Glacial Maximum. In: Madsen DB (ed) Northeast Asia and Beringia before the last glacial maximum. Univ. of Utah Press, Entering America, pp. 29–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamley H (1989) Clay sedimentology. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany, 623 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Forman SL, Pierson J, Gómez J (2007) Luminescence geochronology for sediments from Lake El’gygytgyn, northeast Siberia, Russia: constraining the timing of paleoenvironmental events for the past 200 ka. J␣Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9024-7 (this issue)

  • Francus P (2001) Quantification of bioturbation in hemipelagic sediments via thin-sections image analysis. J␣Sediment Res 71:501–507

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Francus P, Asikainen CA (2001) Sub-sampling unconsolidated sediments: a solution for the preparation of undisturbed thin-sections from clay-rich sediments. J␣Paleolimnol 26:323–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gale SJ, Hoare PG (1991) Quaternary sediments: petrographic methods for the study of unlithifed rocks. Belhaven Press, NY, 323 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Glushkova OYu (1993) In: Bely VF, Chereshnev IA (eds) The nature of the El’gygytgyn Lake Hollow. Russ Ac Sci, 26–48

  • Glushkova OYu, Smirnov VN (2007) Pliocene to Holocene geomorphic evolution and paleogeography of the El’gygytgyn Lake region, NE Russia. J Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9021-x (this issue)

  • Grootes PM, Stuiver M, White JWC, Johnsen SJ, Jouzel J (1993) Comparison of oxygen isotope records from the GISP2 and GRIP Greenland ice cores. Nature 366:552–554

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hu SF and Shemesh A (2003) A biogenic-silica δO18 record of climatic change during the last glacial-interglacial transition in southwestern Alaska. Quaternary Res 59:379–385

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Imbrie J, Berger A, Boyle EA, Clemens SC, Duffy A, Howard WR, Kukla G, Kutzbach LC, Martinson J, McIntyre DG, Mix A, Molfino AC, Morley B, Peterson JJ, Pisias NG, Prell WL, Raymo ME, Shackleton NJ, Toggweiler JR (1993) On the structure and origin of major glaciation cycles, 2, The 100,000-year cycle. Paleoceanography 8:699–735

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Last WM (2001) Textural analysis of lake sediments. In: Last WM, Smol JP (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments: physical and chemical techniques. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp 41–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Layer PW (2000) Argon-40/argon-39 age of the El’gygytgyn impact event, Chichotka, Russia. Meteorit Planet Sci 581–599

  • Lozhkin AV, Anderson PM (1996) A late Quaternary pollen record from Elikchan 4 Lake, northeast Siberia. Geol Pac Ocean 12:609–616

    Google Scholar 

  • Lozhkin AV, Anderson PM, Matrosova1 TV, Minyuk PS (2007) Vegetation and climate histories of Elgygytgyn Lake, Northeast Siberia. J Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9018-5 (this issue)

  • Malo BA (1997) Partial extraction of metals from aquatic sediments. Environ Sci Technol 277–282

  • Mackay AW, Battarbee RW, Flower RJ, Jewson D, Lees JA, Ryves DB, Sturm M (2000) The deposition and accumulation of endemic planktonic diatoms in the sediments of Lake Baikal and an evaluation of their potential role in climate reconstruction during the Holocene. Terra Nostra 9:34–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Melles M, Brigham-Grette J, Glushodova OYu, Minyuk PS, Nowaczyk N, Hubberten HW (2007) Sedimentary geochemistry of a pilot core from Lake El’gygytgyn—a sensitive record of climate variability in the East Siberian Arctic during the past three climate cycles. J␣Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9025-6 (this issue)

  • Minyuk PS, Brigham-Grette J, Melles M, Borkhodoev VYa, Glushkova OYu (2007) Inorganic geochemistry of El’gygytgyn Lake sediments, northeastern Russia, as an␣indicator of paleoclimatic change for the last 250 kyr. J Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9027-4 (this issue)

  • Moore DM, Reynolds RC Jr (1989) X-Ray Diffraction and the identification and analysis of clay Minerals. Oxford University Press, 332 pp

  • Mothersill JS (1996) The formation of vivianite-rich nodules in Lake Victoria. In: Johnson TC, Odada EO (eds) The Limnology, climatology and Paleoclimatology of the East African Lakes. Gordon and Breach Publ, Amsterdam, pp 53–548

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller J (2000) Late Pliocene environmental history of SE␣Siberia as inferred from Lake Baikal sediments. Dissertation des Alfred-Wegener-Institus, Potsdam, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  • Nealson KH (1997) Sediment bacteria: Who’s there, what are they doing, and what’s new? Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci 25:403–434

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Niessen F, Gebhardt AC, Kopsc C, Wagner B (2007) Seismic investigation of the El’gygytgyn impact crater lake: preliminary results. J Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9022-9 (this issue)

  • Nolan M, Brigham-Grette J (2007) Basic hydrology, limnology, and meteorology of modern Lake El’gygytgyn, Siberia. J Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9020-y (this issue)

  • Nowaczyk NR, Minyuk PS, Melles M, Brigham-Grette J, Glushkova OYu, Nolan M, Lozhkin AV, Stetsenko TV, Andersen P, Forman SL (2002) Magnetostratigraphic results from impact crater Lake El’gygytgyn, North-eastern Siberia: a 300 kyr long high-resolution terrestrial paleoclimate record from the Arctic. Geophyss J Int 150:109–126

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nowaczyk NR, Melles M, Minyuk PS (2007) A revised age model for core PG1351 from Lake El’gygytgyn, Chukotka, based on magnetic susceptibility variations tuned to northern hemisphere insolation variations. J␣Paleolimnol DOI 10.1007/s10933-006-9023-8 (this issue)

  • Nriagu JO, Dell CI (1974) Diagenetic formation of iron phosphates in recent lake sediments. Am Mineral 59:943–946

    Google Scholar 

  • Overpeck J, Hughen K Hardy D, Bradley R, Case R, Douglas M, Finney B, Gajewski K, Jacoby G, Jennings A, Lamoureux SK, Lasca A, MacDonald G, Moore J, Retelle M, Smith S, Wolfe A, Zienlinski G (1997) Artic environmental change of the last four centuries. Science 278:1251–1256

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Peck JA, King JW, Colman SM, Kravchinsky VA (1994) A rock-magnetic record from Lake Baikal, Siberia: evidence for Late Quaternary climate change. Earth Planet Sci Lett 221–238

  • Perren B, Bradley RS, Francus P (2003) Rapid lacustrine response to recent High Arctic warming: a diatom record from Sawtooth Lake, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Arct Antarct Alp Res 35:271–278

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petschick R, Kuhn G, Gingele F (1996) Clay mineral distribution in surface sediments of the South Atlantic: sources, transport, and relation to oceanography. Mar Geol 130:203–229

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Priscu JP, Fritsen CH, Adams EE, Giovannoni SJ, Pearl HW, McKay CP, Doran PT, Gordon DA, Lanoil BD, Pinckney JL (1998) Perennial Antarctic lake ice: an oasis for life in a polar desert. Science 280:2095–2098

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sutinen R, Haavikko P, Hanninen P (1993) Consistency of Particle size analysis of Geological Earth materials and the effect of sample preparation procedures on reproducibility. Geol Surv Finland Spec Pap 18:63–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Velde B (1995) Composition and mineralogy of clay minerals. In: Velde B (eds) Origin and mineralogy of clays: clays and the environment. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp 8–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Vigliotti L, Capotondi L, Torii M (1999) Magnetic properties of sediments deposited in suboxic-anoxic environments: relationships with biological and geochemical proxies. In: Tarling DH, Turner, P (eds) Paleomagnetism and Diagenesis in Sediments. Geol Soc London Spec Pub 151:71–83

  • Vologina EG, Granin NG, Lomonosova TK, Vorobyeva SS, Kulikova NA, Kalashnikova IA, Granina LZ (2003) Input of silt-sand material to the central part␣of␣southern lake Baikal by ice transportation. BAIK-SED-2, Gent University, Belgium, pp 17–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Vologina E, Granin N, Vorobyeva S, Francus P, Lomonosova T, Kalashnikova I, Granina L (2005) Ice transportation of sand-silt material in southern lake Baikal. Geol Geofiz 46(4):186–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetzel RG (1983) Limnology, 2nd edn. Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, 767 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuretich R, Melles M, Sarta B, Grobe H (1999) Clay minerals in the sediments of Lake Baikal; a useful climate proxy. J Sediment Res 69:588–596

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Pierre Francus

    Present address: Centre Eau, Terre et Environnement, Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Québec, QC, G1K 9A9, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Celeste A. Asikainen, Pierre Francus & Julie Brigham-Grette

Authors
  1. Celeste A. Asikainen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pierre Francus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Julie Brigham-Grette
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Celeste A. Asikainen.

Additional information

This is the tenth in a series of eleven papers published in this special issue dedicated to initial studies of El'gygytgyn Crater Lake and its catchment in NE Russia. Julie Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles, Pavel Minyuk were guest editors of this special issue.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Asikainen, C.A., Francus, P. & Brigham-Grette, J. Sedimentology, clay mineralogy and grain-size as indicators of 65 ka of climate change from El’gygytgyn Crater Lake, Northeastern Siberia. J Paleolimnol 37, 105–122 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-9026-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-9026-5

Keywords