Asian paleoclimate reconstruction from Siberian and Mongolian speleothems
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Earth Sciences
Abstract
I propose to use cave carbonates (stalactites and stalagmites, collectively named speleothems) to reconstruct the last 4 million year (Ma) history of climate cooling in Siberia and of drying in the Gobi Desert, and their relationship to Asian and Global climate changes. Connections between the climate changes in high, middle and low latitudes are still poorly understood, as is the relationship between global climate cooling and the development of the world's large deserts during the last 4 Ma (i. e. the Pliocene and Quaternary geological periods). At present, the temperature of the Asian interior controls the intensity and duration of the winter and summer Asian monsoon. During the colder half of the year the high atmospheric pressure above the Siberia and Mongolia is responsible for dry and cold winter monsoon conditions, preventing the moisture from reaching the Asian interior. Existing paleoclimate records from loess sediments in China indicate possible linkage between stepwise cooling, starting with the initial glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere ~2.6Ma ago, and the expanding of the Gobi Desert at ~2.6Ma, ~1.2Ma, ~0.7Ma and ~0.2Ma. This work also suggests that expansions/contractions of the desert may correlate with glacial/interglacial periods respectively. Uncertainty in dating of the cooling of Siberia makes it difficult, however, to determine if this relationship Siberian cooling = Gobi drying, is robust, and prevents assessment of the relative phasing of these changes. Did warm and dry periods also occur in the Gobi during the Pliocene and Quaternary? If the answer is no, it means that future global warming is expected to cause amelioration of the Gobi climate. If the answer is yes, there is a potential of the further desertification of the region in the future warmer world. Speleothems can be precisely dated (using U-Th and U-Pb techniques) and offer the potential to answer these timing questions. I will precisely date warm periods in southern Siberia and wet periods in the Mongolian Gobi Desert using these methods. Speleothems form only when liquid water seeps into caves and therefore do not form when conditions are frozen or arid. Dating of speleothem growth periods therefore allows an assessment of periods when the mean temperatures in Siberia were above freezing, and when wet periods occurred in the Gobi Desert. There are no existing speleothem records from Siberia or Mongolia. In fact, apart from some important work in the monsoon regions of the south (e. g. China and India), there is complete lack of such records from whole Asia. There are, however, abundant caves with good speleothem targets for paleoclimate work in Siberia and Mongolia. I have established a team of collaborators in these countries with the experience required to ensure that I can access and work in these caves, and have made a preliminary visit to the region to confirm these collaborations and to visit one important cave site. During periods of speleothem growth their stable isotope composition will also be analyzed. Oxygen isotope ratios will be used to detect changes in origins and amounts of atmospheric precipitation. Carbon isotopes may reflect the changes between boreal forest and steppe vegetation types above the caves. These isotope systems will therefore allow reconstruction of past hydrological and vegetation states with a high-precision chronological framework. This work will be informed by assessment of the modern cave environments in the region, and by study of the modern relationship between the present-day water oxygen and hydrogen isotopes and climate variables. The new speleothem records will provide powerful information about the controls on climate in the vast Asian interior, with important implications for the response of this region to future global warming.
People |
ORCID iD |
Anton Vaks (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Mason A
(2013)
An Acetic Acid-Based Extraction Protocol for the Recovery of U, Th and Pb from Calcium Carbonates for U-(Th)-Pb Geochronology
in Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research
Pogge Von Strandmann P
(2017)
Lithium isotopes in speleothems: Temperature-controlled variation in silicate weathering during glacial cycles
in Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Vaks A
(2013)
Speleothems reveal 500,000-year history of Siberian permafrost.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Vaks A
(2020)
Palaeoclimate evidence of vulnerable permafrost during times of low sea ice.
in Nature
Vaks A.
(2014)
1,350,000 Year History of Siberian Permafrost Based on U-Pb Chronology of Speleothems
in AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Description | Soils in permafrost regions contain twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, and permafrost has an important influence of the natural and built environment at high northern latitudes. The response of permafrost to warming climate is uncertain and occurs on time scales longer than those assessed by direct observation. In this project we dated periods of speleothem growth in a north-south transect of caves in Siberia and Mongolia to reconstruct the history of permafrost (and Mongolian desert aridity) in past climate states. Speleothems grow in caves only when rain or snowmelt water seeps into the caves from the surface through the fissures in the caves ceiling. If the rock above the cave is frozen throughout a year (or if the climate is arid) the speleothems cannot grow. Therefore growth periods in Siberian speleothems are indicator of permafrost thawing periods in Siberia and wet periods in Mongolian Gobi Desert. The breaks in speleothem growth show periods of continuous permafrost in Siberia and extreme aridity in the Gobi. We found that speleothem growth is restricted to full interglacial conditions in all studied caves. In the northernmost cave (at 60°N), no growth has occurred since Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS)-11 400,000 years ago. Growth at that time indicates that global climates only slightly (1.5C) warmer than pre-industrial Holocene are sufficient to thaw significant regions of permafrost. Further to the south in more temperate region near the Lake Baikal speleothems were growing also during younger interglacial periods, when the temperatures were similar to pre-industrial Holocene. No speleothem growth occurred during periods colder than present, indicating continuous permafrost in the entire region. In the Gobi Desert the only humid period occurred during the MIS-11, indicating that in addition to permafrost degradation this exceptionally warm period also substatially changed the climate of other regions of Asia. |
Exploitation Route | Estimating the risk from the thawing permafrost for the infrastructure (like oil and gas facilities, roads, railways, buildings) built on the continuous permafrost as a hard ground. This research shows that warming of the global temperatures 1.5C above the pre-industrial Holocene temperatures will cause the continuous permafrost regions of Siberia start thawing. Together with the climate modelling this information can be used in preparing of risk assessments, estimating how the future climate warming will affect the infrastructure built on the permafrost, as well as the release of greenhouse gases from the thawing permafrost. |
Sectors | Construction Energy Environment Transport |
Description | The results of our study were cited in 48 scientific publications so far, including the 2014 IPCC report. |
First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
Sector | Energy,Environment,Other |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Long-term climate change: Projections, commitments and irreversibility (Chapter in: Climate Change 2013 the Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Description | Reconstruction of Pliocene-Middle Pleistocene evolution of Siberian permafrost using U-Pb dating of speleothems |
Amount | £295,620 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/K005057/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2013 |
End | 01/2015 |
Title | Acetic Acid-Based Extraction of U, Th and Pb from Calcium Carbonates for U-(Th)-Pb Geochronology |
Description | This is a new method for the simultaneous recovery of U, Th and Pb from ca. 0.5 g calcium carbonate samples for the purpose of U-(Th)-Pb geochronometry. The protocol employs ion-exchange chromatography. Standard anion exchange resin (AG 1-X8 100-200 mesh) was used as the static phase, and 90% acetic acid was used as the mobile phase to elute the unwanted matrix components; dilute nitric acid was used to elute the U, Th and Pb. Blanks of 1.8 pg Th, 6.4 pg Pb and 8.4 pg U were obtained. The protocol was evaluated by determining the isotopic composition of U-Th-Pb separates obtained from an in-house reference material (prepared from a natural speleothem) by MC-ICP-MS. An independently dated speleothem was also reanalysed. Based on these tests, the extraction protocol had an acceptable blank and produced a Pb separate sufficiently free of matrix-induced instrumental biases to be appropriate for U-Th-Pb chronology. |
Type Of Material | Technology assay or reagent |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Improving the U-Pb chronology of speleothems and possibly other young carbonates, enabling more accurate age determination of the samples older than 0.5 Million of years. |
URL | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-908X.2013.00219.x/abstract |
Description | Studying the paleoclimate of eastern Siberia. |
Organisation | Arabica Caving Club |
Country | Russian Federation |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - Planning the research and the expeditions, funding most of their costs, providing the most of the equipment, participating in the expeditions, taking the samples of speleothems and waters; - Paying salaries of Arabica Caving Club cavers who planned the logistics and assisted in the fieldwork; - Performing the speleothem chronology, part of the chemical analyses, and water stable isotope analyses in Oxford; - Hosting and teaching young scientist Oxana S. Gutareva from Institute of Earth crust in Oxford for two periods of 2 months each in 2010 and 2011; - Making visits to the Institutions and giving seminars about the research performed; - Writing the scientific papers about the research. |
Collaborator Contribution | - Management of the major scientific expeditions including the logistics, caving (Arabica Caving Club), permits and paperwork (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club, Melnikov Permafrost Institute); - Carrying out smaller scale scientific expeditions for cave explorations (Arabica Caving Club), water samples collections (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - Collection of the water samples and part of speleothem samples, shipping them to UK (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - XRD, chemistry and stable isotopes analyses of speleothems (ETH Zurich); - Assistance with writing of scientific papers (Institute of Earth's Crust, ETH Zurich, Arabica Caving Club) |
Impact | - Vaks, A., Gutareva, O. S., Breitenbach, S. F. M. Avirmed, E., Mason, A. J., Thomas, A. L., Osinzev, A. V., Kononov, A. M., Henderson, G. M. (2013) Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost., Science, 340, 6129, pp. 183-186. - Pacton, M., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Lechleitner, F. A., Vaks, A., Rollion-Bard, C., Gutareva, O. S., Osinzev, A. V., and Vasconcelos, C. (2013) The role of microorganisms on the formation of a stalactite in Botovskaya Cave, Siberia - palaeoenvironmental implications., Biogeosciences, 10, pp. 6115-6130. - Papers in preparation. |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Studying the paleoclimate of eastern Siberia. |
Organisation | ETH Zurich |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - Planning the research and the expeditions, funding most of their costs, providing the most of the equipment, participating in the expeditions, taking the samples of speleothems and waters; - Paying salaries of Arabica Caving Club cavers who planned the logistics and assisted in the fieldwork; - Performing the speleothem chronology, part of the chemical analyses, and water stable isotope analyses in Oxford; - Hosting and teaching young scientist Oxana S. Gutareva from Institute of Earth crust in Oxford for two periods of 2 months each in 2010 and 2011; - Making visits to the Institutions and giving seminars about the research performed; - Writing the scientific papers about the research. |
Collaborator Contribution | - Management of the major scientific expeditions including the logistics, caving (Arabica Caving Club), permits and paperwork (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club, Melnikov Permafrost Institute); - Carrying out smaller scale scientific expeditions for cave explorations (Arabica Caving Club), water samples collections (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - Collection of the water samples and part of speleothem samples, shipping them to UK (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - XRD, chemistry and stable isotopes analyses of speleothems (ETH Zurich); - Assistance with writing of scientific papers (Institute of Earth's Crust, ETH Zurich, Arabica Caving Club) |
Impact | - Vaks, A., Gutareva, O. S., Breitenbach, S. F. M. Avirmed, E., Mason, A. J., Thomas, A. L., Osinzev, A. V., Kononov, A. M., Henderson, G. M. (2013) Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost., Science, 340, 6129, pp. 183-186. - Pacton, M., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Lechleitner, F. A., Vaks, A., Rollion-Bard, C., Gutareva, O. S., Osinzev, A. V., and Vasconcelos, C. (2013) The role of microorganisms on the formation of a stalactite in Botovskaya Cave, Siberia - palaeoenvironmental implications., Biogeosciences, 10, pp. 6115-6130. - Papers in preparation. |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Studying the paleoclimate of eastern Siberia. |
Organisation | Russian Academy of Sciences |
Department | Institute of Earth Crust |
Country | Russian Federation |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - Planning the research and the expeditions, funding most of their costs, providing the most of the equipment, participating in the expeditions, taking the samples of speleothems and waters; - Paying salaries of Arabica Caving Club cavers who planned the logistics and assisted in the fieldwork; - Performing the speleothem chronology, part of the chemical analyses, and water stable isotope analyses in Oxford; - Hosting and teaching young scientist Oxana S. Gutareva from Institute of Earth crust in Oxford for two periods of 2 months each in 2010 and 2011; - Making visits to the Institutions and giving seminars about the research performed; - Writing the scientific papers about the research. |
Collaborator Contribution | - Management of the major scientific expeditions including the logistics, caving (Arabica Caving Club), permits and paperwork (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club, Melnikov Permafrost Institute); - Carrying out smaller scale scientific expeditions for cave explorations (Arabica Caving Club), water samples collections (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - Collection of the water samples and part of speleothem samples, shipping them to UK (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - XRD, chemistry and stable isotopes analyses of speleothems (ETH Zurich); - Assistance with writing of scientific papers (Institute of Earth's Crust, ETH Zurich, Arabica Caving Club) |
Impact | - Vaks, A., Gutareva, O. S., Breitenbach, S. F. M. Avirmed, E., Mason, A. J., Thomas, A. L., Osinzev, A. V., Kononov, A. M., Henderson, G. M. (2013) Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost., Science, 340, 6129, pp. 183-186. - Pacton, M., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Lechleitner, F. A., Vaks, A., Rollion-Bard, C., Gutareva, O. S., Osinzev, A. V., and Vasconcelos, C. (2013) The role of microorganisms on the formation of a stalactite in Botovskaya Cave, Siberia - palaeoenvironmental implications., Biogeosciences, 10, pp. 6115-6130. - Papers in preparation. |
Start Year | 2008 |
Description | Studying the paleoclimate of eastern Siberia. |
Organisation | Russian Academy of Sciences |
Department | Melnikov Institute of Permafrost |
Country | Russian Federation |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | - Planning the research and the expeditions, funding most of their costs, providing the most of the equipment, participating in the expeditions, taking the samples of speleothems and waters; - Paying salaries of Arabica Caving Club cavers who planned the logistics and assisted in the fieldwork; - Performing the speleothem chronology, part of the chemical analyses, and water stable isotope analyses in Oxford; - Hosting and teaching young scientist Oxana S. Gutareva from Institute of Earth crust in Oxford for two periods of 2 months each in 2010 and 2011; - Making visits to the Institutions and giving seminars about the research performed; - Writing the scientific papers about the research. |
Collaborator Contribution | - Management of the major scientific expeditions including the logistics, caving (Arabica Caving Club), permits and paperwork (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club, Melnikov Permafrost Institute); - Carrying out smaller scale scientific expeditions for cave explorations (Arabica Caving Club), water samples collections (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - Collection of the water samples and part of speleothem samples, shipping them to UK (Institute of Earth's Crust, Arabica Caving Club); - XRD, chemistry and stable isotopes analyses of speleothems (ETH Zurich); - Assistance with writing of scientific papers (Institute of Earth's Crust, ETH Zurich, Arabica Caving Club) |
Impact | - Vaks, A., Gutareva, O. S., Breitenbach, S. F. M. Avirmed, E., Mason, A. J., Thomas, A. L., Osinzev, A. V., Kononov, A. M., Henderson, G. M. (2013) Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost., Science, 340, 6129, pp. 183-186. - Pacton, M., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Lechleitner, F. A., Vaks, A., Rollion-Bard, C., Gutareva, O. S., Osinzev, A. V., and Vasconcelos, C. (2013) The role of microorganisms on the formation of a stalactite in Botovskaya Cave, Siberia - palaeoenvironmental implications., Biogeosciences, 10, pp. 6115-6130. - Papers in preparation. |
Start Year | 2008 |