Global Palaeoclimate of the Late Cenozoic (eBook)

Cover 1
TOC$Contents 6
Preface 10
Preface to the Russian edition of Palaeoclimates of the Late Cenozoic by V. A. Zubakov and 1.1. Borzenkova (Gidrometeoizdat, 1983) 14
Preface to the Russian edition of The Global Climateic Events of the Pleistocene, by V. A. Zubakov (Gidrometeoizdat, 1986) 16
Part I: The global climatic events of the Pleistocene 18
Introduction (V.A.Z.) 20
Why has the interest in the past climates grown strikingly? 20
On two paradigms of palaeoclimatology 22
The main goals of this study 27
Section I: Methodological problems of palaeoclimatology (V.A.Z.) 30
CH$Chapter 1. The time structure of climate 32
1.1. On the definitions of climate, palaeoclimate and palaeoclimatography 32
1.2. On the terms “global climatic event”, “climathem”, “climatostratigraphy” 34
1.3. On the methods of high-resolution climatostratigraphic correlation and chronological scale of global climatic events 35
1.4. The principles of time classification of the global climatic events: Taxonomic differences in the climato – sedimentary cycles and climathems 38
1.5. The two climatic regimes in the history of the Earth 39
Résumé 55
CH$Chapter 2. Deep-sea standard for global climatic events 56
2.1. History of climatostratigraphic study of the Pleistocene 56
2.2. The significance of the oxygen-isotope scale for climatostratigraphic reconstructions 62
2.3. Systematic aspects of “ocean – continent” climatochronological correlation. The significance of geomagnetic data 71
Résumé 82
Section II: Evidence for climatic changes in the Pleistocene – regional review (V.A.Z.) 84
CH$Chapter 3. Effects of global climatic events in the Mediterranean – Caspian system 86
3.1. The Mediterranean as a new climatoparastratotype region 86
3.2. The Caspian basin as a major record of changes in humidification in interior Eurasia 93
3.3. The Azov – Black Sea basin as a standard for the climatostratigraphic sequence on the shelf of Europe 100
3.4. The Mediterranean – Caspain paleohydrologic system as a record of global and regional climatic changes 110
Résumé 117
CH$Chapter 4. The loess assemblage of Eurasia as an indicator of climatic changes in the arid zone 118
4.1. The loess zone of Europe 118
4.2. Loess in Asia 132
Résumé 139
CH$Chapter 5. Middle and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere as a major record of continental glaciations in Pleistocene time 142
5.1. Russian plain 142
5.2. Glaciated area in Western and Central Europe 149
5.3. West Siberia 162
5.4. North-eastern Asia and Beringia 173
5.5. North America 181
5.6. The Arctic and sub-Arctic 189
Résumé 201
Section III: The history of climate through the Pleistocene 204
CH$Chapter 6. On the timing of palaeoclimates in the Pleistocene (V.A.Z.) 206
6.1. Debatable problems of inter-regional climatostratigraphic correlation 206
6.2. Rhythm-chronological approach to the Pleistocene classification 214
Résumé 223
CH$Chapter 7. Climatic changes in the Early and Middle Pleistocene (V.A.Z.) 226
7.1. Introduction 226
7.2. The sixth (Günz) kryo-superclimathem, 1.17 – 1.0 Ma 226
7.3. The fifth (Günz – Mindel) thermo-superclimathem, 1.0 – 0.76 Ma 227
7.4. The fourth (Mindel) kryo-superclimathem, 760 – 585 ka 229
7.5. The third “Mindel – Riss” thermo-superchathem, 585 – 350 ka 230
7.6. The second (Riss) kryo-superclimathem, 350 – 130 (170?) ka 232
Résumé 234
CH$Chapter 8. Climatic changes in the Late Pleistocene 236
8.1. Tyrrhenian (= Riss – Würm? sensu lato) megathermochron, 245 – 118 ka (V.A.Z) 236
8.2. Spatial climate reconstructions for the temperature optimum of the last thermochron (isotopic substage 5e), 125 – 120 ka (I.I.B.) 244
8.3. The Würm megakryochron, 117 – 15 ka (V.A.Z.) 248
8.4. Spatial reconstruction of the Northern Hemisphere climate during the Late Würm, 20 – 17 ka (I.I.B.) 263
Résumé 265
CH$Chapter 9. Climatic changes through Late Glacial and Postglacial, 16-0 ka BP (I.I.B.) 268
9.1. Principles of the time classification of the last 16 ka 268
9.2. On the global temperature trend over the last 16 ka 273
9.3. On possible causes of climate change in the Late Glacial – Holocene 284
9.4. Moisture conditions in different latitude zones over the Late Glacial – Holocene: a review of empirical data 292
Résumé 311
Summary (V.A.Z.) 314
Global climatic events – an empirical basis for high-resolution stratification 314
On the causes of climatic changes in the Pleistocene 315
Résumé 327
Part II. Pre-Pleistocene climates: Main steps of the Late Cenozoic glacial-psychrospheric regime standing 330
Preface 332
Introduction (V.A.Z.) 334
CH$Chapter 10. Paleoclimates of the pre-Pliocene Cenozoic (V.A.Z.) 336
10.1. The state-of-the-art of stratigraphy, geochronology and historic subdivision of the Cenozoic 336
10.2. The transition from the greenhouse – thermohaline regime to the glacial – psychrospheric one, 48 – 38 Ma 342
10.3. Psychrospheric climatic regime of the Oligocene/Early Miocene, 37 – 29 Ma 348
10.4. Early – Middle Miocene optimum, 21.0 – 15.3 Ma 352
10.5. Paleoclimates of the Middle – Late Miocene, 15.3 – 7.8 Ma 361
Résumé 365
CH$Chapter 11. Paleoclimates of the Pliocene (V.A.Z.) 368
11.1. The Black Sea standard for the Pliocene 368
11.2. The Caspian Sea region 380
11.3. The Mediterranean, North-Western Europe and other regions 391
11.4. The main steps in the Pliocene climate evolution 401
11.5. Tentative reconstruction of climatic conditions for the Northern Hemisphere during the Middle Pliocene (I.I.B) 413
Résumé 416
Summary (V.A.Z.) 418
Acknowledgements 420
References to Part I 422
References to Part II 460
IDX$Subject index 472