Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T18:53:53.527Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Radiocarbon Reservoir Ages as Freshwater-Brine Monitors in Lake Lisan, Dead Sea System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Mordechai Stein*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Israel St, 95501, Jerusalem, Israel
Boaz Lazar
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Steven L Goldstein
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: motis@vms.huji.ac.il.

Abstract

A continuous and high-resolution record of the radiocarbon reservoir age (RA) has been recovered from the primary aragonites that were deposited from the last glacial Lake Lisan. The RA is calculated as the difference between the measured 14C “apparent” age in the aragonite and the atmospheric age at any particular time. The RA shows temporal decreases during the time interval of ≃28 to ≃18 ka cal BP. This behavior is attributed to a continuous addition of low RA-high bicarbonate freshwater into the high RA-Ca-chloride (low bicarbonate) brine solution filling the lake. The mixing of the brine with freshwater drives the precipitation of CaCO3 in the form of aragonite from the lake epilimnion (surface layer). The runoff-brine mixture in Lake Lisan is also reflected by the Sr/Ca ratios that are positively correlated with the RA. Nevertheless, the 14C content in the epilimnion did not drop at the same rate as the atmospheric value but rather remained nearly constant. We suggest that turbulent mixing with the much saltier hypolimnion (lower layer) across the hypolimnion/epilimnion interface at a depth of about 390 m below sea level, buffered the 14C content as well as the Sr and Ca concentrations in the aragonite precipitating solution. The RA-Sr/Ca related limnological model developed here opens the way to determine the reservoir-age-corrected atmospheric ages of Lisan Formation aragonites beyond 28 ka cal BP.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bard, E, Arnold, M, Hamlin, B, Tisnerat-Laborde, N, Cabioch, G. 1998. Radiocarbon calibration by means of mass spectrometric 230Th/234U and 14C ages of corals: an updated database including samples from Barbados, Mururoa and Tahiti. Radiocarbon 40(3):1985–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, JW, Richards, DA, Edwards, RL, Silverman, BW, Smart, PL, Donahue, DJ, Hererra-Osterheld, S, Burr, GS, Calsoyas, L, Jull, AJT, Biddulph, D. 2001. Extremely large variations of atmospheric 14C concentration during the last glacial period. Science 292(5526):2453–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belmaker, R, Stein, M, Yechieli, Y, Lazar, B. 2007. Controls on the radiocarbon reservoir ages in the modern Dead Sea drainage system and in the last glacial Lake Lisan. Radiocarbon 49(2):969–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Staff, RA, Bryant, CL, Brock, F, Kitagawa, H, van der Plicht, J Schlolaut, G, Marshall, MH, Brauer, A, Lamb, HF, Payne, RL, Tarasov, PE, Haraguchi, T, Gotanda, K, Yonenobu, H, Yokoyama, Y, Tada, R, Nakagawa, T. 2012. A complete terrestrial radiocarbon record for 11.2 to 52.8 kyr B.P. Science 338(6105):370–4.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, RG, Mortlock, RA, Chiu, TC, Cao, L, Kaplan, A, Guilderson, TP, Fairbanks, TW, Bloom, AL, Grootes, PM, Nadeau, MJ. 2005. Radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired 230Th/234U/238U and 14C dates on pristine corals. Quaternary Science Reviews 24:1781–96.Google Scholar
Haase-Schramm, A, Goldstein, SL, Stein, M. 2004. U-Th dating of Lake Lisan (late Pleistocene Dead Sea) aragonite and implications for glacial east Mediterranean climate change. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 68:985–1005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haliva-Cohen, A, Stein, M, Goldstein, SL, Sandler, A, Starinsky, A. 2012. Sources and transport routes of fine detritus material to the late Quaternary Dead Sea basin. Quaternary Science Reviews 49:5570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, DL, Beck, JW, Richards, DA, Smart, PL, Singarayer, JS, Ketchmark, T, Hawkesworth, CJ. 2010. Towards radiocarbon calibration beyond 28 ka using speleothems from the Bahamas. Earth Planetary Science Letters 289:110.Google Scholar
Hughen, KA, Jonathan, T, Overpeck, JT, Lehman, SJ, Kashgarian, M, Southon, J, Petersonk, LC, Alley, R, Sigman, DM. 1998. Deglacial changes in ocean circulation from an extended radiocarbon calibration. Nature 391(6662):65–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, A, Kolodny, Y, Nissenbaum, A. 1977. The geochemical evolution of the Pleistocene Lake Lisan-Dead Sea system. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 41:1609–26.Google Scholar
Kitagawa, H, van der Plicht, J. 1998. Atmospheric radiocarbon calibration to 45,000 yr B.P. Late Glacial fluctuations and cosmogenic isotope production. Science 279(5354):1187–90.Google Scholar
Machlus, M. 1997. Geochemical parameters in the Lisan Formation aragonite-proxies for paleolimnology of Lake Lisan and the climatic history of the Dead Sea region , Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Machlus, M, Enzel, Y, Goldstein, SL, Marco, S, Stein, M. 2000. Reconstruction of low-levels of Lake Lisan between 55 and 35 kyr. Quaternary International 73–74:137–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prasad, S, Negendank, J, Stein, M. 2009. High-resolution radiocarbon reservoir age variations in palaeolake Lisan by varve counting. Journal of Quaternary Science 24:690–6.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, T, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.Google Scholar
Schramm, A, Stein, M, Goldstein, SL. 2000. Calibration of the 14C timescale to 50 kyr by 234U-230Th dating of sediments from Lake Lisan (the paleo-Dead Sea). Earth Planetary Science Letters 175:2740.Google Scholar
Stein, M, Starinsky, A, Katz, A, Goldstein, SL, Machlus, M, Schramm, A. 1997. Strontium isotopic, chemical, and sedimentological evidence for the evolution of Lake Lisan and the Dead Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 61:3975–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, M, Migowski, C, Bookman, R, Lazar, B. 2004. Temporal changes in the radiocarbon reservoir age in the Dead Sea. Radiocarbon 46(2):649–55.Google Scholar
Torfstein, A, Goldstein, SL, Kagan, E, Stein, M. 2013. Integrated multi-site U-Th chronology of the last glacial Lake Lisan. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 104:210–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van der Borg, K, Stein, M, de Jong, AFM, Waldmann, N, Goldstein, SL. 2004. Near-zero Δ14C values at 32 kyr cal BP observed in the high-resolution 14C record from U-Th dated sediment of Lake Lisan. Radiocarbon 46(2):785–95.Google Scholar
Voelker, AHL, Grootes, PM, Nadeau, MJ, Sarnthein, M. 2000. Radiocarbon levels in the Iceland Sea from 25–53 kyr and their link to the Earth's magnetic field intensity. Radiocarbon 42(3):437–52.Google Scholar