Speleothem U/Th age constraints for the Last Glacial conditions in the Apuan Alps, northwestern Italy

I Isola; A Ribolini; G Zanchetta; M Bini; E Regattieri; RN Drysdale; JC Hellstrom; P Bajo; P Montagna; E Pons-Branchu

Journal article

Speleothem U/Th age constraints for the Last Glacial conditions in the Apuan Alps, northwestern Italy

I Isola, A Ribolini, G Zanchetta, M Bini, E Regattieri, RN Drysdale, JC Hellstrom, P Bajo, P Montagna, E Pons-Branchu

Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology | ELSEVIER | Published : 2019

DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.01.001

Abstract

During the Quaternary several glaciations occurred in the mountain regions around the Mediterranean and, in recent years, new ages have better constrained their timing. However, this is not the case for the Apuan Alps, a high-rainfall mountain chain adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea. Here, in spite of the widespread evidence for glaciers, the complete lack of geochronological information hinders our understanding of glaciation history. In this paper, we utilize speleothem ages to better constrain the timing of these glacial features. We re-examine 293 uranium‑thorium ages from 19 speleothems collected in five caves at different elevations. After a period of very low growth between 160 and 13..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Russell Drysdale Author

John Hellstrom Author

Related Projects (2)

WHEN THE ICE MELTS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE CAUSES OF QUATERNARY GLACIAL TERMINATIONS

The project will assemble an unprecedented palaeoclimate time series extending back to 1.2 million years ago that will allow marine and ice ..

WHEN THE ICE MELTS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE CAUSES OF QUATERNARY GLACIAL TERMINATIONS

The project will assemble an unprecedented palaeoclimate time series extending back to 1.2 million years ago that will allow marine and ice ..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this paper and helpful suggestions for improvements. We thank the Federazione Speleologica Toscana and Parco Regionale delle Alpi Apuane for supporting our work on Apuan speleothems. This work is part of Australian Research Council Discovery Projects grant DP110102185 (leader RD), and the ARCA project "Arctic: present climatic change and past extreme events" founded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR). These analyses contribute to the project "Clima ed eventi alluvionali estremi in Versilia: integrazione di nuove tecniche geoarcheologiche, geomorfologiche, geochimiche e simulazioni numeriche" (leader M. Bini), funded by "Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Call 2016" and Project PRA (2017/18) "Palaeoclimatic palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Apuan area since the Last Glacial Maximum". (leader C. Baroni), funded by Pisa University.