Combining orbital tuning and direct dating approaches to age-depth model development for Chew Bahir, Ethiopia

Martin H. Trauth, Asfawossen Asrat, Markus L. Fischer, Verena Foerster, Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr, Henry F. Lamb, Norbert Marwan, Helen M. Roberts, Frank Schaebitz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The directly dated RRMarch2021 age model (Roberts et al., 2021) for the ∼293 m long composite core from Chew Bahir, southern Ethiopia, has provided a valuable chronology for long-term climate changes in northeastern Africa. However, the age model has limitations on shorter time scales (less than 1–2 precession cycles), especially in the time range <20 kyr BP (kiloyears before present or thousand years before 1950) and between ∼155 and 428 kyr BP. To address those constraints we developed a partially orbitally tuned age model. A comparison with the ODP Site 967 record of the wetness index from the eastern Mediterranean, 3300 km away but connected to the Ethiopian plateau via the River Nile, suggests that the partially orbitally tuned age model offers some advantages compared to the exclusively directly dated age model, with the limitation of the reduced significance of (cross) spectral analysis results of tuned age models in cause-effect studies. The availability of this more detailed age model is a prerequisite for further detailed spatiotemporal correlations of climate variability and its potential impact on the exchange of different populations of Homo sapiens in the region.

Original languageEnglish
Article number100208
JournalQuaternary Science Advances
Volume15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Geology
  • Earth-Surface Processes
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

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