High-resolution record of cyclic climatic change during the past 4 ka from Lake Turkana, Kenya

Profiles of carbonate content and lamination thickness in an 11.3 m core from Lake Turkana are interpreted as a record of climatic change for the past 4 ka. On a time scale of millennia, the data agree with other paleohydrologic records from sub-Saharan east Africa. Time-series analysis of both data sets reveal periods of about 270,200, 165, and 100 yr. The thickness data suggest additional periods of about 78, 44, 31, 25, and possibly 20 yr. The sediments consist of laminated light and dark couplets, which are interpreted as a response to an average 4-yr variability in the hydrology of the Ethiopian Pla- teau. We suggest that this may be a feedback from the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.