East African climate fluctuations over the last 1400 years recorded in southeastern Mediterranean sediments

The southeastern Mediterranean Sea sedimentary history of the late Holocene was influenced by distinctive changes in Nile River sediment discharge and Saharan dust influx. We present high-resolution XRF element data of a marine sediment core of the southeastern Levantine Sea (GeoTü SL112, 32° 44.52´ N, 34° 39.02´ E, water depth: 892 m) spanning the last 1400 years. We suggest a strong relationship between humidity changes in east Africa and the corresponding sedimentological response in the Levantine Sea. The Fe record of our Levantine Sea sediment record shows a remarkable similarity with the lake level record of Lake Naivasha (Kenya) (Verschuren et al., Nature, 2000) and the pre-colonial drought history of Lake Malawi (east Africa). Several intervals of enhanced Saharan dust flux as indicated by high Fe values in the Levantine Sea core coincide with well-known droughts in equatorial east Africa and Lake Naivasha lowstands. Frequency analysis suggests that solar variability has been a major influence in these climate fluctuations. The Fe record of our core, which we interpret as Saharan dust influx to the southeast Levantine Sea, is dominated by cyclicities of approximately 90 and 200 years, known as the Gleissberg and Suess cycles. The most pronounced periods of decreased dust accumulation in the southeast Levantine Sea occurred at about 1.1 kyr BP, 0.7 kyr BP, 0.55 kyr BP, 0.3 kyr BP and 0.1 kyr BP, coincident with the solar minima of Oort, Wolf, Spoerer, Maunder and Dalton.