Paleoclimate Evidence of Significant Eastern Mediterranean Aridity During Interglacial Periods: Implications for the Projected Drying Trend

• DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5280
• Publication Date: 2025-03-14T18:55:42Z
• Authors: Yochanan Kushnir; Moti Stein; Michela Biasutti; Yael Kiro; Yonaton Goldsmith; Steve Goldstein
• Keywords: Paleoclimatology

Extended salt deposits, indicative of pronounced aridity, are preserved in a 220,000-year sediment core from the Dead Sea eastern Mediterranean Levant. These arid intervals occur warm interglacial periods Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 7, 5, and Holocene, coincide with maxima Northern Hemisphere fall precession cycle. Similar layers also present during current penultimate deglaciations. In insolation-driven climate model simulations, North Atlantic latitudinal surface temperature gradient intensifies subsequent winter when boreal reaches maximum. A lag that is due to inherent delay upper ocean response. The enhanced leads shift eddy-driven jet stream poleward, decrease polar sea-level pressure an increase subtropical pressure. weakening storm track occurs reduction rainfall over Basin. Abrupt subpolar cooling events recent deglaciations—driven by ice sheet melt—similarly amplify gradient, eliciting comparable atmospheric response similar reductions Mediterranean. late Quaternary palaeohydrology thus highlights important ocean-atmosphere interaction drives droughts. link exists between changes Basin trend history helps understand CMIP6 inter-model differences their projected drying.