Abstract
The micropaleontological study of two sediment cores taken from the continental slope of the Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula and from the northern Shirshov Ridge in the Bering Sea in the scope of the international KALMAR project reveals regional environmental changes over the last 20 kyr: the end of the last glaciation 20–15 ka, Bølling-Allerød warming 15.0–13.3 ka, the Younger Dryas cooling 13.3-11.9 ka, and the Early Holocene 11.9–5.0 ka. The most drastic paleoclimatic changes occurred at the transition from the last glacial period to the Holocene, which had different consequences in these two neighboring areas of the northwestern Pacific. The Bølling-Allerød warming episode resulted in the formation of a high- productivity marginal ice zone over the Shirshov Ridge and open-ocean conditions near eastern Kamchatka with the dominant influence of Alaskan water masses. The Younger Dryas cooling event in the continental slope area of Kamchatka was likely the most significant over the last 20 kyr: the neritic environments with a winter ice cover were dominant in this area at that time. The onset of the Holocene was probably marked by the formation of seasonally contrasting surface conditions in the northwestern corner of the open subarctic Pacific, which is evident from features indicating winter sea ice development and penetration of south-boreal water masses.
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Original Russian Text © M.A. Smirnova, G.Kh. Kazarina, A.G. Matul, L. Max, 2015, published in Okeanologiya, 2015, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 425–431.
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Smirnova, M.A., Kazarina, G.K., Matul, A.G. et al. Diatom evidence for paleoclimate changes in the northwestern Pacific during the last 20000 years. Oceanology 55, 383–389 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437015030157
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437015030157