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A 1500-year record of climatic and environmental change in ElkLake, Minnesota I: Varve thickness and gray-scale density

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Abstract

The deepest part (29.5 m) of Elk Lake, ClearwaterCounty, northwestern Minnesota, contains a complete Holocene section that iscontinuously varved. The varve components are predominantly autochthonous(CaCO3, organic matter, biogenic silica, and several iron andmanganese minerals), but the varves do contain a minor detrital-clastic(aluminosilicate) component that is predominantly wind-borne (eolian) andprovides an important record of atmospheric conditions. Singular spectrumanalysis (SSA) and wavelet analysis of varve thickness recognized significantperiodicities in the multicentennial and multidecadal bands that varied inpower (i.e., variable significance) and position (i.e., variable period) withinthe periodic bands. Persistent periodicities of about 10, 22, 40, and 90 years,and, in particular, multicentennial periodicities in varve thickness and otherproxy variables are similar to those in spectra of radiocarbon production, aproxy for past solar activity. This suggests that there may be a solar control,perhaps through geomagnetic effects on atmospheric circulation. Multicentennialand multidecadal periodicities also occur in wavelet spectra of relativegray-scale density. However, gray-scale density does not appear to correlatewith any of the measured proxy variables, and at this point we do not know whatcontrolled gray scale.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Geological Survey, MS 980, Federal Center, 80225, Denver, USA

    Walter Dean & J. Platt Bradbury

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, 87131, Albuquerque, USA

    Roger Anderson

  3. Paleoclimate Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 325 Broadway, 80303, Boulder, USA

    David Anderson

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  1. Walter Dean
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  2. Roger Anderson
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  3. J. Platt Bradbury
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  4. David Anderson
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Correspondence to Walter Dean.

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Dean, W., Anderson, R., Platt Bradbury, J. et al. A 1500-year record of climatic and environmental change in ElkLake, Minnesota I: Varve thickness and gray-scale density. Journal of Paleolimnology 27, 287–299 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016062207440

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