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1750 years of large rainfall events inferred from particle size at East Lake, Cape Bounty, Melville Island, Canada

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Abstract

Annual grain-size variation was measured on the varved (annually laminated) lacustrine sediment from Cape Bounty East Lake using an innovative image analysis system. About 7100 images were acquired using a scanning electron microscope and processed to obtain measurement of particles from 2845 varves. Several particle-size distributions indices were calculated and can be linked to high-energy sedimentary facies. Moreover, the coarse grain size (98th percentile) of these high-energy facies is strongly correlated with summer rainfall (and also summer temperature) of instrumental data from nearby stations. Particle-size distributions show a similar trend through time, especially for the standard deviation and the 98th percentile. Climatic reconstruction suggests that Cape Bounty recently experienced an unprecedented increase of rainfall events since ~AD 1920. On the other hand, changes in varve thickness are weakly correlated with the particle-size distribution. Altogether, these results highlight the need to obtain annual grain-size data to identify a meteorological signal.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Canadian Federal program for the international polar year (IPY) and by research grant of NSERC to Pierre Francus and Scott Lamoureux. Logistical support was provided by the Polar Continental Shelf Project, Natural Resources Canada (PCSP). Special thanks to David Fortin and Anna Pienkowski-Furze for core processing. Thanks to Arnaud De Coninck for help with the SEM and Laurence Provencher-Nolet for image analysis. The authors are grateful for the suggestions of Antti Ojala, the editorial comments of Darrell Kaufman and helpful input of two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Eau Terre et Environnement, Québec, QC, G1K 9A9 QC, Canada

    François Lapointe & Pierre Francus

  2. GEOTOP, Geochemistry and Geodynamics Research Center, Montreal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada

    François Lapointe & Pierre Francus

  3. Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Scott F. Lamoureux

  4. Département de Mathématiques et Statistique, Université Laval, Avenue de la Médecine, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Meriem Saïd

  5. GEOLAB, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 63057, Clermont Ferrand Cedex 1, France

    Stéphanie Cuven

Authors
  1. François Lapointe
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  2. Pierre Francus
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  3. Scott F. Lamoureux
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  4. Meriem Saïd
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  5. Stéphanie Cuven
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Correspondence to François Lapointe.

Additional information

This is one of 18 papers published in a special issue edited by Darrell Kaufman, and dedicated to reconstructing Holocene climate and environmental change from Arctic lake sediments.

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Lapointe, F., Francus, P., Lamoureux, S.F. et al. 1750 years of large rainfall events inferred from particle size at East Lake, Cape Bounty, Melville Island, Canada. J Paleolimnol 48, 159–173 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9611-8

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