Influence of Climate Changes in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene on Composition of Bottom Sediments of the Selenga-Buguldeika Saddle, Lake Baikal

摘要

The study of bottom sediments of Lake Baikal recovered by submarine drilling at the Selenga-Buguldeika saddle (core VER93-2 st. 24GC) allowed us to reconstruct the climatic events in the Baikal region in the last 20-25 k.y. On the basis of the data on distribution of chemical elements in the core section, the mineral composition of sediments was calculated by the physicochemical modeling method. A study of how ratios of clay minerals changed in the section allowed us to identify the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, Bolling-Allerod postglacial warming, and Late Dryas cooling. The calculated data on mineral composition of bottom sediments from the core VER93-2 demonstrate a good fit to the X-ray diffraction analysis results. The proposed approach can be used in calculation of mineral compositions of other sedimentary sequences with known chemical composition.