Glacial to Holocene Hydroclimate in Western Africa: Insights from Organic and Major-Element Geochemistry of Hemipelagic Atlantic Ocean Sediments
Date Issued
2011-10-05
Author(s)
Supervisors
Referees
Abstract
The distribution of rainfall in Africa during past climates is not well constrained. In particular, many existing proxy reconstructions in Africa are not consistent with North-South migrations of the rainbelt that are seen in other regions. In this thesis, rainfall distribution across western Africa is investigated at key climate states of the past using a transect of hemipelagic marine sediment cores spanning from 21°N to 23°S in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes of plant leaf wax n-alkanes are interpreted as proxies for vegetation type and the hydrogen isotopic composition of meteoric water, respectively. In semi-arid regions, dust emissions are strongly linked to hydroclimate. As such, major element geochemistry from 4 continuous sediment core records (21°N-9°N) is also investigated in order to reconstruct dust vs river input from West Africa over the last 45kyrs.
Subjects
African Palaeoclimate Geochemistry Isotopes
Institution
Type
Dissertation
Secondary publication
No
Language
English
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00102404-1.pdf
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