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Impact of the Late Glacial Eruption of the Laacher See Volcano, Central Rhineland, Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael Baales ,
Olaf Jöris ,
Martin Street ,
Felix Bittmann ,
Bernhard Weninger  and
Julian Wiethold
Michael Baales
Affiliation:
Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, 56567, Germany
Olaf Jöris*
Affiliation:
Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, 56567, Germany
Martin Street
Affiliation:
Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, 56567, Germany
Felix Bittmann
Affiliation:
Niedersächsisches Institut für historische Küstenforschung, Viktoriastrasse 26/28, Wilhelmshaven, 26382, Germany
Bernhard Weninger
Affiliation:
14C-Labor am Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Universität zu Köln, Weyertal 125, Köln, 50923, Germany
Julian Wiethold
Affiliation:
Abteilung für Palynologie und Quartärwissenschaften, Institut der Archäologischen Kommisssion für Hessen e.V. Schloss Biebrich-Ostflügel, Wiesbaden, 65203, Germany
*
1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: ++49 2631 76357. E-mail: joeris.monrepos@rz-online.de.
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Abstract

Within a period of a few weeks toward the end of the Allerød Interstadial, the major Plinian eruption of the Laacher See volcano produced some 20 km3 of eruptiva, covering and preserving the late-glacial landscape in the German Central Rhineland over an area of more than 1000 km2. Correlation of terrestrial archives with the Greenland ice-core records and improved calibration of the radiocarbon timescale permit a precise, accurate age determination of the Laacher See event some 200 yr before the onset of the Younger Dryas cold episode. Carbonized trees and botanical macrofossils preserved by Laacher See Tephra permit detailed regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction and show that open woodland were typical for the cool and humid hemiboreal climatic conditions during the late Allerød. This woodland provided the habitat for a large variety of animal species, documented at both paleontological and Final Paleolithic archeological sites preserved below Laacher See deposits. Of special interest are numerous animal tracks intercalated in Middle Laacher See deposits at the south of the Neuwied Basin. This knowledge may help to evaluate possible supraregional impacts of this volcanic event on northern hemispheric environment and climate during the late Allerød.

Keywords

Laacher See VolcanoLaacher See TephraAllerød InterstadialpaleoecologyCentral Rhineland GermanyGreenland ice cores
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2002 , pp. 273 - 288
Copyright
University of Washington

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