Laminated Sediments from Levinson-Lessing Lake, Northern
Central Siberia - A 30,000 Year Record of Environmental History?
T. Ebel l , M. Melles l and F. Niessen 2
(1) Alfred-Wegener-Institut fiir Polar- und Meeresforschung, Forschungsstelle Potsdam, Telegrafenberg A 43,
D 14473 Potsdam, Germany
(2) Alfred-Wegener-Institutfiir Polar- und Meeresforschung, Postfach 120161, D 27568 Bremerhaven,
Germany
Revised 5 May 1997 and accepted in revised form 15 March 1998
Abstract - Sediment description and initial stratigraphical, geochemical, and physical
analyses were carried out on a 22.4 m long sediment core from the arctic Levinson-Lessing
Lake, Taymyr Peninsula (northern Central Siberia). The results reveal a continuous
sedimentary history of the lake and its dependence on climatic variations since the late
Middle Weichselian. The core consists of two major sediment types, clastic varves and
sandy layers, which are linked to seasonal sediment supply related to meltwater runoff and
episodic events related to turbidity currents, respectively. Higher frequencies of the event
deposits during the Weichselian were presumably initiated by a lower lake level. Climatic
warming at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition led to increased biogenic accumulation,
originating from both aquatic production and terrestrial supply, but to no significant change
in sedimentation rates. From the available data, a glaciation in the lake's catchment area can
be excluded during the period since the late Middle Weichselian.
Introduction
Over the last few years there has been an ongoing debate concerning the extent of the Eurasian
glaciation during the Last Glacial Maximum (20 - 18 ka BP). Different opinions range from a
minimal ice sheet centered in the Barents Sea (Figure 1) with an isolated small glaciation
covering the Putorana Plateau (Velichko et aI., 1984) to the assumption of a large ice sheet
(maximal variation as shown in Figure 1) spreading from the Kara Sea towards the south,
southwest and southeast (Grosswald 1980, 1988; Grosswald and Hughes, 1995). This would
have affected large areas of northern Central Siberia, including most of the Taymyr Peninsula.
Investigations of potential records of environmental development with respect to the influence
of glaciation are therefore of special interest for the studies carried out within the scope of the
Taymyr Project.
Levinson-Lessing Lake, with 110 m water depth the deepest lake of the northern Taymyr
Peninsula, is situated in the southern part of the Paleozoic fold system of the Byrranga
Mountains, 50 km northwest of Taymyr Lake (Figure 2). The lake basin is 15 km long and 1 to
2 km wide. It covers an area of approximately 25 km 2 , stretching from the main inflow in the
north, the Krasnaya River, to the Protochnaya outflow in the south. Numerous small streams
drain into the lake from the adjacent eastern and western slopes. The Levinson-Lessing
catchment reaches from 47 m up to 570 m a.s.l., covering an area of roughly 515 km 2 .
The geomorphological setting of the basin and its catchment reflects a tectonic origin,
reshaped by glacial abrasion during Early Weichselian time (Niessen et aI., this volume).
Today, large solifluction lobes and - along the lake's northwestern shore - tors with a relative
elevation of up to 400 m characterize a typical permafrost climatic regime within the catchment.
Levinson-Lessing Lake can be described as a cold, monomictic and apparently holomictic
lake, with its single annual turnover occurring just after complete melting of the more than 2 m
thick winter ice cover. In Figure 3 (taken from Hagedorn et a\., 1996), the waterbody's basic
In: Kassens, H., H.A. Bauch, I. Dmitrenko, H. Eicken, H.-W. Hubberten, M. Melles, 1. Thiede and L. Timokhov (eds.)
Land·Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999,425-435.
Central Siberia - A 30,000 Year Record of Environmental History?
T. Ebel l , M. Melles l and F. Niessen 2
(1) Alfred-Wegener-Institut fiir Polar- und Meeresforschung, Forschungsstelle Potsdam, Telegrafenberg A 43,
D 14473 Potsdam, Germany
(2) Alfred-Wegener-Institutfiir Polar- und Meeresforschung, Postfach 120161, D 27568 Bremerhaven,
Germany
Revised 5 May 1997 and accepted in revised form 15 March 1998
Abstract - Sediment description and initial stratigraphical, geochemical, and physical
analyses were carried out on a 22.4 m long sediment core from the arctic Levinson-Lessing
Lake, Taymyr Peninsula (northern Central Siberia). The results reveal a continuous
sedimentary history of the lake and its dependence on climatic variations since the late
Middle Weichselian. The core consists of two major sediment types, clastic varves and
sandy layers, which are linked to seasonal sediment supply related to meltwater runoff and
episodic events related to turbidity currents, respectively. Higher frequencies of the event
deposits during the Weichselian were presumably initiated by a lower lake level. Climatic
warming at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition led to increased biogenic accumulation,
originating from both aquatic production and terrestrial supply, but to no significant change
in sedimentation rates. From the available data, a glaciation in the lake's catchment area can
be excluded during the period since the late Middle Weichselian.
Introduction
Over the last few years there has been an ongoing debate concerning the extent of the Eurasian
glaciation during the Last Glacial Maximum (20 - 18 ka BP). Different opinions range from a
minimal ice sheet centered in the Barents Sea (Figure 1) with an isolated small glaciation
covering the Putorana Plateau (Velichko et aI., 1984) to the assumption of a large ice sheet
(maximal variation as shown in Figure 1) spreading from the Kara Sea towards the south,
southwest and southeast (Grosswald 1980, 1988; Grosswald and Hughes, 1995). This would
have affected large areas of northern Central Siberia, including most of the Taymyr Peninsula.
Investigations of potential records of environmental development with respect to the influence
of glaciation are therefore of special interest for the studies carried out within the scope of the
Taymyr Project.
Levinson-Lessing Lake, with 110 m water depth the deepest lake of the northern Taymyr
Peninsula, is situated in the southern part of the Paleozoic fold system of the Byrranga
Mountains, 50 km northwest of Taymyr Lake (Figure 2). The lake basin is 15 km long and 1 to
2 km wide. It covers an area of approximately 25 km 2 , stretching from the main inflow in the
north, the Krasnaya River, to the Protochnaya outflow in the south. Numerous small streams
drain into the lake from the adjacent eastern and western slopes. The Levinson-Lessing
catchment reaches from 47 m up to 570 m a.s.l., covering an area of roughly 515 km 2 .
The geomorphological setting of the basin and its catchment reflects a tectonic origin,
reshaped by glacial abrasion during Early Weichselian time (Niessen et aI., this volume).
Today, large solifluction lobes and - along the lake's northwestern shore - tors with a relative
elevation of up to 400 m characterize a typical permafrost climatic regime within the catchment.
Levinson-Lessing Lake can be described as a cold, monomictic and apparently holomictic
lake, with its single annual turnover occurring just after complete melting of the more than 2 m
thick winter ice cover. In Figure 3 (taken from Hagedorn et a\., 1996), the waterbody's basic
In: Kassens, H., H.A. Bauch, I. Dmitrenko, H. Eicken, H.-W. Hubberten, M. Melles, 1. Thiede and L. Timokhov (eds.)
Land·Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic: Dynamics and History. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1999,425-435.