Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-246sw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-11T09:50:49.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleoclimatic implications of late quaternary lacustrine sediments in Western Nubia, Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hans-Joachim Pachur  and
Philipp Hoelzmann
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Owing to the hypercontinental location of Western Nubia, secular fluctuations of climate have been filtered and wet phases can be considered as representative of conditions throughout the southeastern Sahara. The study area is crossed by the 20-mm isohyet; between 9300 and about 4000 yr B.P., however, there were widespread lake and swamp environments with freshwater molluscs, ostracods, and diatoms, and a species-rich savanna mammal fauna. The center of the West Nubian Basin (approx. 18°N), an area of about 20,000 km2, was occupied by a semiaquatic landscape which was situated at the same latitude as Paleolake Chad. From extensive lake carbonates up to about 4 m thick, a long-term rise of the groudwater table is inferred. Environments developed that now exist at about latitude 13°N. Radiocarbon dates from lake sediment sequences cluster between 30,000 and 21,000 yr B.P., indicating a Pleistocene wet phase. A gap in radiocarbon dates between 21,000 and 11,000 yr B.P. signals a phase of hyperaridity, similar to the present hyperarid phase, with eolian deflation and deposits of sand being the dominant forms of erosion and accumulation.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , November 1991 , pp. 257 - 276
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Arkell, A. J. History of the Sudan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 1821 1961 Oxford Univ. Press (Athlone) London/New York Google Scholar
Baumhauer, R. Zur jungquartären Seenentwicklung im Bereich der Stufe von Bilma (NE-Niger) 1986 Selbstverlag Univ Würzburg Google Scholar
Boessneck, J. Die Tierwelt des Alten Ägypten 1988 Beck München Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. Les fouilles archéologiques de Kerma (Soudan). Genava 34 1986 5 20 Google Scholar
Causse, C. Conrad, G. Fontes, J.-C. Gasse, F. Gibert, E. Kassir, A. Le dernier “Humide” pléistocène du Sahara nord-occidental daterait de 80–100,000 ans. Comptes Rendus de l'Academie des Sciences 306 1988 1459 14644 Google Scholar
Chaix, L. Quatrième note sur la faune de Kerma (Soudan). Genava 34 1986 35 40 Google Scholar
Conrad, G. L'évolution continentale post-Hercynienne du Sahara Algérien (Saoura, Erg Chech-Tanezrouft, Ahnet-Moudir). Centre de Recherches sur les Zones Arides, Sér. Géol., No. 10 1969 CNRS Paris Google Scholar
Driesch, A.von den Fische im Alten Ägypten. Eine osteoarchäologische Untersuchung. Documenta 34 1986 1 36 Google Scholar
Durand, A. Oscillations of Lake Chad over the past 50,000 years: New data and new hypothesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 39 1982 37 53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ergenzinger, P. Das Gebiet des Enneri Misky im Tibesti-Gebirge, République du Tchad Erläuterungen zu einer geomorphologischen Karte 1:200,000. Berliner Geographische Abhandlungen 23 1978 1 60 Google Scholar
Flohn, H. Modelle der Klimaentwicklung im 21. Jahrhundert Oeschger, H. Messerli, B. Svilar, M. Das Klima: Analysen und Modelle, Geschichte und Zukunft 1980 Springer-Verlag Berlin/New York 3 17 Google Scholar
Gabriel, B. Kröpelin, S. Jungquartäre limnische Akkumulationsphasen im NW-Sudan. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Neue Folge Suppl. 48 1983 131 143 Google Scholar
Gaillard, C. Recherches sur les poissons représentés dans quelques tombeaux de l'ancien empire. Mémoires Institut Francais d'Archaeologie Oriental 51 1923 1 136 Google Scholar
Geyh, M. A. Jäkel, D. Late glacial and Holocene climatic history of the Sahara Desert derived from a statistical assay of 14C dates. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 15 1974 205 208 Google Scholar
Gläser, B. Altdünen und Limnite in der nördlichen Republik Sudan als morphogenetischpaläoklimatischer Anzeiger 1987 Krause Druck Hamburg Google Scholar
Goschin, M. El Atrun—ein holozäner See in Nordwest-Sudan. Ph.D. dissertation 1989 Free University of Berlin Google Scholar
Grove, A. T. Warren, A. Quaternary landforms and climate on the south side of the Sahara. Geographical Journal 134 1968 194 208 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagedorn, H. Untersuchungen über Relieftypen arider Räume an Beispielen aus dem Tibesti-Gebirge und seiner Umgebung. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Suppl. 11 1971 1 251 Google Scholar
Hammer, U. T. Saline lake ecosystems of the world. Monographiae Biologicae 59 1986 1 616 Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Great Sand Sea and Selima Sand Sheet: Geochronology of desertification. Science 217 1982 629 633 Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. Eyles, C. H. Pavlish, L. A. Ritchie, J. C. Rybak, M. Holocene paleoecology of the Eastern Sahara: Selima Oasis. Quaternary Science Review 8 1989 109 136 Google Scholar
Huber-Pestalozzi, G. Das Phytoplankton des Süsswassers. Systematik und Biologie 1961 Schweizerbart Stuttgart Google Scholar
Kingdom, J. East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa 1974 Academic Press London/New York Google Scholar
Klitzsch, E. Wycisk, P. Geology of the sedimentary basins of Northern Sudan and bordering areas. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (A) 75.1 1987 97 136 Google Scholar
Koschel, R. Proft, G. Raidt, M. Phacotus-Mass-development-one source of authochthonus CaCO3-input in lakes. Limnologica 18 1987 457 459 Google Scholar
McClure, H. A. Radiocarbon chronology of late quaternary lakes in the Arabian peninsula. Nature 263 1976 755 756 Google Scholar
Newbold, D. Shaw, W. B. K. An expedition in the South Libyan desert. Sudan Notes and Records 11 1928 103 194 Google Scholar
Pachur, H.-J. Kröpelin, S. Wadi Howar: Paleoclimatic evidence from an extinct river system in the southeastern Sahara. Science 237 1987 298 300 Google Scholar
Pachur, H.-J. Röper, H.-P. The Libyan (Western) Desert and Northern Sudan during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (A) 50 1984 249 284 Google Scholar
Pachur, H.-J. Röper, H.-P. Kröpelin, S. Goschin, M. Late Quaternary hydrography of the Eastern Sahara. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen (A) 75.2 1987 331 384 Google Scholar
Petit-Maire, N. Riser, J. Sahara ou Sahel? 1983 CNRS Marseille Google Scholar
Ritchie, J. C. Haynes, C. V. Holocene vegetation zonation in the Eastern Sahara. Nature 330 1987 645 647 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, J. C. Eyles, C. H. Haynes, C. V. Sediment and pollen evidence for an early to mid-Holocene humid period in the eastern Sahara. Nature 314 1985 352 355 Google Scholar
Rosenthal, F. Ibn Khaldun: The muqaddimah, an introduction to history 1958 Pantheon New York Google Scholar
Schneider, J. L. Evolution du dernier lacustre et peuplements préhistorique aux Bas-Pays du Tchad. Bulletin ASEQUA 14–15 1967 18 23 Google Scholar
Schütt, H. Der ägyptische Nil und seine Weichtiere. De Kreukel 22 1986 169 183 Google Scholar
Servant, M. Servant-Vildary, S. L'environnement Quaternaire du bassin du Tchad Williams, M. A. J. Faure, H. The Sahara and the Nile 1980 Balkema Rotterdam 133 162 Google Scholar
Tetzlaff, G. Peters, M. Adams, L. J. Meteorologische Aspekte der Sahel-Problematik. Die Erde 2–3 1985 109 120 Google Scholar
Wilson, R. T. The “gizu”: Winter grazing in the South Libyan Desert. Journal of Arid Environments 1 1978 327 344 Google Scholar
Yassin, A. A. Khalil, F. A. El Shafie, 1981 Edition Explanatory Note to the Geological Map at the Scale 1:2 Mill. of the Democratic Republic of Sudan 1984 Ministry of Energy and Mining; Geological and Mineralogical Resources Department Khartoum Google Scholar