Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/11853
Title: An early Little Ice Age brackish water invasion along the south coast of the Caspian Sea (sediment of Langarud wetland) and its wider impacts on environment and people
Authors: Haghani, S
Leroy, SAG
Khdir, S
Kabiri, K
Beni, AN
Lahijani, HAK
Keywords: Little Ice Age;Caspian Sea;Palaeo-environment;Sea level change;Sedimentology;Palynology
Issue Date: 2015
Publisher: SAGE
Citation: The Holocene, 26, (1): pp. 3–16, (2015)
Abstract: Caspian Sea level has undergone significant changes through time with major impacts not only on the surrounding coasts, but also offshore. This study reports a brackish water invasion on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea constructed from a multi-proxy analysis of sediment retrieved from the Langarud wetland. The ground surface level of wetland is >6 m higher than the current Caspian Sea level (at -27.41 m in 2014) and located >11 km far from the coast. A sequence covering the last millennium was dated by three radiocarbon dates. The results from this new study suggest that Caspian Sea level rose up to at least -21.44 m (i.e. >6 m above the present water level) during the early Little Ice Age. Although previous studies in the southern coast of the Caspian Sea have detected a high-stand during the Little Ice Age period, this study presents the first evidence that this high-stand reached so far inland and at such a high altitude. Moreover, it confirms one of the very few earlier estimates of a high-stand at -21 m for the second half of the 14th century. The effects of this large-scale brackish water invasion on soil properties would have caused severe disruption to regional agriculture, thereby destabilizing local dynasties and facilitating a rapid Turko-Mongol expansion of Tamerlane’s armies from the east.
URI: http://hol.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/07/24/0959683615596835.abstract
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/11853
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683615596835
metadata.dc.relation.replaces: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/11048
2438/11048
ISSN: 1477-0911
Appears in Collections:Environment

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
Fulltext.pdf3.15 MBAdobe PDFView/Open


Items in BURA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.