Younger Dryas Type Climatic Oscillation in the East Sea

Abstract

The latest-Quaternary paleoceanographic history of the Ulleung Basin, the East Sea (the Sea of Japan) is reconstructed on the base of planktonic foraminifera, oxygen and carbon isotopes, and accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon (AMS- 14 C) data from two cores. Sinistral populations of Neogloboquadrina pachyderma are dominant during the last glacial period while dextral forms of Neogloboquadrina pachydeyma are abundant in the Holocene. An abrupt increase in δ18 O values in both cores that began about 11 ka B.P may indicate the Younger Dryas cooling episode. A low-salinity event, marked by light δ18 O values (0-1 %), is observed before the Younger Dryas event. As previous works suggested, the low-salinity event is probably due to the freshening of surface water caused by fresh water input from Huang Ho river and/or the excess of precipitation over evaporation. The lowest salinity water in the Ulleung Basin was probably continued from approximately 18 ka B.P. to 15 ka B.P. The δ18 O values have gradually decreased since the Younger Dryas as a result of the continuous inflow of the warm Tsushima Current into the East Sea.