Rapid communication Impacts of abrupt climate changes in the Levant from Last Glacial Dead Sea levels Adi Torfstein a, * , Steven L. Goldstein a, b , Mordechai Stein c , Yehouda Enzel d a Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Rt. 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA b Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, 61 Rt. 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA c Geological Survey of Israel, 30 Malkhe Israel Street, Jerusalem 95501, Israel d The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel article info Article history: Received 21 June 2012 Received in revised form 3 February 2013 Accepted 8 February 2013 Available online Keywords: Levant paleoclimate Millennial scale climate change Lake levels Dead Sea Lake Lisan abstract A new, detailed lake level curve for Lake Lisan (the Last Glacial Dead Sea) reveals a high frequency of abrupt fluctuations during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) compared to the relatively high stand char- acterizing MIS2, and the significantly lower Holocene lake. The lake level fluctuations reflect the hy- drological conditions in the large watershed of the lake, which in turn reflects the hydro-climatic conditions in the central Levant region. The new curve shows that the fluctuations coincide on millennial timescales with temperature variations recorded in Greenland. Four patterns of correlation are observed through the last ice age: (1) maximum lake elevations were reached during MIS2, the coldest interval; (2) abrupt lake level drops to the lowest elevations coincided with the occurrence of Heinrich (H) events; (3) the lake returned to higher-stand conditions along with warming in Greenland that followed H-events; (4) significant lake level fluctuations coincided with virtually every Greenland stadialeinterstadial cycle. Over glacialeinterglacial time-scales, Northern Hemisphere glacial cooling induces extreme wetness in the Levant, with high lake levels reaching w160 m below mean sea level (mbmsl), approximately 240 m above typical Holocene levels of w400 mbmsl. These orbital time-scale shifts are driven by expansions of the European ice sheet, which deflect westerly storm tracks southward to the Eastern Mediterranean, resulting in increased sea-air temperature gradients that invoke increased cyclogenesis, and enhanced moisture delivery to the Levant. The millennial-scale lake level drops associated with Greenland stadials are most extreme during Heinrich stadials and reflect abrupt cooling of the Eastern Mediterranean atmosphere and sea-surface, which weaken the cyclogenic rain engine and cause extreme Levant droughts. During the recovery from the effect of Heinrich stadials, the regional climate config- uration resumed typical glacial conditions, with enhanced Levant precipitation and a rise in Lake Lisan levels. Similar cyclicity in the transfer of moisture to the Levant affected lake levels during all of the non- Heinrich stadialeinterstadial cycles. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The last ice age was characterized by expansion of continental ice sheets and changes in ocean and atmosphere circulation pat- terns and strength relative to the present day, which are well documented in polar ice and marine records, including millennial- scale warmings and coolings (Dansgaard et al., 1993; Alley and Clark, 1999; Bard et al., 2000; Blunier and Brook, 2001; Wang et al., 2001; EPICA, 2006; Kawamura et al., 2007; Anderson et al., 2009). Middle- and low-latitude continental climate archives such as lake deposits, however, are more likely to be non- continuous compared to polar ice and marine sediments, and are usually more difficult to date and interpret (Quade and Broecker, 2009 and references therein). The composition, structure and lake level history of the hyper- saline terminal lakes that filled the tectonic depression of the Dead Sea basin (DSB; Fig. 1), the lowest elevation on Earth’s surface, are sensitive to latitudinal shifts in the location of the boundary be- tween the low-latitude Sahara-Arabia desert belt and the more temperate European-Mediterranean climate belt. Hence, the vol- umes of the lakes, as well as the geochemical and sedimentological properties of sediments deposited in them, reflect regional shifts of the climate zones, rendering the lake sediments as exceptional recorders of regional precipitation history (Begin et al., 1974; Katz et al., 1977; Stein, 2001; Bartov et al., 2003; Enzel et al., 2003; Kushnir and Stein, 2010; Waldmann et al., 2010). Climate changes * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 845 3658918. E-mail address: adi.torf@ldeo.columbia.edu (A. Torfstein). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev 0277-3791/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.02.015 Quaternary Science Reviews 69 (2013) 1e7