Due to a lack of visible tephras in the Dead Sea record, this unique palaeoenvironmental archive is largely unconnected to the well-established Mediterranean tephrostratigraphy. Here we present first results of the ongoing search for cryptotephras in the International Continental Drilling Program (ICDP) sediment core from the deep Dead Sea basin. This study focusses on the Lateglacial (~15–11.4 cal. ka BP), when Lake Lisan – the precursor of the Dead Sea – shrank from its glacial highstand to the Holocene low levels. We developed a glass shard separation protocol and counting procedure that is adapted to the extreme salinity and sediment recycling of the Dead Sea. Cryptotephra is abundant in the Dead Sea record (up to ~100 shards cm^-3), but often glasses are physically and/or chemically altered. Six glass samples from five tephra horizons reveal a heterogeneous geochemical composition, with mainly rhyolitic and some trachytic glasses potentially sourced from Italian, Aegean and Anatolian volcanoes. Most shards likely originate from the eastern Anatolian volcanic province and can be correlated using major element analyses with tephra deposits from swarm eruptions of the Süphan Volcano ~13 ka BP and with ashes from Nemrut Volcano, presumably the Lake Van V-16 volcanic layer at ~13.8 ka BP. In addition to glasses that match the TM-10-1 from Lago Grande di Monticchio (15 820±790 cal. a BP) tentatively correlated with the St. Angelo Tuff of Ischia, we further identified a cryptotephra with glass analyses which are chemically identical with those of the PhT1 tephra in the Philippon peat record (13.9–10.5 ka BP), and also a compositional match for the glass analyses of the Santorini Cape Riva Tephra (Y-2 marine tephra, 22 024±642 cal. a BP). These first results demonstrate the great potential of cryptotephrochronology in the Dead Sea record for improving its chronology and connecting the Levantine region to the Mediterranean tephra framework.

中文翻译：

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晚冰期 ICDP 死海沉积物记录中的隐翅目及其对年代学的影响

由于死海记录中缺乏可见的火山灰，这个独特的古环境档案在很大程度上与完善的地中海火山地层学无关。在这里，我们展示了国际大陆钻探计划 (ICDP) 深海盆地沉积岩芯中正在进行的隐孢子虫搜索的初步结果。这项研究的重点是晚冰期（~15-11.4 cal. ka BP），当时死海的前身 Lisan 湖从冰川高位缩小到全新世低位。我们开发了一种适用于死海极端盐度和沉积物循环利用的玻璃碎片分离协议和计数程序。Cryptotephra 在死海记录中非常丰富（高达 ~100 片 cm ^-3)，但通常眼镜会发生物理和/或化学变化。来自五个 tephra 层位的六个玻璃样品揭示了一种异质的地球化学成分，主要是流纹质和一些粗面质玻璃可能来自意大利、爱琴海和安纳托利亚火山。大多数碎片可能来自东部安纳托利亚火山省，可以使用主要元素分析与来自 Süphan 火山群喷发的火山灰沉积物相关联~13 ka BP 和来自 Nemrut 火山的灰烬，大概是位于 ~ 的 Lake Van V-16 火山层13.8 ka BP。除了与 Lago Grande di Monticchio (15 820±790 cal. a BP) 的 TM-10-1 相匹配的眼镜外，暂时与伊斯基亚的圣安吉洛凝灰岩相关联，我们通过玻璃分析进一步确定了一种与 Philippon 泥炭记录（13.9-10.5 ka BP）中的 PhT1 tephra 的化学成分相同的crypttephra，并且还与圣托里尼Cape Riva Tephra（Y-2海洋火山灰，22 024±642 cal. a BP）。这些初步结果证明了死海记录中的隐密年代学在改善其年代学和将黎凡特地区与地中海火山灰框架连接起来方面的巨大潜力。