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Lake El′gygytgyn is situated in a 3·6 Myr old impact crater in North-eastern Siberia. Its sedimentary record probably represents the most complete archive of Pliocene and Quaternary climate change in the terrestrial Arctic. In order to investigate the influence of gravitational sediment transport on the pelagic sediment record in the lake centre, two sediment cores were recovered from the lower western lake slope. The cores penetrate a sub-recent mass movement deposit that was identified by 3·5 kHz echo sounding. In the proximal part of this deposit, deformed sediments reflect an initial debris flow characterized by limited sediment mixture. Above and in front of the debrite, a wide massive densite indicates a second stage with a liquefied dense flow. The mass movement event led to basal erosion of ca 1 m thick unconsolidated sediments along parts of its flow path. The event produced a suspension cloud, whose deposition led to the formation of a turbidite. The occurrence of the turbidite throughout the lake and the limited erosion at its base mainly suggest deposition by ‘pelagic rain’ following Stokes’ Law. Very similar radiocarbon dates obtained in the sediments directly beneath and above the turbidite in the central lake confirm this interpretation. When applying the depositional model for the Late Quaternary sediment record of Lake El′gygytgyn, the recovered turbidites allow reconstruction of the frequency and temporal distribution of large mass movement events at the lake slopes. In total, 28 turbidites and related deposits were identified in two, 12·9 and 16·6 m long, sediment cores from the central lake area covering approximately 300 kyr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake El'gygytgyn, located in central Chukotka, Russian Arctic, was the subject of an international drilling project that resulted in the recovery of the longest continuous palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental record for the terrestrial Arctic covering the last 3.6 million years. Here, we present the reconstruction of the lake‐level fluctuations of Lake El'gygytgyn since Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 based on lithological and palynological as well as chronological studies of shallow‐water sediment cores and subaerial lake terraces. Reconstructed lake levels show an abrupt rise during glacial–interglacial terminations (MIS 6/5 and MIS 2/1) and during the MIS 4/3 stadial–interstadial transition. The most prominent lowstands occurred during glacial periods associated with a permanent lake‐ice cover (namely MIS 6, MIS 4 and MIS 2). Major triggering mechanisms of the lake‐level fluctuations at Lake El'gygytgyn are predominantly changes in air temperature and precipitation. Regional summer temperatures control the volume of meltwater supply as well as the duration of the lake‐ice cover (permanent or seasonal). The duration of the lake‐ice cover, in turn, enables or hampers near‐shore sediment transport, thus leading to long‐term lake‐level oscillations on glacial–interglacial time scales by blocking or opening the lake outflow, respectively. During periods of seasonal ice cover the lake level was additionally influenced by changes in precipitation. The discovered mechanism of climatologically driven level fluctuations of Lake El'gygytgyn are probably valid for large hydrologically open lakes in the Arctic in general, thus helping to understand arctic palaeohydrology and providing missing information for climate modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]