The Late Cenozoic of northern Transbaikalia and paleoclimates of southern East Siberia

Comprehensive studies have been applied to a core from well 126 in the Chara basin (eastern Baikal-Stanovoy upland). The 1180 m thick drilled section comprises Upper Pleistocene sediments (0–173.1 m) with two intervals of varved silt coeval with the Wurm Glacial, two Middle Pleistocene glacial intervals at 180–263.5 m and 337–424.7 m, earliest Pleistocene (424.7–550 m), Pliocene (550–1036 m), and Miocene (1036–1180 m) strata. The core records the history of Late Cenozoic climate and vegetation for the past 20 Myr (with two large gaps), which has been reconstructed using the pollen analysis. Interpolation of long- and medium-period climate oscillations tied to the time scale allows predicting a trend of possible climate change for the future 2–2.5 kyr.