Climate proxies for the last 17.3 ka from Lake Hazar (Eastern Anatolia), extracted by independent component analysis of μ-XRF data

Our results indicate that the region was relatively cold and wet during the late glacial, between 17.3 and 14.8 ka BP, and wet and warm during Bølling-Allerød. The lake level dropped below today's level during the Younger Dryas stadial (12.49 and 11.76 ka BP), forming a marked hiatus in the core's stratigraphic record. During the beginning of the Holocene, while precipitation values were high, the temperature gradually increased until 8 ka BP. Between 8 and 5 ka BP, the region was warm but extremely dry. After 5 ka BP, around 3.5 ka BP temperatures suddenly fell, and three abrupt dry phases are observed around 3.5 ka and 2.8 ka and 1.8 ka BP.