Influence of the Solar Luminosity on the Glaciations, Earthquakes and Sea Level Changes as Derived from Paleoluminescence of Speleothems.

Yavor Shopov¹, Diana Stoykova¹, Diana Garbeva¹, Ludmil Tsankov¹, Michael Sanabria¹, Derek Ford², Leonid N. Georgiev¹

¹Faculty of Physics, University of Sofia, James Bouchier 5, Sofia 1164, Bulgaria
²Geography Dept., McMaster Univ., Hamilton,Ontario, L8S 1K4, Canada
E-Mail:YYShopov@Phys.Uni-Sofia.BG, phone ++35998448132

Glaciations were attributed to variations of the Earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles). But the best ever dated paleoclimatic record (from a speleothem from Devil's Hole, Nevada) demonstrated that the end of the last glacial period (termination II) happened 10,000 years before the one suggested by the orbital variations, i.e. the result appeared before the reason. This fact suggests that there is something wrong in the theory. Glaciations and deglaciations drive changes of the sea level. They are extremely important for human life in coastal regions, because rise of the sea level with few meters will cause flooding of very large regions of land and will reduce significantly arable land of several countries. We need to know the detailed mechanisms of the deglaciations in order to develop proper sustainable management policy and actions to secure sustainable development of these regions. These actions are important not only for sustainable management of the caves (which provide the data for coming disasters), but for survival of large regions of land and its population.

We obtained luminescence solar insolation proxy records in speleothems (from Jewel Cave, South Dakota, US and Duhlata cave, Bulgaria). These records exhibit very rapid increasing of the solar insolation at 139 kyrs BP responsible for the termination II (the end of the last glaciation) and demonstrate that solar luminosity variations contribute to Earth's heating almost as much as the orbital variations of the Earth's orbit (Milankovitch cycles). The most powerful cycle of the solar luminosity (11,500 yrs) is responsible for almost ½ of the variations in solar insolation experimental records. Solar luminosity and orbital variations both cause variations of the solar insolation affecting the climate by the same mechanism.

Changes in the speed of Earth's rotation during glacial- interglacial transitions produce fracturing of the Earth's crust and major earthquakes along the fractures. The intensity of this process is as higher as faster is the change of the sea level and as higher is its amplitude.