Decoupling climate and volcanic-seismic signals from the periglacial Jurasee Lake at King George Island/South Shetland Islands/Antarctica for the Middle-to-Late-Holocene

During the Middle-to-Late-Holocene, Deception Island, in the South Shetland Islands (Antarctica), experienced exceptionally intense seismic and volcanic processes, culminating in a caldera collapse event on a scale comparable to some of the largest on Earth over the past several millennia. In this study, we explored new evidence of the relationship between volcanic and seismic activity on Deception Island and the geochemical and sedimentary record in the periglacial Jurasee Lake at King George Island. Our sediment core spans the period 890 ± 30–4870 ± 50 calibrated (cal) years (yr) Before Present (BP). We combined different techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning, X-ray diffraction (XRD), magnetic susceptibility (MS), and sedimentation rates, which allowed us to recognize both the volcanic impact, the seismicity, and the climatic record at the South Shetland Islands. Our sediment core depicted a clear two-phase record, one during the Middle-to-Late-Holocene characterized by rapid/abnormal sedimentation taking place before the collapse of Deception Island’s large caldera (around 4600 and 3980 ± 125 cal yr BP), leading to intense landslides into lakes. The second phase, corresponding to the Late-Holocene period, is when the geochemical record follows the climatic pattern, especially the reconstructed summer air temperatures and possibly run-off processes due to deglaciation. Our study establishes a relationship between cataclysmic volcanic events and the associated sedimentary, and geochemical lacustrine response aiming to better understand the impact of volcanic eruptions at the regional context.