ABSTRACT
Late Pleistocene basinal sediments in Dakhla Oasis region, Egypt (24.5°–26.5°N; 28°–30°E) comprise four stratigraphically equivalent facies of fluvio-lacustrine, mixed lacustrine – pluvio-aeolian, pluvio-aeolian, and mixed aeolian – pluvio-aeolian origin. Inferred palaeoclimate was intermittently rainy and arid. Facies differences are attributed to spatially variable geologic responses to climate, conditioned by basin location with respect to runoff, aeolian influences, and sediment sources. Sediments are dated tentatively to ≈40kyr B.P. Influences of orbitally forced insolation, temperature, and rainfall, and atmospheric circulation on this peculiar palaeoclimate are discussed.
