SOLAR ACTIVITY VARIATIONS RECORDED IN VARVED SEDIMENTS FROM THE CRATER LAKE OF HOLZMAAR – A MAAR LAKE IN THE WESTEIFEL VOLCANIC FIELD, GERMANY

Annually laminated sediments from Lake Holzmaar (Germany) provide high resolution sedimentological and palaeoenvironmental data of the last 22,500 years. Weichselian periglacial varves and Holocene organic varves indicate different depositional environments. For the best preserved sections from both parts, spectral analyses were performed in order to detect cyclic fluctuations in varve thickness. Weichselian varves are dominated by an 88 year periodicity. Linear spectral analysis of Holocene varves provides no significant cyclicity. But, supposing nonlinear transformations of the solar signal through the Lake Holzmaar ecosystem during the Holocene, an adequate nonlinear spectral analysis method was able to detect periodicities of 11, 88, and 208 years. The existence of these cyclicities, comparable to the solar activity fluctuations, give further evidence for the existence of a sun-climate relationship, based on a not yet completely understood mechanism.