Plio-Pleistocene Neodymium (Nd) isotope data for Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 967, Eastern Mediterranean

Past North African humid periods resulted in expanded vegetation over the Sahara, due to northward tropical African rainbelt displacement. Commonly, these precession-timed North African humid periods ended within 15 thousand years as the monsoon rainbelt retreated southward during subsequent dry intervals. Eastern Mediterranean organic-rich layers (sapropels) reflect North African humid periods through out the Plio-Pleistocene, which are interbedded with the marls deposited during intervening dry periods. ODP Site 160-967 in the eastern Mediterranean is composed of sediments delivered from North Africa back to the Miocene/Pliocene boundary. Here we present a low-resolution Neodymium isotope record for the past 5 million years (from sapropels and marls), which reflects sediment source region variability to the eastern Mediterranean across the Plio-Pleistocene.