1 TO BE SUBMITTED TO QUATERNARY RESEARCH (2.583) 2 Climatic implications of thE QuatErnary fluvial tufa rEcord in the NE Iberian PEninsula 3 ovEr the last 500 ka 4 Carlos Sanchoa, Concha Arenasa, Marta Vázquez-Urbeza, Gonzalo Pardoa, María 5 Victoria Lozanob, José Luis Peñac, John Hellstromd, José Eugenio Ortize, María Cinta 6 Osácara, Luis Auquéa 7 a Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, 8 Spain.
[email protected] 9 b Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Universidad de Zaragoza, Ciudad Escolar s/n, 10 44003 Teruel, Spain. 11 c Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Universidad de Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna 12, 12 50009 Zaragoza, Spain. 13 d School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Melbourne, Australia. 14 e Laboratorio de Estratigrafía Biomolecular, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas, Ríos Rosas 15 21, 28003 Madrid, Spain. 16 Abstract 17 Drainage of the Iberian Ranges (NE Spain) houses one of the most extensive 18 Quaternary fluvial tufaceous record in Europe. Specifically tufa deposits in the 19 Añamaza, Mesa, Piedra and Ebrón river valleys were mapped and stratigraphically 20 described. In addition they were chronologically referenced from a large dataset of 21 U/Th disequilibrium series, Aminoacid Racemization and Radiocarbon dates to infer 22 long-term climatic fluctuations in NE Iberia over the past 500 ka. High consistency 23 among the dating methods, also supported by geomorphic and stratigraphic relations 24 was observed. Tufa deposits accumulated in cascades, barrage-cascades and related 25 damming areas developed in stepped fluvial systems of variable slope, that display 26 sequences of cut-and-fill and nested-fill terraces.