Climate-driven stratigraphic evolution of the El Jable Plain (Lanzarote, Canary Islands): Late quaternary dynamics in a semi-arid island basin

The El Jable plain (Lanzarote, Canary Islands) preserves an exceptional stratigraphic archive of Late Quaternary environmental change in a semi-arid island setting. Through an integrated sedimentological and chronological approach combining facies analysis, post-IR IRSL and radiocarbon dating, we reconstruct the alternation of aeolian, colluvial, and ephemeral-stream dynamics over the past ∼140 ka. Results document major shifts in sedimentary regimes linked to Marine Isotope Stages (MIS): intensified dune formation during MIS 6 and MIS 4, slope-derived colluvial–alluvial phases under MIS 5e humidity, and variable hydrological activity during MIS 3. MIS 2 to early Holocene records oscillating dry–wet phases, with Last Glacial Maximum aeolian activation followed by Late Glacial to Holocene fluvial reactivation and humid pulses. Comparison with previous work across the Canaries and Northwest Africa highlights both archipelago-wide signals (aeolian activation during glacial lowstands) and local responses to precipitation variability. Our findings demonstrate that El Jable represents a uniquely sensitive archive of climate forcing in oceanic semi-arid environments and provides a valuable analogue for arid-margin basins worldwide.