Control of insolation on stalagmite growth, rainfall, and migration of the tropical rain belt in northern Namibia over the last 100 kyr, as suggested by a rare MIS 5b-5c stalagmite from Dante Cave

Dating by the ²³⁰Th method indicates that Stalagmite DANf from Dante Cave in northern Namibia, in the Summer Rainfall Zone (SRZ) of southern Africa, formed about 92 ka, at the boundary of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 5b and 5c. In this dominantly semiarid zone, stalagmite growth may be evidence of a relatively wetter period, and trends in DANf's mineralogy and its C, O, and U isotope ratios further support formation in a period wetter than those before or after its formation. DANf's time of formation at 92 ka, like other wet periods in the SRZ of southern Africa over the most recent 100 kyr, coincides with a maximum in January insolation at 30°S that brought the SRZ, and more generally the tropical rain belt, farther south than before or after.