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Variability of stalagmite-inferred Indian monsoon precipitation over the past 252,000 y

  • CAS - Institute of Earth Environment
  • University of California at Berkeley
  • University of Minnesota Twin Cities
  • Joint Center for Global Change Studies
  • Brown University
  • National Taiwan University
  • Nanyang Technological University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

350 Scopus citations

Abstract

A speleothem δ18O record from Xiaobailong cave in southwest China characterizes changes in summer monsoon precipitation in Northeastern India, the Himalayan foothills, Bangladesh, and northern Indochina over the last 252 kyr. This record is dominated by 23-kyr precessional cycles punctuated by prominent millennial-scale oscillations that are synchronous with Heinrich events in the North Atlantic. It also shows clear glacial-interglacial variations that are consistent with marine and other terrestrial proxies but are different from the cave records in East China. Corroborated by isotope-enabled global circulation modeling, we hypothesize that this disparity reflects differing changes in atmospheric circulation and moisture trajectories associated with climate forcing as well as with associated topographic changes during glacial periods, in particular redistribution of air mass above the growing ice sheets and the exposure of the "land bridge" in the Maritime continents in the western equatorial Pacific.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2954-2959
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume112
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Mar 2015

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action
  2. SDG 14 - Life Below Water
    SDG 14 Life Below Water

Keywords

  • Indian summer monsoon
  • Precipitation glacial-interglacial
  • Stalagmite
  • δO

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