Moisture and Seasonality Shifts Recorded in Holocene and Pleistocene Speleothems From Southeastern Arabia

Abstract

AbstractThe source and seasonality of rainfall in southern Arabia during the early‐ to mid‐Holocene and preceding humid periods are controversial because fossil lacustrine sediments provide solely indirect information on the amount of rainfall. Hydrogen and oxygen isotope measurements on fluid inclusion water trapped in Holocene and Pleistocene stalagmites from Hoti Cave in Northern Oman are direct indicators of the isotopic composition of paleoprecipitation. Isotope values of fluid inclusions formed during peak interglacial periods plot along monsoonal water lines and are indicative of a southern monsoonal moisture source. The last monsoon‐dominated period lasting from ∼10,100 to 6,300 years before present was terminated within a few decades in southeastern Arabia. The subsequent reduction in rainfall amount and change from predominantly summer to predominantly winter rainfall had a profound impact on human communities living in this area and triggered migration from inland to coastal areas where resources were more abundant.