Abstract
Recent studies of the Last Glacial period Indo-Australian summer monsoon (IASM) have revealed links to both northern and southern hemisphere high latitude climate as well as to regional ocean conditions. Particular interest has been paid to the monsoon response to Heinrich events, with variability explained by meridional shifts in positioning of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), but this model has not been adequately tested. In addition, the shorter-lived Dansgaard/Oeschger (D/O) events have not been detected (beyond D/O-1, the Bølling/Allerød) in land-based records from the Indo-Pacific, despite their prominent expression in stalagmites from southern Asia, raising questions about the sensitivity of the IASM to these events. Here we present a Southern Hemisphere stalagmite oxygen isotopic time series from Ball Gown Cave (BGC), tropical northern Australia, located on the margins of the modern austral summer ITCZ, that spans 40–31 and 27–8 ka. Elevated IASM rainfall coincides with Heinrich stadials and the Younger Dryas, while decreased rainfall characterizes D/O interstadials, a response that is anti-phased with sites spanning the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool and with Chinese records of the East Asian summer monsoon. The BGC time series thus reveals a precipitation dipole consistent with a southward (northward) migration of the ITCZ during periods of high northern latitude cooling (warming) as the primary driver of millennial-scale IASM variability during the Last Glacial period. Our record indicates a strengthening of the IASM after the Younger Dryas period, likely as a result of rising sea level and sea surface temperatures, breaking the link with the high latitudes.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.