Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000 years
Yongjin Wang,Hai Cheng,Hai Cheng,R. Lawrence Edwards,Xinggong Kong,Xiaohua Shao,Shitao Chen,Jiangyin Wu,Xiouyang Jiang,Xianfeng Wang,Zhisheng An +10 more
TLDR
An absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Sanbao cave, central China, is presented that completes a Chinese-cave-based record of the strength of the East Asian monsoon that covers the past 224,000 years, supporting the idea that tropical/subtropical monsoons respond dominantly and directly to changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation on orbital timescales.Abstract:
Stalactites, stalagmites and the many other forms of mineral deposits found in caves are a mainstay of climate studies, recording oxygen isotope ratios in limestone laid down over time. That pattern links to the water temperature of ancient oceans, and thus to climate. A new oxygen isotope record from Sanbao Cave, central China, tells the story of the region's climate stretching back 200,000 years, filling gaps in the record of a particularly important climate event, the East Asian monsoon. High-resolution speleothem records from China have provided insights into the factors that control the strength of the East Asian monsoon1,2,3,4. Our understanding of these factors remains incomplete, however, owing to gaps in the record of monsoon history over the past two interglacial–glacial cycles. In particular, missing sections have hampered our ability to test ideas about orbital-scale controls on the monsoon5,6,7, the causes of millennial-scale events8,9 and relationships between changes in the monsoon and climate in other regions. Here we present an absolute-dated oxygen isotope record from Sanbao cave, central China, that completes a Chinese-cave-based record of the strength of the East Asian monsoon that covers the past 224,000 years. The record is dominated by 23,000-year-long cycles that are synchronous within dating errors with summer insolation at 65° N (ref. 10), supporting the idea that tropical/subtropical monsoons respond dominantly and directly to changes in Northern Hemisphere summer insolation on orbital timescales5. The cycles are punctuated by millennial-scale strong-summer-monsoon events (Chinese interstadials1), and the new record allows us to identify the complete series of these events over the past two interglacial–glacial cycles. Their duration decreases and their frequency increases during glacial build-up in both the last and penultimate glacial periods, indicating that ice sheet size affects their character and pacing. The ages of the events are exceptionally well constrained and may thus serve as benchmarks for correlating and calibrating climate records.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Improvements in 230Th dating, 230Th and 234U half-life values, and U–Th isotopic measurements by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Hai Cheng,Hai Cheng,R. Lawrence Edwards,Chuan-Chou Shen,Victor J. Polyak,Yemane Asmerom,Jon Woodhead,John Hellstrom,Yongjin Wang,Xinggong Kong,Christoph Spötl,Xianfeng Wang,E. Calvin Alexander +12 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) to measure the half-life of stalagmite stalagmites.
Journal ArticleDOI
Migrations and dynamics of the intertropical convergence zone
TL;DR: An emerging framework links the intertropical convergence zone to the atmospheric energy balance and may account for ITCZ variations on timescales from years to geological epochs.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Asian monsoon over the past 640,000 years and ice age terminations
Hai Cheng,R. Lawrence Edwards,Ashish Sinha,Christoph Spötl,Liang Yi,Shitao Chen,Megan M. Kelly,Gayatri Kathayat,Xianfeng Wang,Xianglei Li,Xinggong Kong,Yongjin Wang,Youfeng Ning,Haiwei Zhang +13 more
TL;DR: Observations indicate that insolation, in part, sets the pace of the occurrence of millennial-scale events, including those associated with terminations and ‘unfinished terminations’.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ice age terminations.
Hai Cheng,R. Lawrence Edwards,Wallace S. Broecker,George H. Denton,Xinggong Kong,Yongjin Wang,Rong Zhang,Xianfeng Wang +7 more
TL;DR: Variability of the Asian Monsoon over the past 400,000 years correlates with the ends of glacial periods, and AM records for the past four glacial terminations can be precisely correlated with those from ice cores and marine sediments, establishing the timing and sequence of major events.
Journal ArticleDOI
Orographic controls on climate and paleoclimate of Asia: thermal and mechanical roles for the Tibetan Plateau.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the high Tibetan plateau may affect the South Asian monsoon less by heating the overlying atmosphere than by simply acting as an obstacle to southward flow of cool, dry air.
References
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Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica
J. R. Petit,Jean Jouzel,Dominique Raynaud,J. M. Barnola,I. Basile,Michael L. Bender,Jérôme Chappellaz,Michael Davis,Gilles Delaygue,Marc Delmotte,V. M. Kotlyakov,Michel Legrand,Vladimir Ya. Lipenkov,C. Lorius,L. Pepin,Catherine Ritz,Eric S. Saltzman,Michel Stievenard +17 more
TL;DR: The recent completion of drilling at Vostok station in East Antarctica has allowed the extension of the ice record of atmospheric composition and climate to the past four glacial-interglacial cycles.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica
J. R. Petit,Jean Jouzel,Dominique Raynaud,Nartsiss I. Barkov,I. Basile,Michael L. Bender,Jérôme Chappellaz,M. Davisk,G. Delaygue,Marc Delmotte,V. M. Kotlyakov,Michel Legrand,Vladimir Ya. Lipenkov,C. Lorius,Catherine Ritz,E. Saltzmank,Michel Stievenard +16 more
TL;DR: The recent completion of drilling at Vostok station in East Antarctica has allowed the extension of the ice record of atmospheric composition and climate to the past four glacial-interglacial cycles as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Evidence for general instability of past climate from a 250-kyr ice-core record
Willi Dansgaard,Sigfus J Johnsen,Sigfus J Johnsen,Henrik Clausen,Dorthe Dahl-Jensen,Niels S. Gundestrup,Claus U. Hammer,Christine S. Hvidberg,Jørgen Peder Steffensen,Arny E. Sveinbjörnsdottir,Jean Jouzel,Gerard C. Bond +11 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a detailed stable isotope record for the full length of the Greenland Ice-core Project Summit ice core, extending over the past 250 kyr according to a calculated timescale, and find that climate instability was not confined to the last glaciation, but appears also have been marked during the last interglacial (as explored more fully in a companion paper), and during the previous Saale-Holstein glacial cycle.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Pervasive Millennial-Scale Cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial Climates
Gerard C. Bond,William J. Showers,Maziet Cheseby,Rusty Lotti,Peter Almasi,Peter B deMenocal,Paul Priore,Heidi Cullen,Irka Hajdas,Georges Bonani +9 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the North Atlantic deep sea cores reveal that abrupt shifts punctuated what is conventionally thought to have been a relatively stable Holocene climate, and they make up a series of climate shifts with a cyclicity close to 1470 ± 500 years, which is the most recent manifestation of a pervasive millennial-scale climate cycle operating independently of the glacial-interglacial climate state.
Journal ArticleDOI
A High-Resolution Absolute-Dated Late Pleistocene Monsoon Record from Hulu Cave, China
Yongjin Wang,Yongjin Wang,Hai Cheng,Richard Lawrence Edwards,Zhisheng An,Jiangying Wu,Chuan-Chou Shen,Jeffrey A. Dorale +7 more
TL;DR: The record links North Atlantic climate with the meridional transport of heat and moisture from the warmest part of the ocean where the summer East Asian Monsoon originates and generally agrees with the timing of temperature changes from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2).
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