posted on 2011-08-05, 08:50authored byCurt J. Stager, David RyvesDavid Ryves, Brian M. Chase, Francesco S.R. Pausata
Between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago, large amounts of ice and meltwater entered
the North Atlantic during Heinrich Stadial 1. This caused substantial regional
cooling, but major climatic impacts also occurred in the tropics. Here we
demonstrate that the height of this stadial, ca. 17-16,000 years ago ("Heinrich Event
1"), coincided with one of the most extreme and widespread megadroughts of the
last 50,000 years or more in the Afro-Asian monsoon region, with potentially serious
consequences for Paleolithic cultures. Late Quaternary tropical drying commonly is
attributed to southward drift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, but the broad
geographic range of the H1 Megadrought suggests that severe, systemic weakening
of Afro-Asian rainfall systems also occurred, probably in response to sea surface
cooling.
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Geography and Environment
Citation
STAGER, J.C. ... et al, 2011. Catastrophic drought in the Afro-Asian monsoon region during Heinrich Event 1. Science, 331, pp. 1299-1302.
This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science, 331, 2011, doi:10.1126/science.1198322