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Catastrophic drought in the Afro-Asian monsoon region during Heinrich Event 1

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posted on 2011-08-05, 08:50 authored by Curt 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.

Publisher

American Association of Advancement of Science (© The author)

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2011

Notes

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

ISSN

1095-9203;0036-8075

Language

  • en

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