A High-Resolution Absolute-Dated Late Pleistocene Monsoon Record from Hulu Cave, China

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Wang, Y. J., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., An, Z. S., Wu, J. Y., Shen, C.-C., Dorale, J. A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2001
• Subjects: Greenland; Hulu; Greenland ice cores; Greenland Ice Sheet Project; Ice Sheet; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1064618; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1064618

Oxygen isotope records of five stalagmites from Hulu Cave near Nanjing bear a remarkable resemblance to oxygen isotope records from Greenland ice cores, suggesting that East Asian Monsoon intensity changed in concert with Greenland temperature between 11,000 and 75,000 years before the present (yr. B.P.). Between 11,000 and 30,000 yr. B.P., the timing of changes in the monsoon, as established with 230 Th dates, generally agrees with the timing of temperature changes from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) core, which supports GISP2's chronology in this interval. Our 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.