Early-Holocene aridity in tropical northern Australia

• Published in: The Holocene
• Main Authors: Nott, Jonathan, Bryant, Edward, Price, David
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 1999
• Subjects: Paleontology; Earth-Surface Processes; Ecology; Archeology; Global and Planetary Change; Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/095968399673789264; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/095968399673789264

Thermoluminescence ages from a longitudinal dunefield in tropical northern Australia suggest that complete dune activation occurred here either continuously or sporadically between approximately 8.2 ka and 5.9 ka. This period, in Australia, is normally ascribed to one of increasingly warm and wet conditions towards the Holocene Climatic Optimum. However, elsewhere, this time (~8 ka) coincides with a brief period of global climate change recognized in 18 O records from Antarctica, methane records of the Greenland Summit ice cores, changes to deep-sea benthic foraminferal composition and atmospheric 14 C variations. In tropical Africa two distinct phases of aridity have been dated at approximately 8 ka and 6 ka. The coincidence of aeolian reactivation episodes in this north Australian dunefield with brief phases of early-Holocene climate change elsewhere suggests possible global climatic teleconnections at this time.