African monsoon variability during the previous interglacial maximum

Details African monsoon variability during the previous interglacial maximum African monsoon variability during the previous interglacial maximum

Aug 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002e%26psl.202...61r&link_type=abstract

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 202, Issue 1, p. 61-75.

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31

Scientific paper

Little is known about centennial- to millennial-scale climate variability during interglacial times, other than the Holocene. We here present high-resolution evidence from anoxic (unbioturbated) sediments in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that demonstrates a sustained ~800-yr climate disturbance in the monsoonal latitudes during the Eemian interglacial maximum (~125 ka BP). Results imply that before and after this event, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) penetrated sufficiently beyond the central Saharan watershed (~21°N) during the summer monsoon to fuel flooding into the Mediterranean along the wider North African margin, through fossil river/wadi systems that to date have been considered only within a Holocene context. Relaxation in the ITCZ penetration during the intra-Eemian event curtailed this flux, but flow from the Nile - with its vast catchment area - was not affected. Previous work suggests a concomitant Eurasian cooling event, with intensified impact of the higher-latitude climate on the Mediterranean basin. The combined signals are very similar to those described for the Holocene cooling event around 8 ka BP. The apparent type of concurrent changes in the monsoon and higher-latitude climate may reflect a fundamental mechanism for variability in the transfer of energy (latent heat) between the tropics and higher latitudes.

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