penetration of atlantic westerly winds into central and east asia abstract the geographical position of the convergence zone where the western atlantic climate system meets the asian winter monsoonal system depends on their relative strength these individual strengths are determined by the intensities of the air pressure gradients over the north atlantic and the siberian high pressure cell respectively since the factors that forced those gradients varied throughout glacial interglacial cycles the location of the convergence zone should have moved accordingly both the grain size characteristics of wind blown sediments and climate modelling prove that the atlantic influence extended remarkably far eastward at times the northeastern tibetan plateau was at the cross road of western and monsoonal influences during the last glacial this region was dominated by an atlantic signal with millennial scale climatic oscillations that are similar to the north atlantic marine and greenland ice core records in contrast that same region was only under monsoonal influence during the last interglacial it implies that the atlantic winds penetrated more vigorously eastward in full glacial conditions than in interglacial conditions

interpreting temporal patterns in the late quaternary dust flux from asia to the north pacific abstract a comparative study of the literature on the late quaternary accumulation of aeolian dust in china japan and the pacific ocean shows three different temporal patterns of dust signals the main dust sources in asia the deserts and desert margins contain large amounts of wind suspensible allochthonous material commonly an increase in dust accumulation is taken as an indicator of increased aridity in the interior of asia differences among the signals of asian desert dust accumulation in different depositional areas indicate that this interpretation requires critical evaluation the dust supply of the desert regions was maximal during the pleistocene glacial maxima the widespread assumption that these stages were the most arid periods is not necessarily valid additional factors likely to lead to temporal and regional differences in dust accumulation are 1 eustatic sea level changes associated with changes in the amount of exposed shelf material and changes in the extent of sea ice affecting atmospheric changes 2 the frequency of meteorological situations allowing long range dust transport 3 the strength of the dust transporting winds 4 changes in the wet deposition rate and 5 the presence of a dust trapping vegetation cover temporal variations in dustiness in different depositional areas are the result of specific combinations of these factors simplified assumptions concerning the reasons for dust variability may lead to incomplete or even erroneous palaeoecological conclusions

new absolute time scale for the quaternary climate in the chinese loess region by grain size analysis continuous loess sequences in china provide not only information for paleoclimatic reconstructions but also permit the establishment of a reliable absolute time scale for the quaternary an empirical relationship is developed between the grain size of the loess and the sedimentation rate in a short well dated reference section step 1 this relationship is extrapolated to the complete quaternary section step 2 after derivation of the sedimentation rate by measuring the grain size in all the layers of the sequence the duration of deposition of each layer is obtained by dividing thickness by sedimentation rate and subsequently the age of each point in the sequence is calculated by adding together all the duration values of the overlying layers the chronology of the extrapolated part of the section obtained in this way is independent of dates provided by other methods and may also be checked by them

east asia winter monsoon variations on a millennial time scale before the last glacial interglacial cycle grain size and magnetic susceptibility measurements on samples from a typical loess palaeosol sequence on the central chinese loess plateau are used to reconstruct the pleistocene east asian monsoon climate the coarse grained fraction i e the weight percentage 30 m of the bulk grain size distribution is used as a sensitive proxy index of the east asia winter monsoon strength on the basis of an absolute time scale time series variations of this proxy show that winter monsoon strengths varied on millennial time scales during the periods 145 165 240 280 320 350 390 440 600 640 860 890 900 930 and 1330 1400 kyr bp the wavelength of these climatic oscillations varied between 1 89 and 4 0 kyr as is shown by spectral analysis using the multitaper method although numerical simulation experiments show that high frequencies also can arise from measurement errors in the grain size analysis the frequencies prove to be sufficiently stable when the spectral analysis is repeated with a different number of tapers for the time being we do not correlate these climatic oscillations with palaeoclimatic records in the north atlantic deep sea sediments because both time scales need to be further improved our data however certainly demonstrate that millennial scale east asian winter monsoon variations in the last 1 4 million years can be detected from terrestrial loess records copyright 1999 john wiley sons ltd

paleoenvironmental and archaeological investigations at qinghai lake western china geomorphic and chronometric evidence of lake level history abstract qinghai lake located on the northeastern qinghai tibet plateau qing zang gaoyuan is china s largest extant closed basin lake its position relative to major asian climate systems makes it sensitive to global climate change the lake has been the subject of numerous paleoenvironmental investigations including dating of shoreline features around the lake basin here we report new age estimates of shoreline features geomorphic exposures and archaeological sites that contribute to the development of a lake level history for qinghai lake and a landscape model of the qinghai lake basin lake highstands above 3230 m 36 m above the modern lake level appear to date to late mis 5 70 110 ka the lake has had much more modest highstands since then no evidence of mis 3 lake stands higher than modern were found and early holocene highstands are no more than 12 m above modern if the age of highstands greater than 3230 m is confirmed through future work then the qinghai lake basin hydrologic balance prior to 70 ka was dramatically different than after that time including during the holocene a simple hydrologic balance model provides insights into the combination of precipitation evaporation and runoff generation needed to sustain the lake at 3260 m the highest shoreline observed a range of factors may explain the difference primarily the relative strength of the east asian monsoon the basin was apparently subject to extensive alluviation during mis 3 interrupted by widespread erosion and development of cryogenic features before and during the last glacial maximum lgm loess that presently drapes much of the lower basin landscape began to be deposited after the lgm 16 18 ka the landscape model outlined here has implications for archaeological visibility of early human occupation of the qinghai tibet plateau

the impact of the kasatochi eruption on the moon s illumination during the august 2008 lunar eclipse 1 the moon s changeable aspect during a lunar eclipse is largely attributable to variations in the refracted unscattered sunlight absorbed by the terrestrial atmosphere that occur as the satellite crosses the earth s shadow the contribution to the moon s aspect from sunlight scattered at the earth s terminator is generally deemed minor however our analysis of a published spectrum of the 16 august 2008 lunar eclipse shows that diffuse sunlight is a major component of the measured spectrum at wavelengths shorter than 600 nm the conclusion is supported by two distinct features namely the spectrum s tail at short wavelengths and the unequal absorption by an oxygen collisional complex at two nearby bands our findings are consistent with the presence of the volcanic cloud reported at high northern latitudes following the 7 8 august 2008 eruption in alaska of the kasatochi volcano the cloud both attenuates the unscattered sunlight and enhances moderately the scattered component thus modifying the contrast between the two contributions

calibration of modelled mixing patterns in loess grain size distributions an example from the north eastern margin of the tibetan plateau china genetically meaningful decomposition unmixing of sediment grain size distributions is accomplished with the end member modelling algorithm unmixing of the loess grain size distributions of a late quaternary loess palaeosol succession from the north eastern tibetan plateau indicates that the loess is a mixture of three end members representing very fine sandy coarse silty and medium silty loess the unmixing approach potentially enables the unravelling of sediment fluxes from multiple dust sources opening the way to significant advances in palaeoclimatic reconstructions from loess grain size distribution data however as laser diffraction size analysis is a volume based technique the proportional contributions of the modelled end members might deviate significantly from weight proportions hence calibration of the end member volume proportions to weight proportions must be established before one can calculate the source specific dust fluxes this paper reports the findings of a sediment mixing experiment which enables calibration of the modelled mixing patterns established for the tibetan loess palaeosol succession 2005 international association of sedimentologists

the role of the indian summer monsoon and the mid latitude westerlies in himalayan glaciation review and speculative discussion new dates for late quaternary glaciations in the himalayas show that during the last glacial cycle glaciations were not synchronous throughout the region rather in some areas glaciers reached their maxima at the global glacial maximum of c 18 20 ka bp whereas in others glaciers were most extensive at c 60 30 ka bp comparison of these data with palaeoclimatic records from adjacent regions suggest that on millennial timescales himalayan glacier fluctuations are controlled by variations in both the south asian monsoon and the mid latitude westerlies

extending the radiocarbon calibration beyond 26 000 years before present using fossil corals fossil coral is an excellent archive to extend the radiocarbon 14c calibration beyond tree ring records however published coral data older than 26 000 years before present are too disparate for practical calibration we propose an explanation for these discrepancies trace amounts of secondary calcite and organic matter in fossil corals shift the 14c ages toward younger ages in a series of acid leaching experiments to simulate the standard cleaning procedure prior to 14c analysis we measure up to a 300 enrichment of diagenetic calcite in corals due to the solubility differences between calcite and aragonite in model calculations we show the 14c age offsets produced by acid leaching could be hundreds to thousands of years when typical amounts of calcite are present in samples we demonstrate the necessity and our ability to detect 0 2 calcite in aragonite by x ray diffraction and apply 0 2 calcite as our a priori criterion for our coral samples the estimated age offsets of samples with 0 2 calcite fall within the reported analytical uncertainty of 14c dating in addition we present 14c results from an extended hydrogen peroxide h2o2 pretreatment for coral samples to remove organic matter our data show that treated samples yield consistent or older 14c dates compared to non treated samples these rigorous but necessary screening and cleaning techniques provide precise reproducible and accurate radiocarbon calibration data

the late miocene and pliocene climate in east asia as recorded by grain size and magnetic susceptibility of the red clay deposits chinese loess plateau abstract grain size characteristics of the aeolian red clay sediment series in china demonstrate the existence of warm cool alternations during the late miocene and pliocene from the dissimilarity between the temporal patterns of grain size and magnetic susceptibility it is inferred that the finest grain size fraction in the red clay clay and very fine silt is transported by the wind as is the case of the coarser silty component relatively cool climatic conditions are indicated by increased loess supply represented by the silty component from the nw caused by a stronger winter monsoon as in the overlying quaternary system it is striking that at the same time the amounts of clay also increased probably due to transportation by intensified westerly circulation relatively warm periods are characterized by opposite grain size properties these warm cool alternations on the asian continent dated by palaeomagnetic analyses correlate well with already established changes in sea level and ice sheet volumes up to 6 ma in addition time series analysis of the grain size signal points to an orbitally forced climatic cyclicity precession eccentricity and weak obliquity

periodicities of palaeoclimatic variations recorded by loess paleosol sequences in china abstract palaeoclimatic periodicity recorded by chinese loess paleosol sequence has been investigated for a number of years however conclusions from previous investigations are still controversial and interpretation of cycle evolution is quite equivocal in this study two typical loess paleosol sequences 148 and 191 m in thickness respectively in the central chinese loess plateau are sampled 3872 samples total and measured for grain size distribution and magnetic susceptibility in order to reconstruct the palaeoclimatic changes over the past three million years on the basis of a new sensitive proxy indicator of palaeoclimate and a newly developed independent time scale not orbitally tuned two time series of asian dust storm variations which are highly related to the palaeoclimate system changes are obtained wavelet and spectrum analyses indicate that there are approximately 400 200 100 66 57 41 31 27 and 22 kyr cycles in these typical loess paleosol records some orbital driven cycles are weak and are not well presented in the new time series while some non orbital cycles are found since the eccentricity frequencies of the solar irradiance of approximately 400 and 100 kyr are preserved in these palaeoclimatic sequences the lack of relatively short time orbital cycles of 41 kyr obliquity and 22 kyr precession cycles in part of the two time series may be explained by the relatively low time resolution of the loess paleosol deposits through an astronomical estimate the obliquity and precession cycles should leave stronger footprints on records of palaeoclimatic variations at the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere the presence of non orbital cycles may be explained by unstable dust deposition processes and pedogenic processes in the paleosol units which could misrepresent or obliterate the imprint of the solar irradiance frequency this conclusion may indicate that one should be cautious when investigating specific palaeoclimatic changes e g at sub orbital time scales recorded in loess deposits especially in the paleosol units

atmospheric variability over the 14 7 kyr bp stadial interstadial transition in the north atlantic region as simulated by an agcm the echam4 t42 atmospheric general circulation model was applied to study the change in atmospheric variability in the north atlantic region over the similar to14 7 kyr cal bp climatic transition from greenland stadial 2a gs 2a end of pleniglacial to greenland interstadial le gi le start late glacial the following three climates are simulated 1 present day 2 gs 2a and 3 gi le we focus on climatic parameters near the earth s surface temperature precipitation and sea level pressure results on two different temporal scales are analysed seasonal and daily the seasonal fields show that the main change over the 14 7 kyr bp transition occurred in winter we calculated daily standard deviations of temperature and pressure about the seasonal means and the high pass filtered less than six days variability of pressure the largest change in atmospheric variability occurred in northwest europe here the daily temperature variability decreased by 50 whereas storm activity also decreased substantially these changes are related to a northward shift of the atlantic sea ice margin at 14 7 kyr bp leading to a northward relocation of the atlantic storm track in the gs 2a experiment a strong storm track was located over northwest europe where frequent depressions produced alternations of northerly air flow below 30 degreesc and southerly air flow close to 0 degreesc this strong daily atmospheric variability decreased in gi le because the storm track had a sw ne orientation over the atlantic towards iceland the decrease in atmospheric variability at 14 7 kyr bp probably contributed to landscape stabilization for instance through decreasing eolian transport

on the reliability and comparability of laser diffraction grain size measurements of paleosols in loess records abstract laser diffraction grain size data and size distributions of paleosols are widely used in paleoenvironmental reconstructions as physicochemical alteration related proxies of past changes of the sedimentary environment different laser diffraction devices optical theories and optical settings are being applied nowadays and ignorance of several uncertainty factors and drawbacks of this indirect grain size characterization approach has led to poorly comparable and reproducible granulometric datasets here we present a detailed comparison of grain size results acquired by three state of the art widely used laser diffraction devices fritsch analysette 22 microtec plus horiba partica la 950 v2 and malvern mastersizer 3000 grain size distributions were calculated using both the fraunhofer and mie scattering theories and a wide variety of optical settings 68 different complex refractive indices 1 45 1 6 0 01i 1i for 10 samples from loess paleosol sequences of the carpathian basin our findings demonstrate that optical settings have significant effects on grain size distributions especially for the finest fractions clay and fine silt populations interestingly the selection of laser diffraction devices was an even more deterministic factor in grain size characterization as revealed by network analyses clustering of bulk and size fractionated grain size records was primarily determined by the device used and also by the applied optical settings at the same time the real physical differences of samples were found to be deterministic exclusively for the sand sized fraction as such these findings emphasize the importance of the accurate description of applied methodological details in research papers as comparability and reproducibility of granulometric datasets cannot be ensured with a lack of information about instrumental conditions and settings

towards an orbital time scale for chinese loess deposits abstract in this study we analyzed the grain size of the baoji loess soil sequence at 10 cm intervals results show that grain size variations are very sensitive to loess soil alternations with loess units being much coarser than soils such a change in loess soil grains is interpreted as the result of the glacial interglacial cyclic variations in the intensity of the winter monsoon winds out of siberia the grain size record is thus employed as a proxy indicator of the winter monsoon circulation and tuned to the orbital records calculated recently by berger and loutre 1991 under the control of major magnetic reversals the tuning is independent of any correlation with 18o signals in the deep sea sediments the resulting grain size time scale is tightly constrained as suggested by the following facts 1 the filtered obliquity and precession components from the grain size data on the orbital time scale closely match the theoretical orbital records 2 ages of the major magnetic reversals estimated from the grain size time scale are in good agreement with the k ar dated ages 3 there is close coherence between the baoji grain size time series and the orbital variations at the orbital frequency bands over the entire 0 2 5 ma period and 4 the grain size record on the orbital time scale shows a close similarity to the orbitally tuned dsdp site 607 and odp site 677 18o records examination of time dependent characteristics of the grain size record suggests that there are two major shifts of dominant periodicities in the long term monsoonal cycles one occurring at about 0 8 ma bp and the other around 1 7 ma bp

response of surface processes to climatic change in the dunefields and loess plateau of north china during the late quaternary this paper draws on recent optically stimulated luminescence osl dating to evaluate the long held assumption that dust accumulation rates in the loess plateau and the extent of active aeolian sand in the dunefields to the north have varied together over time because both are controlled by the strength of the asian monsoons and also possibly because the dunefields are proximal loess sources the results show there is little evidence that high rates of loess accumulation coincided with well dated episodes of extensive dune activity in the mu us otindag and horqin dunefields at 11 8 ka and 1 0 ka explanations for the apparent lack of coupling include local variation in the trapping of dust and post depositional preservation of the loess and dune sediments in response to varying local environmental conditions in addition a substantial portion of the loess may be transported directly from source areas where dust emission has somewhat different climatic and geomorphic controls than aeolian sand activity within the dunefields the results of this study cast doubt on the use of loess accumulation rate as a palaeoclimatic proxy at millennial timescale the dunefield and loess stratigraphic records are interpreted as primarily recording changes in effective moisture at a local scale but the timing of late quaternary dune activity along with a variety of other evidence indicates that moisture changes in many of the drylands of northern china may not be in phase with precipitation in core regions of the asian monsoons copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

contrasting atmospheric and climate dynamics of the last glacial and holocene periods our present climate is relatively stable compared to that of the last glacial maximum about 20 000 years ago palaeoclimate records obtained from ice cores1 2 and deep sea sediment cores3 for the last glacial period show abrupt temperature changes on timescales of a few hundred years which have been attributed to cycles of ice build up and release associated with large ice sheets dansgaard oeschger cycles and heinrich events 3 and their coupling to ocean circulation4 5 but little is known about the dynamics of the atmosphere during the last glaciation ice sheets influence atmospheric circulation and studies using general circulation models have suggested stormier more variable atmospheric dynamics during the last glacial maximum than today6 9 here we report the results of an analysis of temporal trends over the past 91 000 years in the oxygen isotope signatures of a high resolution ice core record from greenland1 2 this analysis provides direct evidence that atmospheric circulation during the last glaciation was more turbulent than it is today

late cenozoic eolian deposition in the north pacific asian drying tibetan uplift and cooling of the northern hemisphere a newly constructed record of eolian dust accumulation from the central north pacific shows that dust deposition increased by an order of magnitude quite rapidly at 3 6 ma we associate this sudden drying with the uplift of at least the northern portion of the tibetan plateau shutting off the indian ocean moisture source to central and western china this ten fold increase in atmospheric dust loading appears to be associated with the 1 m y long shift toward heavy 18o values that occurred at 3 6 2 6 ma the dust grain size record of wind intensity begins its late cenozoic coarsening a million years before the drying event at 4 5 ma the northern hemisphere cooling that results in intensification of the subpolar westerly winds may have as its ultimate cause the drawdown of atmospheric co2 in the latest miocene and the early pliocene closing of the panamanian seaway

the nature origin and accumulation of loess abstract loess can be defined simply as a terrestrial clastic sediment composed predominantly of silt size particles which is formed essentially by the accumulation of wind blown dust there are three fundamental requirements for its formation 1 a sustained source of dust 2 adequate wind energy to transport the dust and 3 a suitable accumulation site most loess has been modified to some degree by local reworking bioturbation and syn depositional weathering but a process of loessification is not necessary for a dust deposit to qualify as loess the terms primary loess and secondary loess have previously been used to described wind deposited loess and redeposited loess respectively but it is more accurate to describe material reworked and redeposited by non aeolian processes as loess derived colluvium or loess derived alluvium during the quaternary loess formed in three main situations 1 mid continental shield areas beyond the limits of ice sheets periglacial loess 2 on the margins of high mountain ranges perimontane loess and 3 on the semi arid margins of some lowland deserts peridesert loess peridesert loess is relatively poorly developed partly due to the limited efficiency of silt generating mechanisms in low land deserts compared with glaciation but also important is the tendency in arid areas for dust to be dispersed over a wide area and to be rapidly reworked after deposition particularly in areas which experience frequent climatic changes the remarkably thick loess of china and central asia results from an unusual combination of conditions which has persisted for much of the last 2 3 million years namely rapid uplift of the tibetan plateau and surrounding mountain ranges high rates of sediment production and supply to adjacent basins a strong northwesterly and westerly wind regime and the existence of effective dust traps downwind of the source regions

the history and variability of the east asian paleomonsoon climate abstract changes in the east asian paleomonsoon reflect interactions between the global atmosphere ocean land and ice systems and are also an expression of their combined effect within the boundary conditions imposed by the east asian continent and solar radiation the history of the east asian monsoon is an alternation between dominance by the dry cold winter and warm humid summer monsoons high resolution eolian sequences preserved in the chinese loess plateau reveal that the east asian monsoon may have commenced at least 7 2 ma ago they also provide evidence indicating that the pulsed uplift of the tibetan plateau at about 3 4 and 7 2 ma may have played an important role in inducing climate change the palaeoclimatic records of the last glacial cycle show high frequency variability on time scales of 1000 year or even shorter and instability of the east asian paleomonsoon system the high frequency variability could be due to a non linear response to orbital forcing or a result of the coupling processes between different components of the global system cold air activity in northern high latitudes the trans equatorial air streams from the southern hemisphere and possibly enso may have played an important role in east asian monsoon variability the synchroneity of all the palaeoclimatic events along the polar equator polar pep transect is still an open question correlation of limited palaeoclimatic records for the last 30 kyr obtained from east asia and australia suggests that the trans equatorial air streams driven by the monsoon and trade winds may have had an influence on opposite hemispheres

late quaternary dust flow on the chinese loess plateau abstract the dust flux of over 25 g cm2 103yr was reached in the central part of the chinese loess plateau during the last glacial maximum this is more than three times higher than during the last interglacial and early glacial time the grain size of the pleniglacial dust reached a peak shortly after 20 000 years ago and testifies to the occurrence of strong winds and frequent dust storms

high resolution multi proxy climate records from chinese loess evidence for rapid climatic changes over the last 75 kyr the loess paleosol sequence in loess layer l1 malan loess is investigated in three regions of the western chinese loess plateau nine pedogenic layers are found in l1 and three proxy climate indices magnetic susceptibility ms grain size gs and caco3 content are measured at intervals of 0 2 kyr in order to recover records of monsoon climate variations time series of ms gs and caco3 content document the high resolution history of summer and winter monsoon climate variations over the last 75 kyr the records show a high degree of similarity to the warm interstadials recorded in ice cores from greenland and the antarctic and with heinrich events in the north atlantic during the last glacial cycle bond cycles are also recorded by the chinese loess records overall our results indicate that numerous rapid changes in climate occurred in china during the last glacial cycle but that the range of climate variations was smaller than recorded in greenland

comparison of laser grain size analysis with pipette and sieve analysis a solution for the underestimation of the clay fraction classically the grain size of soil and sediment samples is determined by the sieve method for the coarse fractions and by the pipette method based on the stokes sedimentation rates for the fine fractions results from the two methods are compared with results from laser diffraction size analysis which is based on the forward scattering of monochromatic coherent light from a point of view of laboratory efficiency the laser sizing technique is far superior accuracy and reproducibility are shown by measurements on certified materials it appears that laser grain size measurements of certified materials correspond very well with the certificated measurements tests were also done on a set of randomly selected sediments of fluvial aeolian and lacustrine origin except for the 2 m clay fraction there is a coarsening of the mean diameter of one to two size classes 0 25 caused by the non sphericity of the particles the platy form of the clay particles induces considerable differences eight size classes between pipette and laser measurements the 2 m grain size defined by the pipette method corresponds with a grain size of 8 m defined by the laser particle sizer for the studied sediments using a higher grain size level for the clay fraction when laser analysis is applied enables workers in the geological and environmental field to compare classical pipette analysis with a laser sizing technique

chinese loess record of monsoon climate during the last glacial interglacial cycle the thick loess paleosol succession of central china contains a detailed record of changes in east asian monsoon climate since the late miocene epoch the alternating loess paleosol stratigraphy closely resembles the marine oxygen isotope record implying that episodic dust deposition and pedogenesis are in phase with global ice volume fluctuations and controlled by variations in solar radiation reaching the land surface deposits equivalent to marine isotope stages mis 5 through 1 have been dated by 14c 10be luminescence and magnetic susceptibility and grain size models malan loess mis 4 2 decreases in thickness southeastward from 30 m in the western loess plateau to 5 m east of xi an downwind asian dust is found in japan the north pacific ocean and the greenland ice sheet where it has a chemical signature that points to a primary source in western china during glacial times the mean dust flux in the central loess plateau reached 0 35 mm year whereas in interglacial times it fell to 0 1 mm year times of high dust influx and reduced soil development coincided with strengthened winter monsoon conditions which are inferred from variations in loess grain size times of decreased dust accumulation and strong pedogenesis marked by high values of magnetic susceptibility represent times of strengthened summer monsoon conditions high frequency fluctuations in dust influx during deposition of the malan loess include peaks that likely correlate with north atlantic heinrich events the younger dryas oscillation is recorded in chinese eolian and organic deposits by a shift from cool humid late glacial conditions to cold and dry conditions followed by a return to milder humid climate at the beginning of the holocene warm moist climate associated with a strong summer monsoon characterized the first half of the holocene epoch when a widespread paleosol complex developed on the loess plateau increased dust deposition during the middle to late holocene marked a shift to cooler drier conditions

moisture evolution in central asia since 26 ka insights from a kyrgyz loess section western tian shan abstract central asia ca is located in the hinterland of the eurasian continent and faces an extreme risk of continued aridification under the current global warming trend to predict future climate change in ca paleoclimate studies provide essential references however the mechanisms underlying climate changes in ca remain relatively poorly known here we investigate moisture variations in ca as recorded in a 6 m loess section in the western tian shan kyrgyzstan which has accumulated since 26 ka based on the radiometric ams 14c dating we reconstructed the evolution of the wind regime and moisture conditions in the western tian shan with a modified grain size index gsim and a new l proxy l while the frequency dependent magnetic susceptibility fd redness a and yellowness b did not provide reliable paleoclimatic indicators due to weak pedogenesis and other controlling factors the gsim records demonstrated a precipitation maximum in summer before 15 ka shifting to a maximum in spring after 15 ka probably associated with large scale modulation of the latitudinal climatic zones and atmospheric circulation in response to retreat of the northern hemisphere ice sheets based on the l records we place emphases on the important role of temperature modulated evaporation in moisture evolution across ca however this has only influenced moisture evolution in spring and summer with little effect on winter moisture conditions moreover the l records may also indicate that atmospheric humidity can partly affect the long term effective moisture variations

oxygen 18 16 variability in greenland snow and ice with 10 3 to 105 year time resolution the 3 km long greenland ice sheet project 2 gisp2 ice core presents a 100 000 year detailed oxygen isotope profile covering almost a full glacial interglacial cycle measuranents of isotopic fluctuations in snow frost and atmospheric water vapor samples collected during summer field seasons up to 20 0 are compatible with the large and abrupt 80 160 changes observed in accumulated tim snow pit 15 80 profiles from the gisp2 summit area however show rapid smoothing of the 180 160 signal near the surface beyond about 2 m depth the smoothedi5180 signal is fairly well preserved and can be interpreted in terms of average local weather conditions and climate the longer climate fluctuations also have regional and often global significance in the older part of the record corresponding to marine isotope stages mis 5a to 5d the effect of orbital climate forcing via the 19 and 23 kyr precession cycles and the 41 kyr obliquity cycle is obvious from the end ofmis 5a at about 75 000 years b p till the end of the glacial at the younger dryas preboreal transition at 11 650 years b p the o180 160 record shows frequent rapid switches between intermediate interstadial and low stadial values fourier spectra of the oscillations that are superimposed on the orbitally induced changes contain a strong periodicity at 1 5 kyr a broad peak at 4 0 kyr and additional shorter periods detailed comparison of the gisp2 180 160 record with the vostok antarctica 15d record pacific ocean foraminiferal 180 160 grande pile france tree pollen and insolation indicates that a counterpart to many of the rapid 180 160 fluctuations of gisp2 can be found in the other records and that the gisp2 isotopic changes clearly are the local expression of climate changes of worldwide extent correlation of events on the independent gisp2 and specmap time scales for the interval 10 000 50 000 years b p shows excellent chronometric agreement except possibly for the event labeled 3 1 the glacial to interglacial transition evidently started simultaneously in the arctic and the antarctic but its development and its expression in greenland isotopes was later suppressed by the influence of meltwater especially from the barents sea ice sheet on deep water formation and ocean circulation meltwaters from different ice sheets bordering the north atlantic also influenced ocean circulation during the bolling allerod interstadial complex and the younger dryas and led to a distinct development of european climate and greenland 180 160 values the holocene interval with long term stable mean isotopic values contains several fluauations with periods from years to millennia dominant is a 6 3 year oscillation with amplitude up to 3 to 4 0 periodicities of 11 and 210 years also found in the solar modulated records of the cosmogenic isotopes 1obe and 14c suggest solar processes as the cause of these cycles depression of180 160 values cooling by volcanic eruptions is observed in stacked gisp215 80 records but the effect is small and not likely to trigger major climate changes

loess stratigraphy of central asia palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental aspects abstract the loess palaeosol succession of central asia is comparable with that of the loess plateau in north china palaeomagnetic investigations and palaeontological studies in south tadjikistan suggest a date of 2 2 5 ma for the oldest loess indicating that dust storms became frequent in the region since 2 2 5 ma bp under the prevalently arid and semi arid environments of central asia aeolian processes had a gradually increasing influence on subaerial sedimentation during the pleistocene however atmospheric aeolian processes in central asia have mainly developed in accordance with pleistocene climatic cyclicity without extremely high intensification during the late pleistocene as implied by the previous tl dating results the identification of loess and palaeosol horizons with respective glaciations and interglacials is sometimes disputable nevertheless the available data in spite of limited evidence characterise well developed palaeosols of the middle and late pleistocene as warm and wet intervals associated with interglacials palynological studies of loess sections show that loess and palaeosol horizons have palynological spectra that are sometimes difficult to interpret interregional loess palaeosol correlation with glacial interglacial events as well as with oxygen isotope records should be supplied by multidisciplinary investigations

late pleistocene and holocene aeolian dust deposition in north china and the northwest pacific ocean abstract rates of dust deposition in the north pacific and the central loess plateau of china show a poor correlation during the last 30 000 yr although in both cases the dust was derived from deserts in northern china loess accumulation rates were high at the time of the last glacial maximum while dust flux to the north pacific was low at this time maximum dust flux to the north pacific is recorded in the mid holocene but holocene rates of loess accumulation have been low these differences are shown to reflect the different nature of the wind conditions responsible for dust transport to the loess plateau and the north pacific dust transport responsible for formation of the loess occurred mainly in the lower 1 5 km of the atmosphere and was accomplished by cold low level northwesterly winds associated with cold waves emanating from the mongolian anticyclone at present such conditions occur quite frequently in winter but during the coldest phases of the pleistocene they probably also occurred in the spring and summer long range dust transport from northern china to the north pacific requires that the dust is lifted to high levels above 3 km where it can be incorporated into the strong mid latitude westerlies strong vertical motions of the atmosphere occur most frequently in the spring when the mongolian anticyclone begins to weaken and frontal depressions move across the deserts of northern china such frontal depressions were probably more frequent during the climatic optimum of the mid holocene and during previous interglacials changes in continental aridity have probably played a minor role in controlling the magnitude of the dust flux to the north pacific

loess accumulation in the tian shan piedmont implications for palaeoenvironmental change in arid central asia whilst correlations have been made between the loess of europe and china deposits in central asia have remained largely overlooked by scientific investigation the nature of the relationship between loess accumulation and palaeoclimate at the core of the eurasian loess belt is particularly poorly understood here we reconstruct palaeoenvironmental change in central asia over the last 40 ky based on data from the remizovka loess profile in the northern foothills of the tian shan in southern kazakhstan our interpretations are based on synthesis of chronostratigraphic colour and magnetic susceptibility data supported by chronostratigraphies from two additional sites nearby maibulak and valikhanova all three sites record substantially increased loess accumulation during late mis 3 into the global last glacial maximum glgm at remizovka increased loess flux occurred in two pulses at c 38 25 ka and 22 18 ka with the intervening period involving incipient pedogenesis at maibulak two loess pulses at c 40 30 ka and c 28 22 ka are separated by a weakly developed paleosol which may date to the same time as pedogenesis at remizovka there is additional possible periglacial influence at maibulak from c 40 33 5 ka at valikhanova there is some age overlap between paleosol and loess samples but overall loess accumulation appears to have increased at c 42 35 ka c 30 ka and the glgm with pedogenesis occurring 40 ka and c 32 ka at all three sites holocene loess accumulation is minimal this period is characterised by pedogenesis the chronostratigraphic variability between our sites highlights a need to interrogate climate driven models for loess formation in piedmont environments we interpret our data in the context of regional palaeoenvironmental archives to indicate that loess accumulation increased coeval with mis 3 glacial advance in the tian shan which was facilitated by northward expansion of the asian monsoon and associated increase in precipitation we hypothesise that increased ice volume impeded teleconnections with the temperate zone westerlies to the north these were compressed against the piedmont resulting in increased wind strength and facilitating increased loess flux peak loess accumulation during the glgm occurred under colder drier climatic conditions with reduced but sustained glacial ice volume and persistent influence of the westerlies in the arid central asian piedmont loess belt in the absence of more widespread reliably dated palaeoenvironmental records from the region our data become of critical importance for understanding past environmental conditions in central asia relative to elsewhere in eurasia and globally

a high resolution absolute dated late pleistocene monsoon record from hulu cave china 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 230th 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

continuous record of microparticle concentration and size distribution in the central greenland ngrip ice core during the last glacial period 1 a novel laser microparticle detector used in conjunction with continuous sample melting has provided a more than 1500 m long record of particle concentration and size distribution of the ngrip ice core covering continuously the period approximately from 9 5 100 kyr before present measurements were at 1 65 m depth resolution corresponding to approximately 35 200 yr particle concentration increased by a factor of 100 in the last glacial maximum lgm compared to the preboreal and sharp variations of concentration occurred synchronously with rapid changes in the 18o temperature proxy the lognormal mode of the volume distribution shows clear systematic variations with smaller modes during warmer climates and coarser modes during colder periods we find 1 7 m diameter during lgm and 1 3 m during the preboreal on timescales below several 100 years and the particle concentration exhibit a certain degree of independence present especially during warm periods when generally is more variable using highly simplifying considerations for atmospheric transport and deposition of particles we infer that 1 the observed changes of in the ice largely reflect changes in the size of airborne particles above the ice sheet and 2 changes of are indicative of changes in long range atmospheric transport time from the observed size changes we estimate shorter transit times by roughly 25 during lgm compared to the preboreal the associated particle concentration increase from more efficient long range transport is estimated to less than one order of magnitude

evidence for massive discharges of icebergs into the north atlantic ocean during the last glacial period sediments in the north atlantic ocean contain a series of layers that are rich in ice rafted debris and unusually poor in foraminifera1 here we present evidence that the most recent six of these heinrich layers deposited between 14 000 and 70 000 years ago record marked decreases in sea surface temperature and salinity decreases in the flux of planktonic foraminifera to the sediments and short lived massive discharges of icebergs originating in eastern canada the path of the icebergs clearly marked by the presence of ice rafted detrital carbonate can be traced for more than 3 000 km a remarkable distance attesting to extreme cooling of surface waters and enormous amounts of drifting ice the cause of these extreme events is puzzling they may reflect repeated rapid advances of the laurentide ice sheet perhaps associated with reductions in air temperatures yet temperature records from greenland ice cores appear to exhibit only a weak corresponding signal moreover the 5 10 000 yr intervals between the events are inconsistent with milankovitch orbital periodicities raising the question of what the ultimate cause of the postulated cooling may have been

a 300 kyr record of aridity and wind strength in southwestern africa inferences from grain size distributions of sediments on walvis ridge se atlantic abstract the terrigenous fraction of sediments recovered from walvis ridge se atlantic ocean reveals a history of southwestern african climate of the last 300 kyr end member modelling of a data set of grain size distributions n 428 results in three end members the two coarsest end members are interpreted as eolian dust the third end member as hemipelagic mud the ratio of the two eolian end members reflects the eolian grain size and is attributed to the intensity of the se trade winds trade winds were intensified during glacials compared to interglacials changes in the ratio of the two eolian end members over the hemipelagic one are interpreted as variations in southwestern african aridity late quaternary southwestern african climate was relatively arid during the interglacial stages and relatively humid during the glacial stages owing to meridional shifts in the atmospheric circulation system during glacials the polar front shifted equatorward resulting in a northward displacement of the zone of westerlies causing increased rainfall in southwestern africa the equatorward shift of the polar front is coupled with an increase of the meridional pressure gradient leading to enhanced atmospheric circulation and increased trade wind intensity

correlation between climate events in the north atlantic and china during the last glaciation episodes of massive iceberg release heinrich events 1 3 into the north atlantic ocean during the last glaciation were associated with recurring episodes of unusually cold north atlantic surface water bond cycles 4 and cold air temperatures over greenland dansgaard oeschger events 5 6 four of the youngest of these cold events have also been reported in climate records from sites outside the north atlantic region7 but until now the entire suite has been identified only in north atlantic marine sediments greenland ice core records and tentatively in french lake sediments8 here we examine grain size data from chinese loess and intercalated accretionary palaeosols of last glacial age for evidence of similar climate signals remote from the north atlantic region we see grain size maxima with ages that match those of the last six heinrich events which we interpret as an indication of the changing strength of the east asian winter monsoon which largely controls the transport and deposition of central asian aeolian dust thus it seems that these heinrich events have left their signature in the chinese loess record this is consistent with simulations of the glacial climate9 which imply that the climates of the north atlantic and china were linked by the effect of westerly winds

loess chronology of the middle and upper pleistocene in tadjikistan the loess paleosol sequences of central asia are continuous terrestrial records of the quaternary period and enable detailed comparison with paleoclimatic archives such as marine and ice core records in order to reconstruct regional and global paleoclimatic and paleoecological development during the past 130 000 years thermoluminescence tl and infrared stimulated luminescence irsl dating methods are applied to the extensively studied loess paleosol sequence of the section at darai kalon chashmanigar tadjikistan in order to determine a more accurate chronological framework and climatostratigraphic reconstruction for the last interglacial glacial cycle luminescence dating suggests that the loess above the first pedocomplex from the top pc1 accumulated during the last glacial period a high accumulation rate of up to 1 20 m per 1000 years was determined for the last glacial loess especially for the uppermost 5 8 m pc1 formed during the last interglacial period oxygen isotope stage 5 the loess between pc1 and pc2 is designated to be of penultimate glacial deposition age infrared stimulated luminescence and tl age estimates are in agreement to 80 000 years before present bp indicating a long distance transport of the aeolian dust prior to deposition the upper numerical age limit range is between 300 000 and 450 000 years however reliable dating of the loess older than 130 000 years is not possible due to age scatter between samples and an inadequate increase of paleodose with depth this high resolution dating study underlines the importance of the section at darai kalon and indicates that it is one of the most continuous loess paleosol records of the northern hemisphere the chronological results are particularly important for the reconstruction of the human evolution in central asia suggesting much older age estimates than previously obtained for most of the archeological key sites associated with pc5 and pc4 in tadjikistan

age dating and the orbital theory of the ice ages development of a high resolution 0 to 300 000 year chronostratigraphy using the concept of orbital tuning a continuous high resolution deep sea chronostratigraphy has been developed spanning the last 300 000 yr the chronology is developed using a stacked oxygen isotope stratigraphy and four different orbital tuning approaches each of which is based upon a different assumption concerning the response of the orbital signal recorded in the data each approach yields a separate chronology the error measured by the standard deviation about the average of these four results which represents the best chronology has an average magnitude of only 2500 yr this small value indicates that the chronology produced is insensitive to the specific orbital tuning technique used excellent convergence between chronologies developed using each of five different paleoclimatological indicators from a single core is also obtained the resultant chronology is also insensitive to the specific indicator used the error associated with each tuning approach is estimated independently and propagated through to the average result the resulting error estimate is independent of that associated with the degree of convergence and has an average magnitude of 3500 yr in excellent agreement with the 2500 yr estimate transfer of the final chronology to the stacked record leads to an estimated error of 1500 yr thus the final chronology has an average error of 5000 yr