Ice Age Terminations

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1177840
• Publication Date: 2009-10-08T21:50:01Z
• Authors: Hai Cheng; R. Lawrence Edwards; Wallace S. Broecker; George H. Denton; Xinggong Kong; Yongjin Wang; Rong Zhang; Xianfeng Wang
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; 13. Climate action; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Monsoon Cave Recordings

Rocky deposits in caves in central China record the changes over time in the Asian Monsoon through the oxygen isotopic composition of the minerals from which they are formed. These deposits can be precisely dated and provide an absolute time line for climate system changes.

Cheng et al.

(p. 248 ; see the Perspective by

Severinghaus

) present oxygen isotope data from speleothems collected from Sanbao Cave, China, for the three glacial terminations that occurred between 120,000 and 350,000 years ago. The data reveal variations in the amount of precipitation delivered by the Asian Monsoon over time. Comparison of the timing of these changes with corresponding changes in ice core and marine sedimentary records provides mechanistic insights into how variations in insolation affect ice sheets and ice age terminations.