A High-Resolution Millennial Record of the South Asian Monsoon from Himalayan Ice Cores

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 289; no. 5486; pp. 1916 - 1919
• Main Authors: Thompson, L. G., Yao, T., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., K. A Henderson, P.-N. Lin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 15.09.2000; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Aerosols; Chlorides; Climate change; Drought; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Geology; Glacial landforms; Glaciology; Holocene; Holocene paleogeography; Ice; Ice cores; Marine and continental quaternary; Monsoons; Oceans; Paleoclimatology; Paleogeography; Precipitation; Rain; Rainy seasons; Summer; Surficial geology; Xizang China; China; Indian Peninsula; Himalayas; Qinghai-Xizang Plateau; Far East; Nepal; India; United States; Tibet; China, People's Rep., Xizang; Dasuopu, Tibet; glaciers; stable isotopes; O-18; upper Holocene; Quaternary; ice; upper Quaternary; human activity; paleoclimate; intensity; drill cores; chloride ion; Asia; fluctuations; drought; Cenozoic; Phanerozoic; Holocene; monsoons; dust; high resolution
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1916

A high-resolution ice core record from Dasuopu, Tibet, reveals that this site is sensitive to fluctuations in the intensity of the South Asian Monsoon. Reductions in monsoonal intensity are recorded by dust and chloride concentrations. The deeper, older sections of the Dasuopu cores suggest many other periods of drought in this region, but none have been of greater intensity than the greatest recorded drought, during 1790 to 1796 A.D. of the last millennium. The 20th century increase in anthropogenic activity in India and Nepal, upwind from this site, is recorded by a doubling of chloride concentrations and a fourfold increase in dust. Like other ice cores from the Tibetan Plateau, Dasuopu suggests a large-scale, plateau-wide 20th-century warming trend that appears to be amplified at higher elevations.