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Science 13 June 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5626, pp. 1737 - 1739
DOI: 10.1126/science.1083130
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Reports

Holocene Forcing of the Indian Monsoon Recorded in a Stalagmite from Southern Oman

Dominik Fleitmann,1* Stephen J. Burns,2 Manfred Mudelsee,3 Ulrich Neff,4 Jan Kramers,1 Augusto Mangini,4 Albert Matter1

A high-resolution oxygen-isotope record from a thorium-uranium–dated stalagmite from southern Oman reflects variations in the amount of monsoon precipitation for the periods from 10.3 to 2.7 and 1.4to 0.4thousand years before the present (ky B.P.). Between 10.3 and 8 ky B.P., decadal to centennial variations in monsoon precipitation are in phase with temperature fluctuations recorded in Greenland ice cores, indicating that early Holocene monsoon intensity is largely controlled by glacial boundary conditions. After ~8 ky B.P., monsoon precipitation decreases gradually in response to changing Northern Hemisphere summer solar insolation, with decadal to multidecadal variations in monsoon precipitation being linked to solar activity.

1 Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
2 Department of Geosciences, Morrill Science Center, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
3 Institute of Meteorology, University of Leipzig, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
4 Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dominik.fleitmann{at}geo.unibe.ch

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