Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 5 September 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5638, pp. 1365 - 1367
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086227
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Indian Ocean Climate and an Absolute Chronology over Dansgaard/Oeschger Events 9 to 13

Stephen J. Burns,1 Dominik Fleitmann,2 Albert Matter,2 Jan Kramers,2 Abdulkarim A. Al-Subbary3

Oxygen-isotope ratios of a stalagmite from Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean provide a record of changes in monsoon precipitation and climate for the time period from 42 to 55 thousand years before the present. The pattern of precipitation bears a striking resemblance to the oxygen-isotope record from Greenland ice cores, with increased tropical precipitation associated with warm periods in the high northern latitudes. The largest change, at the onset of interstadial 12, occurred very rapidly, in about 25 years. The chronology of the events found in our record requires a reevaluation of previously published time scales for climate events during this period.

1 Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA, USA.
2 Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
3 Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, University of Sana'a, Republic of Yemen.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sburns{at}geo.umass.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Inaugural Article: Tipping elements in the Earth's climate system.
T. M. Lenton, H. Held, E. Kriegler, J. W. Hall, W. Lucht, S. Rahmstorf, and H. J. Schellnhuber (2008)
PNAS 105, 1786-1793
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Quaternary science 2007: a 50-year retrospective.
M. Walker and J. Lowe (2007)
Journal of the Geological Society 164, 1073-1092
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
High-resolution absolute-dated Indian Monsoon record between 53 and 36 ka from Xiaobailong Cave, southwestern China.
Y. Cai, Z. An, H. Cheng, R. L. Edwards, M. J. Kelly, W. Liu, X. Wang, and C.-C. Shen (2006)
Geology 34, 621-624
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)