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A penultimate glacial monsoon record from Hulu Cave and two-phase glacial terminations

Fig. 1. d18O time series during penultimate glacial period for stalagmites MSX (green), MSP (pink), and MSH (red).
Fig. 1. δ18O time series during penultimate glacial period for stalagmites MSX (green), MSP (pink), and MSH (red). Click image for full figure.

A penultimate glacial monsoon record from Hulu Cave and two-phase glacial terminations

Geology
Vol. 34, Issue 3, pp. 217 - 220, March 2006

Hai Cheng1,2, R. Lawrence Edwards1, Yongjin Wang2, Xinggong Kong2, Yanfang Ming2, Megan J. Kelly1, Xianfeng Wang1, Christina D. Gallup3, and Weiguo Liu4

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
2 College of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China
3 Department of Geological Sciences and Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA
4 Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710054, China
ABSTRACT:
Oxygen isotope records of three stalagmites from Hulu Cave, China, extend the previous high-resolution absolute-dated Hulu Asian Monsoon record from the last to the penultimate glacial and deglacial periods. The penultimate glacial monsoon broadly follows orbitally induced insolation variations and is punctuated by at least 16 millennial-scale events. We confirm a Weak Monsoon Interval between 135.5 ± 1.0 and 129.0 ± 1.0 ka, prior to the abrupt increase in monsoon intensity at Asian Monsoon Termination II. Based on correlations with both marine ice-rafted debris and atmospheric CH4 records, we demonstrate that most of marine Termination II, the full rise in Antarctic temperature and atmospheric CO2, and much of the rise in CH4 occurred within the Weak Monsoon Interval, when the high northern latitudes were probably cold. From these relationships and similar relationships observed for Termination I, we identify a two-phase glacial termination process that was probably driven by orbital forcing in both hemispheres, affecting the atmospheric hydrological cycle, and combined with ice sheet dynamics.
Download data from the WDC Paleo archive:
Hulu Cave Oxygen Isotope Data, Text or Excel format.

To read or view the full study, please visit the GSA website.
It was published in Geology, Vol. 34, Issue 3, pp. 217 - 220, March 2006.
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