Holocene Monsoon Change and Abrupt Events on the Western Chinese Loess Plateau as Revealed by Accurately Dated Stalagmites
Liangcheng Tan, Yanzhen Li, Xiqian Wang, Yanjun Cai, Fangyuan Lin, Hai Cheng, Le Ma, Ashish Sinha, R. Lawrence Edwards
Abstract
Abstract Here we present, to date, the highest‐resolved (~5 years) and most precisely dated Holocene monsoon climate reconstruction for the western Chinese Loess Plateau based on five replicated stalagmite δ 18 O records from Wuya Cave, eastern Gansu, China. Our record suggests the wettest period occurred between 10,500 and 6,600 a BP in this region. After this period, the amplitude of Asian summer monsoon decadal‐scale variability progressively increased likely in response to increasing ENSO frequency since the middle Holocene. Our study reveals similar asymmetric centennial‐scale double‐plunging structures of the 8.2, 5.5, and 2.8 ka events in the western Chinese Loess Plateau, suggesting a possible role of solar activity whose impact was amplified around 8.2 ka BP by the meltwater flood. In contrast, the 4.2 ka event exhibit gradually declining monsoon rainfall with centennial‐ to decadal‐scale fluctuations.