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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • Indian summer monsoon
  • speleothem
  • Little Ice Age

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Processes: Climate change and variability
  • Global Change: Abrupt/rapid climate change
  • Global Change: Regional climate change
  • Hydrology: Extreme events
  • Hydrology: Human impacts

Abstract

A 900-year (600 to 1500 A.D.) record of the Indian summer monsoon precipitation from the core monsoon zone of India

Ashish Sinha

Department of Earth Sciences, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California, USA

Kevin G. Cannariato

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Lowell D. Stott

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Hai Cheng

Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

R. Lawrence Edwards

Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Madhusudan G. Yadava

Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, India

R. Ramesh

Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, India

Indra B. Singh

Department of Geology, Lucknow University, Lucknow, India

We present a near-annually resolved record of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall variations for the core monsoon region of India that spans from 600 to 1500 A.D. from a 230Th-dated stalagmite oxygen isotope record from Dandak Cave. Our rainfall reconstruction, which spans the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the earliest portion of the Little Ice Age (LIA), indicates that the short instrumental record of ISM underestimates the magnitude of monsoon rainfall variability. Periods of severe drought, lasting decades, occurred during the 14th and mid 15th centuries and coincided with several of India's most devastating famines.

Received 18 April 2007; accepted 19 July 2007; published 21 August 2007.

Citation: Sinha, A., K. G. Cannariato, L. D. Stott, H. Cheng, R. L. Edwards, M. G. Yadava, R. Ramesh, and I. B. Singh (2007), A 900-year (600 to 1500 A.D.) record of the Indian summer monsoon precipitation from the core monsoon zone of India, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L16707, doi:10.1029/2007GL030431.

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