View article

Tropical monsoons are key mechanisms for transfer of heat and moisture to higher latitudes. Here we present a high-resolution, terrestrial proxy summer monsoon record for the southeast Asian monsoon, from a rapidly accumulating Holocene loess/soil sequence in the western Chinese Loess Plateau. We use magnetic and clastic grain size proxies to make quantitative estimates of Holocene rainfall and identify variations in winter monsoon intensity. Our record reveals cyclical millennial and multimillennial rainfall changes. As with the northwest African/southwest Asian monsoon records, a short arid interval at - 12.5 to 11.5 ka BP (the Younger Dryas) and subsequent summer monsoon intensification are recorded. However, at 6 ka BP, the southeast Asian summer monsoon weakened, when the northwest African/ southwest …