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Forcing mechanisms for East-Asia monsoonal variations during the late pleistocene

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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Based on the climate records derived from loess deposits in north-central China, the characteristics of the East-Asia paleomonsoonal changes during the Late Pleistocene are summarized as follows: (i) The 0.1-Ma climate period is predominant in both summer and winter monsoonal changes over East Asia; (ii) The East-Asia monsoonal variation is different from the Indian monsoon during the Late Pleistocene; (iii) There is a ∼5-ka time lag of the East-Asia monsoon changes relative to the theoretically calculated solar radiation changes; (IV) There is a general trend toward increase in winter monsoon and decrease in summer monsoon in the last glaciation; (V) In the East-Asia monsoonal region, the amplitude of glacial-to-interglacial cycles shows a remarkable increase from south to north. To explain these characteristics, a conceptual model is developed and the forcing of global ice volume variations in the monsoonal history is emphasized.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100029, Beijing, China

    Zhongli Ding & Dongsheng Liu

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  1. Zhongli Ding
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  2. Dongsheng Liu
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Ding, Z., Liu, D. Forcing mechanisms for East-Asia monsoonal variations during the late pleistocene. Chin. Sci. Bull. 43, 1497–1510 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02883437

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02883437

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