Mass‐Wasting‐Inferred Dramatic Variability of 130, 000‐Year Indian Summer Monsoon Intensity From Deposits in the Southeast Tibetan Plateau. Issue 6 (25th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Wen; Wang, Jia; Chen, Jianping; Soltanian, Mohamad Reza; Dai, Zhenxue; WoldeGabriel, Giday
• Is Part Of: Geophysical research letters. Volume 49:Issue 6(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-03-25
• Subjects: paleo‐hydrogeology -- mass‐wasting deposits -- Indian summer monsoon (ISM) -- ISM intensity -- climate change; Geophysics -- Periodicals; Planets -- Periodicals; Lunar geology -- Periodicals; 550
• DOI: 10.1029/2021GL097301
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0094-8276

Abstract

Abstract: A large proportion (∼80%) of the Indian subcontinent's precipitation comes from the Indian summer monsoon (ISM), which influences one‐fifth of the world's population. A long‐term reliable proxy for ISM is fundamental to understanding previous global climate change. We establish a mass‐wasting‐inferred proxy to examine the paleo‐hydrogeology (river undercutting history) of the Southeast Tibetan Plateau and reconstruct the dramatic variability of ISM intensity (precipitation) in the past 130, 000 years. Our data suggest that mass‐wasting events, which provides us sufficient samples for paleoclimate research, are prone to dramatic climate changes, especially extreme climate environments. The Southeast Tibetan Plateau was subjected to at least four distinct ISM intensity phases in the past 130, 000 years. We conclude that ISM intensity has a cyclicity featured by the Earth's orbit with obliquity, and that ISM intensity transition lags the global ice volume (sea level) change by 8–15 kyrs. Plain Language Summary: The role of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) in the global climatic conditions has attracted considerable research attention. We reported a new long‐term proxy collected in Tibetan Plateau mass‐wasting deposits for ISM reconstruction, which is significant for coupling of tectonic evolution of Asia and global climate change in the context of global warming. This study has revealed the mutuality of paleo‐mass‐wasting events and climate changes, which confirms the relationship between surge of mass‐wasting events and global climate change (warming and increasing precipitation). ISM variability derived in our work for the last 130, 000 years deduces new views of cyclicity and lag characteristics of ISM intensity. Key Points: The correlation between the occurrence of mass‐wasting deposits and the dramatic global climate changes is revealed The variability of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is reconstructed based on our proposed mass‐wasting‐inferred proxy New views of cyclicity and lag characteristics of ISM intensity are deduced based on the variability of ISM intensity