A 5.3-Million-Year History of Monsoonal Precipitation in Northwestern Australia

Jan Berend W. Stuut; Patrick De Deckker; Mariem Saavedra-Pellitero; Franck Bassinot; Anna Joy Drury; Maureen H. Walczak; Kana Nagashima; Masafumi Murayama

doi:10.1029/2019GL083035

A 5.3-Million-Year History of Monsoonal Precipitation in Northwestern Australia

Jan Berend W. Stuut^*, Patrick De Deckker, Mariem Saavedra-Pellitero, Franck Bassinot, Anna Joy Drury, Maureen H. Walczak, Kana Nagashima, Masafumi Murayama

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

38 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

New proxy records from deep-sea sediment cores from the northwestern continental margin of Western Australian reveal a 5.3 million year (Ma) history of aridity and tropical monsoon activity in northwestern Australia. Following the warm and dry early Pliocene (~5.3 Ma), the northwestern Australian continent experienced a gradual increase in humidity peaking at about 3.8 Ma with higher than present-day rainfall. Between 3.8 and about 2.8 Ma, climate became progressively more arid with more rainfall variability. Coinciding with the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations and the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere monsoon, aridity continued to increase overall from 2.8 Ma until today, with greater variance in precipitation and an increased frequency of large rainfall events. We associate the observed large-scale fluctuations in Australian aridity with variations in Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures, which largely control the monsoonal precipitation in northwestern Australia.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	6946-6954
Number of pages	9
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	46
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083035
Publication status	Published - 28 Jun 2019

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title = "A 5.3-Million-Year History of Monsoonal Precipitation in Northwestern Australia",

abstract = "New proxy records from deep-sea sediment cores from the northwestern continental margin of Western Australian reveal a 5.3 million year (Ma) history of aridity and tropical monsoon activity in northwestern Australia. Following the warm and dry early Pliocene (~5.3 Ma), the northwestern Australian continent experienced a gradual increase in humidity peaking at about 3.8 Ma with higher than present-day rainfall. Between 3.8 and about 2.8 Ma, climate became progressively more arid with more rainfall variability. Coinciding with the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations and the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere monsoon, aridity continued to increase overall from 2.8 Ma until today, with greater variance in precipitation and an increased frequency of large rainfall events. We associate the observed large-scale fluctuations in Australian aridity with variations in Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures, which largely control the monsoonal precipitation in northwestern Australia.",

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author = "Stuut, {Jan Berend W.} and {De Deckker}, Patrick and Mariem Saavedra-Pellitero and Franck Bassinot and Drury, {Anna Joy} and Walczak, {Maureen H.} and Kana Nagashima and Masafumi Murayama",

year = "2019",

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T1 - A 5.3-Million-Year History of Monsoonal Precipitation in Northwestern Australia

AU - Stuut, Jan Berend W.

AU - De Deckker, Patrick

AU - Saavedra-Pellitero, Mariem

AU - Bassinot, Franck

AU - Drury, Anna Joy

AU - Walczak, Maureen H.

AU - Nagashima, Kana

AU - Murayama, Masafumi

PY - 2019/6/28

Y1 - 2019/6/28

N2 - New proxy records from deep-sea sediment cores from the northwestern continental margin of Western Australian reveal a 5.3 million year (Ma) history of aridity and tropical monsoon activity in northwestern Australia. Following the warm and dry early Pliocene (~5.3 Ma), the northwestern Australian continent experienced a gradual increase in humidity peaking at about 3.8 Ma with higher than present-day rainfall. Between 3.8 and about 2.8 Ma, climate became progressively more arid with more rainfall variability. Coinciding with the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations and the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere monsoon, aridity continued to increase overall from 2.8 Ma until today, with greater variance in precipitation and an increased frequency of large rainfall events. We associate the observed large-scale fluctuations in Australian aridity with variations in Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures, which largely control the monsoonal precipitation in northwestern Australia.

AB - New proxy records from deep-sea sediment cores from the northwestern continental margin of Western Australian reveal a 5.3 million year (Ma) history of aridity and tropical monsoon activity in northwestern Australia. Following the warm and dry early Pliocene (~5.3 Ma), the northwestern Australian continent experienced a gradual increase in humidity peaking at about 3.8 Ma with higher than present-day rainfall. Between 3.8 and about 2.8 Ma, climate became progressively more arid with more rainfall variability. Coinciding with the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations and the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere monsoon, aridity continued to increase overall from 2.8 Ma until today, with greater variance in precipitation and an increased frequency of large rainfall events. We associate the observed large-scale fluctuations in Australian aridity with variations in Indian Ocean sea surface temperatures, which largely control the monsoonal precipitation in northwestern Australia.

KW - Australia

KW - Pliocene

KW - Quaternary

KW - monsoon

KW - paleoclimate

KW - runoff

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85068328796&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1029/2019GL083035

DO - 10.1029/2019GL083035

M3 - Article

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 46

SP - 6946

EP - 6954

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 12

ER -

A 5.3-Million-Year History of Monsoonal Precipitation in Northwestern Australia

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