3500 yr record of centennial-scale climate variability from the Western Pacific Warm Pool
Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
11-3-2008
Abstract
We use geochemical data from a sediment core in the shallowsilled and intermittently dysoxic Kau Bay in Halmahera (Indonesia, lat 1°N, long 127.5°E) to reconstruct century-scale climate variability within the Western Pacific Warm Pool over the past ∼3500 yr. Downcore variations in bulk sedimentary δ15N appear to reflect century-scale variability in basin ventilation, attributed to changes in oceanographic conditions related to century-scale fluctuations in El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We infer an increase in century-scale El Niño activity beginning ca. 1700 yr B.P. with peaks in El Niño activity ca. 1500 yr B.P., 1150 yr B.P., and ca. 700 yr B.P. The Kau Bay results suggest that there was diminished ENSO amplitude or frequency, or a departure from El Niño-like conditions during the Medieval Warm Period, and distinctive, but steadily decreasing, El Niño activity during and after the Little Ice Age. © 2008 The Geological Society of America.
Publication Title, e.g., Journal
Geology
Volume
36
Issue
10
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Langton, S. J., B. K. Linsley, R. S. Robinson, Y. Rosenthal, D. W. Oppo, T. I. Eglinton, S. S. Howe, Y. S. Djajadihardja, and F. Syamsudin. "3500 yr record of centennial-scale climate variability from the Western Pacific Warm Pool." Geology 36, 10 (2008). doi: 10.1130/G24926A.1.