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A 900‐year (600 to 1500 A.D.) record of the Indian summer monsoon precipitation from the core monsoon zone of India
Author(s) -
Sinha Ashish,
Cannariato Kevin G.,
Stott Lowell D.,
Cheng Hai,
Edwards R. Lawrence,
Yadava Madhusudan G.,
Ramesh R.,
Singh Indra B.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl030431
Subject(s) - stalagmite , monsoon , precipitation , climatology , monsoon of south asia , geology , ice core , period (music) , east asian monsoon , little ice age , climate change , geography , oceanography , holocene , meteorology , physics , acoustics
We present a near‐annually resolved record of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall variations for the core monsoon region of India that spans from 600 to 1500 A.D. from a 230 Th‐dated stalagmite oxygen isotope record from Dandak Cave. Our rainfall reconstruction, which spans the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the earliest portion of the Little Ice Age (LIA), indicates that the short instrumental record of ISM underestimates the magnitude of monsoon rainfall variability. Periods of severe drought, lasting decades, occurred during the 14th and mid 15th centuries and coincided with several of India's most devastating famines.