Multiple episodes of aridity in southern Africa since the last interglacial period

Stephen Stokes (), David S. G. Thomas and Richard Washington
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Stephen Stokes: *School of Geography, University of Oxford
David S. G. Thomas: Sheffield Centre for International Drylands Research, University of Sheffield
Richard Washington: *School of Geography, University of Oxford

Nature, 1997, vol. 388, issue 6638, 154-158

Abstract: Abstract There is generally a dearth of evidence of the nature of Quaternary climate change within desert systems, which has limited previous interpretations of past environmental change at low latitudes. The Last Glacial Maximum has previously been identified as the peak of Late Quaternary aridity, when desert systems expanded to five times their present extent1,2,3, and low-latitude aridity has been described for previous glaciations4. But little evidence has been derived directly for large desert basins, particularly southern Africa. Here we report new chronological (optical dating) evidence of arid episodes recorded in aeolian sediments from the Mega Kalahari sand sea. Episodic aeolian activity is recorded at the northeastern desert margin, whereas more sustained activity is evident from the southwestern desert core. Several significant arid events are apparent since the last interglacial period, with dune-building (arid) phases at ∼95–115, 41–46, 20–26 and 9–16 kyr before present. Existing atmospheric general circulation model simulations and independent palaeoclimate data indicate that the changes in aridity are related to changes in the northeast–southwest summer rainfall gradient, which are in turn related to sea surface temperatures in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/40596

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