Evidence for Asian summer monsoon precipitation instability of the Younger Dryas phase

The loess and desert transitional zone of China responses sensitively to the Asian monsoon fluctuations. A high resolution loess-dust and aeolian sand-paleosols section records the climatic history of the Younger Dryas. Based upon AMS¹⁴C dating of pollen concentrates and proxy climate indices including magnetic susceptibilty, organic carbon content and grain size, it is demonstrated that the Asian monsoon climate manifests not only cooling as in other regions of the Northern Hemisphere, but also unusual oscillations in precipitation which were probably associated with atmospheric interactions between both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and atmospheric pressure anomalies of topic Pacific Ocean (ENSO).