Global monsoon in a geological perspective |
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Authors: | PinXian Wang |
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Institution: | (1) State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China |
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Abstract: | Monsoon is now considered as a global system rather than regional phenomena only. For over 300 years, monsoon has been viewed
as a gigantic land-sea breeze, but now satellite and conventional observations support an alternative hypothesis which considers
monsoon as a manifestation of seasonal migration of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and, hence, a climate system
of the global scale. As a low-latitude climate system, monsoon exists over all continents but Antarctica, and through all
the geological history at least since the Phenorozoic. The time is ripe for systematical studies of monsoon variations in
space and time.
As evidenced by the geological records, the global monsoon is controlled by the Wilson cycle on the tectonic time scale (106–108 a). A “Mega-continent” produces “Mega-monsoon”, and its breakdown leads to weakening of the monsoon intensity. On the time
scales of 104-105 a, the global monsoon displays the precessional cycles of ∼20 ka and eccentricity cycles of 100- and 400-ka, i.e. the orbital
cycles. On the time scales of 103 a and below, the global monsoon intensity is modulated by solar cycles and other factors. The cyclicity of global monsoon
represents one of the fundamental factors responsible for variations in the Earth surface system as well as for the environmental
changes of the human society. The 400-ka long eccentricity cycles of the global monsoon is likened to “heartbeat” of the Earth
system, and the precession cycle of the global monsoon was responsible for the collapse of several Asian and African ancient
cultures at ∼4000 years ago, whereas the Solar cycles led to the demise of the Maya civilization about a thousand years ago.
Therefore, paleoclimatology should be focused not only on the high-latitude processes centered at ice cap variations, but
also on the low-latitude processes such as monsoons, as the latter are much more common in the geological history compared
to the glaciations.
Supported by National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB815902) |
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Keywords: | monsoon ITCZ low-latitude processes orbital forcing Wilson cycle |
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