Shifts of the Kuroshio axis over the last 20 000 years

Core 255 from the southern Okinawa Trough was selected to monitor the shift of the Kuroshio axis over the last 20 000 years. During the last glacial maximum the Kuroshio axis had ever shifted outside the Okinawa Trough. It entered the Okinawa Trough again at about 6 500 a BP, leading to abrupt increase of sedimentation rate, distinctly coarser sediment and remarkably increased abundance of foraminiferal indicators of the Kuroshio in the core. But, during about 4 000-3 000 a BP the abundance of the Kuroshio indicatorPulleniatina obliquiloculata sharply decreased again, indicating that the Kuroshio axis had ever shifted casterly for a short period or the Kuroshio was weakened and that moment.