Sediment reveals Early Holocene climate change in China

Abstract

A major question regarding paleorecords is whether the easy-to-acquire oceanic record can be validated by continental proxy records that are available only from the Arctic and Antarctic ice cores. The ice core records may not provide a complete record of the changes that have occurred in the temperate and tropical regions of the continents. Thick (100–300 m) deposits of wind-borne dust in China are providing new insight into paleoclimate. These deposits vie with the ice cores in providing a record of continuous accumulation over the last 2.6 m.y., but they are poorer in temporal resolution than the ice cores.