Nature 386, 788 - 795 (24 April 1997); doi:10.1038/386788a0

Effect of orogeny, plate motion and land–sea distribution on Eurasian climate change over the past 30 million years

Gilles Ramstein^*, Frédéric Fluteau^*†, Jean Besse^† & Sylvie Joussaume^*‡

^*Laboratoire de Modélisation du Climat et de l'Environnement, DSM CEN Saclay, Bât. 709, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
^†Laboratoire de Paléomagnétisme, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, ^‡Laboratoire d'Océanographie Dynamique et de Climatologie, CNRS/ORSTOM/Université P. M. Curie, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris cedex 05, France

The Eurasian climates of today, 10 million and 3O million years ago are simulated using an atmospheric general circulation model that incorporates realistic continental geography and epicontinental sea distributions. The resulting climates compare well with various palaeoclimate records. The retreat of the Paratethys–an epicontinental sea–shifts the central Asian climate from temperate to continental conditions, and plays as important a role as uplift of the Himalayan/Tibetan plateau in driving the Asian monsoon changes.

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