Access

News and Views

Nature 451, 1061-1063 (28 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/4511061a; Published online 27 February 2008

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

More science jobs
Post a job for free

Palaeoclimate: The rhythm of the rains

Jonathan Overpeck1 & Julia Cole1

Top

Deposits in a Chinese cave tell the story of the region's climate stretching back more than 200,000 years, well past the last interglacial warm period — an invaluable resource for understanding the Asian monsoon.

In the quest to understand past climate change, and thus to anticipate future trends, records from cave deposits — speleothems — are increasingly taking centre stage. On page 1090 of this issue, Wang et al.1 present a virtuoso study: a 224,000-year chronicle of the past variability of the East Asian monsoon, recorded in the oxygen isotope ratios of stalagmites built up from the floor of the Sanbao Cave in eastern central China.

  1. Jonathan Overpeck and Julia Cole are in the Departments of Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA.
    Email: jto@u.arizona.edu

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Climate change Lessons from a distant monsoon

Nature News and Views (18 Jan 2007)

Palaeoclimate Africa on the edge

Nature Geoscience News and Views (01 Oct 2008)

See all 3 matches for News And Views

RESEARCH

Millennial- and orbital-scale changes in the East Asian monsoon over the past 224,000 years

Nature Letters to Editor (28 Feb 2008)

Insolation-driven changes in atmospheric circulation over the past 116,000 years in subtropical Brazil

Nature Letters to Editor (03 Mar 2005)

See all 17 matches for Research