14 March 2002

Climate change: Blowing in the wind

Uplift of the Himalayan–Tibetan plateau and changes in land–sea distribution have been invoked as the driving force behind long-term climate deterioration, beginning about 66 million years ago and extending to the present. The dating of a key event during this period, the initial desertification of the Asian interior, has been uncertain. But the discovery of deposits of wind-blown dusts formed in south-central Asia as early as 22 million years ago confirms that desert conditions prevailed in central Asia at least 14 million years earlier than previously thought.

Onset of Asian desertification by 22 Myr ago inferred from loess deposits in China
Z. T. GUO, WILLIAM F. RUDDIMAN, Q. Z. HAO, H. B. WU, Y. S. QIAO, R. X. ZHU, S. Z. PENG, J. J. WEI, B. Y. YUAN & T. S. LIU
Nature 416, 159–163 (14 March 2002)
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Dust could settle Himalaya debates