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Asian monsoons in a late Eocene greenhouse world

Nature volume 513, pages 501–506 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The strong present-day Asian monsoons are thought to have originated between 25 and 22 million years (Myr) ago, driven by Tibetan–Himalayan uplift. However, the existence of older Asian monsoons and their response to enhanced greenhouse conditions such as those in the Eocene period (55–34 Myr ago) are unknown because of the paucity of well-dated records. Here we show late Eocene climate records revealing marked monsoon-like patterns in rainfall and wind south and north of the Tibetan–Himalayan orogen. This is indicated by low oxygen isotope values with strong seasonality in gastropod shells and mammal teeth from Myanmar, and by aeolian dust deposition in northwest China. Our climate simulations support modern-like Eocene monsoonal rainfall and show that a reinforced hydrological cycle responding to enhanced greenhouse conditions counterbalanced the negative effect of lower Tibetan relief on precipitation. These strong monsoons later weakened with the global shift to icehouse conditions 34 Myr ago.

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Figure 1: Location map of study sites and late Eocene palaeogeography of the Asian mainland.
Figure 2: Low oxygen isotopic values with strong yearly variation in fossils from Myanmar.
Figure 3: Sedimentary features of late Eocene clastic deposits in the Xining Basin.
Figure 4: Climatic simulations at 40 Myr ago, illustrating Eocene monsoonal circulation on the Asian mainland.
Figure 5: Climatic simulations at 34 Myr ago.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique/Centre de Calcul Recherche et Technologie for access to computing facilities; V. Barbin for cathodoluminescence microscopy; C. Fontaine for X-ray diffraction; R. Amiot, T. Bouten, M. Konert, M. Lebbink and T. Zalm for laboratory assistance; the many colleagues of the Franco-Burmese palaeontological team for field assistance; and D. Dettman and F. Fluteau for discussions. This work was supported by the ANR-09-BLAN-0238-02 Program, the University of Poitiers, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-ALW) with funding to H.A. and G.D.-N., the Marie Curie CIG 294282, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the French ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Higher Education and Research, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Chinese Ministry of Education and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). A.L. was also funded by a Fyssen Foundation study grant.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Paléoprimatologie, Paléontologie Humaine: Evolution et Paléoenvironnements, UMR CNRS 7262, Université de Poitiers, 86000 Poitiers, France

    A. Licht & J.-J. Jaeger

  2. Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, UMR CNRS 7358, Université de Lorraine 54501 Vandoeuvre les Nancy, France ,

    A. Licht, C. France-Lanord & T. Rigaudier

  3. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA

    A. Licht & J. Quade

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Universiteit Utrecht, 3584CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands,

    M. van Cappelle, H. A. Abels & G. Dupont-Nivet

  5. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK

    M. van Cappelle

  6. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

    H. A. Abels & R. Adriaens

  7. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, UMR CNRS 8212, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France ,

    J.-B. Ladant & Y. Donnadieu

  8. Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

    J. Trabucho-Alexandre

  9. Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    J. Vandenberghe

  10. Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Terre, Planètes, Environnement, UMR CNRS 5276, Université de Lyon, Institut Universitaire de France, 69622 Lyon, France

    C. Lécuyer

  11. Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA

    D. Terry Jr

  12. Centre de Recherche sur la Paléodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements – UPMC, MNHN, CNRS, 75005 Paris, France ,

    A. Boura

  13. Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China

    Z. Guo & G. Dupont-Nivet

  14. Department of Geology, Defence Services Academy, Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar,

    Aung Naing Soe

  15. Géosciences Rennes, UMR CNRS 6118, Université de Rennes, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France

    G. Dupont-Nivet

  16. Universität Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, 14476 Potsdam, Germany

    G. Dupont-Nivet

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  1. A. Licht
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Contributions

A.L., J.-J.J., H.A. and G.D.-N. conceived the project. A.L., A.N.S. and J.-J.J. collected Burmese samples. A.L., T.R., C.F.-L. and C.L. performed isotopic analyses. H.A., G.D.-N., M.v.C., D.T. and Z.G. collected Chinese samples. M.v.C., H.A., J.T.A., D.T., J.V. and R.A. performed petrographic and grain-size analyses of the Xining sediment. J.-B.L. and Y.D. conducted numerical climate modelling. A.L., H.A., M.v.C. and G.D.-N. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Licht.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 Palaeogeographic world maps of climatic simulations.

a, Palaeogeography at 40 Myr ago, built from the compilation of recently published reconstructions6,45,46,47. b, Palaeogeography at 34 Myr ago, extracted from another study49, showing a slightly lower resolution. The main differences in the map for 34 Myr ago are the retreat of the Tarim Sea, the northward motion of India and the eastward extrusion of Indochina. Note also that the reconstruction for 34 Myr ago shows higher altitudes in northern China and shallower marine depths in the Arctic Ocean and in the equatorial seas north to Australia as a result of the lower resolution.

Extended Data Figure 2 Stratigraphic log of the Mahalagou Formation in the Shuiwan section.

The figure shows lithology, magnetostratigraphy with correlation to the geomagnetic timescale7,37,38, and clastic grain-size distributions through time.

Extended Data Figure 3 Quartz grain surface textures from red mudstone samples of the Shuiwan section.

a–f, SEM pictures displaying smooth precipitation surfaces (SMS; a, d), adhering clay particles (ACP; b, e, f), upturned plates (UP; b, f), and dish-shaped depression (DSD; c, d).

Extended Data Figure 4 Summer insolation during the Middle–late Eocene.

Data are averaged over Asia (0–45°N, 45–120°E), calculated from Earth’s orbital parameters of the 45–34 Myr period50, compared with the summer insolation of the warm austral and warm boreal scenarios.

Extended Data Figure 5 Diagenetic screening of Burmese fossil material.

a, Cathodoluminescence image of a shell fragment from the Eocene Pondaung Formation. Blue colour indicates a predominance of pure aragonite in the shell material; note the absence of red spots that are typical of calcite. Growth lines are well defined in the outer and inner layers of the shell. b, c, SEM pictures of a Pondaung shell fragment at low (b) and high (c) magnification. The excellent preservation of the aragonitic crossed laminar structure within the central layer of the shell indicates the absence of recrystallization. d, Comparison of the oxygen isotopic composition of the phosphate (δ18Op) and carbonate (δ18Oc) phases of single samples from the ten fossil individuals from the Pondaung Formation. Results fall in the range of the modern mammals, which is consistent with an absence of diagenetic impact on the isotopic composition of the fossil enamel24.

Extended Data Table 1 δ18O values of Burmese Eocene material compared with Holocene data from the Ganga plain 23,29, with associated surface-water δ18O values, reflecting the depletion in 18O of the local rainwater
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Modern annual rainfall in Myanmar and central China compared with modelled annual rainfall in the late Eocene (40 Myr ago)
Full size table

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Licht, A., van Cappelle, M., Abels, H. et al. Asian monsoons in a late Eocene greenhouse world. Nature 513, 501–506 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13704

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