Articles | Volume 15, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1757-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1757-2019
Research article
 | 
16 Sep 2019
Research article |  | 16 Sep 2019

Enhanced Mediterranean water cycle explains increased humidity during MIS 3 in North Africa

Mike Rogerson, Yuri Dublyansky, Dirk L. Hoffmann, Marc Luetscher, Paul Töchterle, and Christoph Spötl

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Cited articles

Adkins, J., Demenocal, P., and Eshel, G.: The “African humid period” and the record of marine upwelling from excess 230Th in Ocean Drilling Program Hole 658C, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 21, PA4203, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005PA001200, 2006. 
Aggarwal, P. K., Romatschke, U., Araguas-Araguas, L., Belachew, D., Longstaffe, F. J., Berg, P., Schumacher, C., and Funk, A.: Proportions of convective and stratiform precipitation revealed in water isotope ratios, Nat. Geosci., 9, 624–629, 2016. 
Ait Brahim, Y., Cheng, H., Sifeddine, A., Wassenburg, J. A., Cruz, F. W., Khodri, M., Sha, L., Pérez-Zanón, N., Beraaouz, E. H., Apaéstegui, J., Guyot, J.-L., Jochum, K. P., and Bouchaou, L.: Speleothem records decadal to multidecadal hydroclimate variations in southwestern Morocco during the last millennium, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 476, 10010, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2017.07.045, 2017. 
Arienzo, M. M., Swart, P. K., Pourmand, A., Broad, K., Clement, A. C., Murphy, L. N., Vonhof, H. B., and Kakuk, B.: Bahamian speleothem reveals temperature decrease associated with Heinrich stadials, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett., 430, 377–386, 2015. 
Armitage, S. J., Drake, N. A., Stokes, S., El-Hawat, A., Salem, M., White, K., Turner, P., and McLaren, S. J.: Multiple phases of north African humidity recorded in lacustrine sediments from the fazzan basin, Libyan sahara, Quat. Geochronol., 2, 181–186, 2007. 
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Short summary
Rainfall in North Africa is known to vary through time and is likely to change as global climate warms. Here, we provide a new level of understanding about past rainfall in North Africa by looking at a stalagmite which formed within northeastern Libya between 67 and 30 thousand years ago. We find that at times more rain falls, and the associated moisture is mostly derived from the western Mediterranean during winter storms. Sometimes, water comes from the eastern Mediterranean.