Earth and Planetary Sciences
3 years ago

Deserts may become lush every 400,000 years due to monsoon shifts.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Eccentricity forcing of East Asian monsoonal systems over the past 3 million years
Chengying Liu, Junsheng Nie, Zaijun Li, Qingqing Qiao, Jordan Abell, Fei Wang, Wenjiao Xiao

Paper Summary

Desert regions in northern China got drier every 400,000 years due to changes in the East Asian monsoon, not just ice sheets. This challenges the old idea that ice sheets were the main factor. Understanding these wet-dry cycles can help predict future desert variations.

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