High-resolution absolute-dated Indian Monsoon record between 53 and 36 ka from Xiaobailong Cave, southwestern China.

The oxygen isotopic record of stalagmite XBL-1 from southwestern China reveals millennial-scale variability of the Indian Monsoon between 53 and 36 ka, synchronous with changes in the East Asian Monsoon recorded at Hulu Cave and similar to Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles recorded in Greenland ice. Our record, in general, confirms the chronology of Hulu Cave. If our correlations between Greenland and the Xiaobailong Cave record are correct, both the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 and Greenland Ice Core Project (ss09sea) chronologies are accurate within quoted errors. A dry interval that we correlate with Heinrich Event 5 (H5) and the Greenland stadial preceding Greenland Interstadial 12 (GIS 12) is centered ca. 48.0 ka and a shift to drier conditions, correlated to the end of GIS 12, is ca. 43.5 ka. Overall, the variability of the Indian Monsoon, from XBL-1 data, on millennial scales is similar to and correlated with high-latitude ice core records from the Northern Hemisphere. However, some Indian Monsoon characteristics more closely resemble, but are anticorrelated with, features in the Antarctic record, suggesting some link to climate of the high southern latitudes, in addition to the clear link to the climate of the high northern latitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]