High-resolution Holocene environmental changes in the Thar Desert, northwestern India

Sediments from Lunkaransar dry Lake in northwestern India reveal regional w ater table and lake Level fluctuations over decades to centuries during the Holocene that are attributed to changes in the southwestern Indian monsoon rains. The Lake levels were Very shallow and fluctuated often in the early Holocene and then rose abruptly around 6300 carbon-14 years before the pre sent (C-14 yr B.P.). The lake completely desiccated around 4800 C-14 yr B.P . The end of this 1500-year wet period coincided with a period of intense d une destabilization. The major Harrapan-Indus-civilization began and flouri shed in this region 1000 years after desiccation of the Lake during arid cl imate and was not synchronous with the lacustral phase.