A high-resolution millennial record of the South Asian Monsoon from Himalayan ice cores

A high-resolution ice core record from Dasuopu, Tibet, reveals that this si te is sensitive to fluctuations in the intensity of the South Asian Monsoon . Reductions in monsoonal intensity are recorded by dust and chloride conce ntrations. The deeper, older sections of the Dasuopu cores suggest many oth er periods of drought in this region, but none have been of greater intensi ty than the greatest recorded drought, during 1790 to 1796 A.D. of the Last millennium. The 20th century increase in anthropogenic activity in India a nd Nepal, upwind from this site, is recorded by a doubling of chloride conc entrations anti a fourfold increase in dust. Like other ice cores from the Tibetan Plateau, Dasuopu suggests a Large-scale, plateau-wide 20th-century warming trend that apl,ears to be amplified at higher elevations.