Warmings in the far northwestern Pacific promoted pre-Clovis immigration to America during Heinrich event 1
- Michael Sarnthein*1,
- Thorsten Kiefer2,
- Pieter M. Grootes3,
- Henry Elderfield4 and
- Helmut Erlenkeuser5
- 1Institute for Geosciences, University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24118 Kiel, Germany
- 2Institute for Geosciences, University of Kiel, Olshausenstrasse 40, 24118 Kiel, Germany, and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
- 3Leibniz Labor, University of Kiel, Max-Eyth Strasse 11, 24118 Kiel, Germany
- 4Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
- 5Leibniz Labor, University of Kiel, Max-Eyth Strasse 11, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Abstract
Well-dated multidecadal- to centennial-scale sediment records from the subarctic northwest Pacific show that the early deglacial 18.5–15.0 ka was marked by 3 pronounced short-term warmings of ∼5 °C. They lasted 500–1500 yr each and were coeval with early to late stages of cold Heinrich event 1 in the North Atlantic. These regional climate windows may have promoted a pre-Clovis emigration of people from the cold-arid monsoon climate in East Asia to the climatically more favorable, then-emerged Beringian and Aleutian shelf regions and the Americas, as suggested by archeological findings.
- subarctic North Pacific
- sea-surface warming
- paleoceanography
- Heinrich I stadial
- pre-Clovis immigration
Footnotes
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↵*Author ms{at}gpi.uni-kiel.de
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↵Data Repository item 2006029, Table DR1, is available online at www.geosociety.or/pubs/ft2006.htm, or on request from editing{at}geosociety.org, or Documents Secretary, GSA, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301.
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- Accepted 5 November 2005.
- Received 16 September 2005.
- Revision received 3 November 2005.
- Geological Society of America
