NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Gulf of Aden 40,000 Year Leaf Wax Deuterium Data

The timing and abruptness of the initiation and termination of the Early Holocene African Humid Period are subjects of ongoing debate, with direct consequences for our understanding of abrupt climate change, paleoenvironments, and early human cultural development. Here, we provide proxy evidence from the Horn of Africa region that documents abrupt transitions into and out of the African Humid Period in northeast Africa. Similar and generally synchronous abrupt transitions at other East African sites suggest that rapid shifts in hydroclimate are a regionally coherent feature. Our analysis suggests that the termination of the African Humid Period in the Horn of Africa occurred within centuries, underscoring the nonlinearity of the region's hydroclimate. Hydrogen isotopic composition of leaf waxes (dDwax) from a sediment core in the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, for the last 40,000 years, used as a proxy for hydroclimatic conditions in East Africa.