NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Lake Turkana, Kenya, 6000 Year TEX86 Temperature

The termination of the African Humid Period (AHP) about 5 thousand years ago (ka) was the most dramatic climate shift in northern and equatorial Africa since the end of the Pleistocene. Based on TEX86 paleotemperature data from Lake Turkana, Kenya, we show that a temperature shift of 2-4C occurred over the two millennia spanning the end of the AHP, with the warmest conditions occurring at ~5 ka. We note a similar shift, though of a smaller magnitude, in other East African temperature records from Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika, as well as Mt. Kilimanjaro. Additionally, we document the temperature history for the last 220 years from Lake Turkana that indicates the thermal anomaly at 5 ka was warmer than the present day Lake Turkana temperatures and on par with modern temperatures of Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi. We suggest that the thermal response at the end of the AHP may be linked to local insolation during September-November, when local air temperature rises to an annual maximum over Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika and a secondary maximum over Lake Turkana and Mt. Kilimanjaro. September-November insolation peaked at ~5 ka and likely caused air and water temperatures in the region to rise to maxima at that time. This dataset includes TEX86 data from Lake Turkana cores LT84-2P, LT84-7P, and LT94-14FC. The TEX86 temperature data are provided with both the uncalibrated TEX86 value and and the Kim et al., 2010 calibration used in the manuscript. Also, the calculated BIT Index (as described in the text) are provided here.