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Mid-Pliocene Asian monsoon intensification and the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation

¹ State Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, Institute of Surficial Geochemistry, Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
² Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA
³ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA

Correspondence: *E-mail: yige.zhang{at}yale.edu.

The late Pliocene onset of major Northern Hemisphere glaciation (NHG) is one of the most important steps in the Cenozoic global cooling. Although most attempts have been focused on high-latitude climate feedbacks, no consensus has been reached in explaining the forcing mechanism of this dramatic climate change. Here we present a key low-latitude climate record, the high-resolution Asian monsoon precipitation variability for the past five million years, reconstructed from South China Sea sediments. Our results, with supporting evidence from other records, indicate significant mid-Pliocene Asian monsoon intensification, preceding the initiation of NHG at ca. 2.7 Ma ago. This 1.4-million-year-long monsoon intensification probably enhanced monsoon-induced Asian continental erosion and chemical weathering and in the process left fingerprints in marine calcium isotopes. Furthermore, increased rock weathering and/or organic carbon burial probably lowered the contemporary atmospheric CO₂ and may have triggered the NHG onset.