Tropical stalagmites have ice age answers

Hidden deep underground in Indonesian caves, the missing link in the demise of the last ice age has been uncovered in stalagmites, which have provided a 31,000 year-long record of Australasian monsoon activity.

“Stalagmites are the ice core records of the tropics,” explains Dr Linda Ayliffe from the Research School of Earth Sciences (RSES).

“They are the only natural climate archive with the length, resolution and age-control required to document the response of the Australasian monsoon to abrupt climate change over tens of thousands of years.”

The global monsoon system is considered to be an important climate link between the northern and southern hemispheres during the deglaciation of the last ice age. Until now, direct evidence for the southern half of the vast Australasian monsoon has been lacking. [...] news.anu.edu.au