@article{52457226dcb74465b4d874f360fc9252,
title = "Asian monsoons in a late Eocene greenhouse world",
abstract = "The strong present-day Asian monsoons are thought to have originated between 25 and 22 million years (Myr) ago, driven by Tibetan-Himalayan uplift. However, the existence of older Asian monsoons and their response to enhanced greenhouse conditions such as those in the Eocene period (55-34 Myr ago) are unknown because of the paucity of well-dated records. Here we show late Eocene climate records revealing marked monsoon-like patterns in rainfall and wind south and north of the Tibetan-Himalayan orogen. This is indicated by low oxygen isotope values with strong seasonality in gastropod shells and mammal teeth from Myanmar, and by aeolian dust deposition in northwest China. Our climate simulations support modern-like Eocene monsoonal rainfall and show that a reinforced hydrological cycle responding to enhanced greenhouse conditions counterbalanced the negative effect of lower Tibetan relief on precipitation. These strong monsoons later weakened with the global shift to icehouse conditions 34 Myr ago.",
author = "A. Licht and {Van Cappelle}, M. and Abels, {H. A.} and Ladant, {J. B.} and J. Trabucho-Alexandre and C. France-Lanord and Y. Donnadieu and J. Vandenberghe and T. Rigaudier and C. L{\'e}cuyer and D. Terry and R. Adriaens and A. Boura and Z. Guo and Soe, {Aung Naing} and J. Quade and G. Dupont-Nivet and Jaeger, {J. J.}",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements We thank the Commissariat a l{\textquoteright}Energie Atomique/Centre de Calcul Recherche et Technologie for access to computing facilities; V. Barbin for cathodoluminescence microscopy; C. Fontaine for X-ray diffraction; R. Amiot, T. Bouten, M. Konert, M. Lebbink and T. Zalm for laboratory assistance; the many colleagues of the Franco-Burmese palaeontological team for field assistance; and D. Dettman and F. Fluteau for discussions. This work was supported by the ANR-09-BLAN-0238-02 Program, the University of Poitiers, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO-ALW) with funding to H.A. and G.D.-N., the Marie Curie CIG 294282, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the French ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Higher Education and Research, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Chinese Ministry of Education and the NationalNaturalScience FoundationofChina(NSFC).A.L.was alsofundedbya Fyssen Foundation study grant. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.",
year = "2014",
month = sep,
day = "25",
doi = "10.1038/nature13704",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "513",
pages = "501--506",
journal = "Nature",
issn = "0028-0836",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
number = "7519",
}