29 Nov 2022
This 3-year project targets the Holocene climate history of southern Iran. The first objective is to establish high-resolution paleoclimate records for this region anchored by accurate and precise U/Th chronologies. By dating and quantifying changes in temperature and precipitation the hypothesis will be tested that during the Early Holocene southern Iran was significantly more humid than today, followed by a trend towards aridification. The second objective is to determine the cause of this higher rainfall. We will test the hypothesis that this extra precipitation fell as summer rain sourced from the Indian and/or African monsoon. Finally, we shall address the question whether the so-called 8.2 and the 4.2 ka events – times of abrupt cooling in the Northern Hemisphere – coincided with dry spells in southern Iran.
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