Between 15,000 and 8,000 years ago, the Earth underwent dramatic changes marked by the rapid retreat of ice sheets, sea level rise, and a reorganization of the atmosphere–ocean circulation. During this time, abrupt climate events such as the Bølling–Allerød warm period and the Younger Dryas (YD) cold period punctuated the gradual transition from glacial conditions to the warm interglacial (Holocene). This critical period—the Glacial–Holocene transition—offers a unique window into the multi-scale evolution of Earth’s environment.

While eastern China recorded a significant intensification of the summer monsoon that created humid conditions favorable for the origins of agriculture and human settlement, the extremely arid Tarim Basin in western China has long lacked detailed climatic and atmospheric circulation records, warranting further investigation.

To address this gap, researchers from the State Key Laboratory of loess Science of the Institute of Earth Environment of Chinese Academy of Sciences selected the representative aeolian loess profile “AQ16” from the southern margin of the Tarim Basin. High-resolution optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating combined with grain-size analysis of the AQ16 loess record enabled the team to reconstruct the region’s dust accumulation history in an unprecedented detail. 

The researchers find that during the YD period, the dust flux in the Tarim Basin increased nearly tenfold, accompanied by episodic variations and frequent centennial-scale fluctuations. This pattern mirrors dust records from the Guliya ice core in the Kunlun Mountains Summit and the Greenland ice core, and it aligns with records from Western Europe, the Middle East, and Chinese Loess Plateau. The evidence suggests that during the YD, a prolonged stagnant westerly jet over the Tarim Basin may have significantly influenced regional dust deposition and downstream climate. 

These findings provide critical evidence for abrupt shifts in dust accumulation and atmospheric circulation over millennial to centennial timescales in arid Asia interior during the Glacial–Holocene transition.

This work was recently published in Global and Planetary Change.