Late Holocene drought responsible for the collapse of Old World civilizations is recorded in an Italian cave flowstone
Alternative Title
Geology
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Publication Date
2-1-2006
Volume Number
34
Issue Number
2
Abstract
A severe drought in parts of low-latitude northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia ∼4200 yr ago caused major disruption to ancient civilizations. Stable isotope, trace element, and organic fluorescence data from a calcite flowstone collected from the well-watered Alpi Apuane karst of central-western Italy indicate that the climatic event responsible for this drought was also recorded in mid-latitude Europe. Although the timing of this event coincides with an episode of increased ice-rafted debris to the subpolar North Atlantic, the regional ocean-atmosphere response seems atypical of similar Holocene ice-rafting events. Furthermore, comparison of the flowstone data with other regional proxies suggests that the most extreme part of the dry spell occurred toward the end of a longer-term climate anomaly.
Keywords
Speleothems, Holocene, Drought, Geochemistry, Italy
Document Type
Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1130/G22103.1
Recommended Citation
Drysdale, Russell; Zanchetta, Giovanni; and Hellstrom, John, "Late Holocene drought responsible for the collapse of Old World civilizations is recorded in an Italian cave flowstone" (2006). KIP Articles. 6118.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_articles/6118
