Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-4n89n Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-23T22:24:35.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Holocene Variations of Monsoon Rainfall in Rajasthan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. A. Bryson  and
A. M. Swain
R. A. Bryson
Affiliation:
Center for Climatic Research, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, 1225 W. Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
A. M. Swain
Affiliation:
Center for Climatic Research, Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, 1225 W. Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two reconstructed histories of the monsoon rainfall in Rajasthan show that the monsoon was weak or absent in latest glacial time. With the advent of Holocene climatic patterns, fresh water lakes formed in dune fields and the pollen rain preserved in these reservoirs provides a basis for the reconstruction of the monsoon history. The two reconstructions, separated by only 150 km, have some features in common and some striking differences. Both show maximum monsoon amounts in the early Holocene, with a roughly two-thirds decrease to the present. Both show salinization in sub-Boreal time. Both show long intervals of near complete desiccation in the last four millennia. The shorter term variations, however, are not closely parallel. These shorter term variations may be explained in terms of the behavior of the present day interannual variability.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , September 1981 , pp. 135 - 145
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Agrawal, D.P. (1971). The Copper Bronze Age in India. Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi Google Scholar
Agrawal, D.P., Kusumgar, S., Sarna, R.P. (1964). Radiocarbon dates of archaeological samples. Current Science 33. 226 Google Scholar
Bergtho´rsson, P. (1969). An estimate of drift ice and temperature in Iceland in 1000 years. Jo¨kull 19. 94–101.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A. (1972). Climatic modification by air pollution. In “The Environmental Future.” (Polunin, N., Ed.). pp. 133–154 Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Baerreis, D.S. (1967). Possibilities of major climatic modification and their implications: Northwest India, a case for study. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 48. 136–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Irving, W.M., Larson, J.A. (1965). Radiocarbon and soils evidence of former forest in the southern Canadian tundra. Science 147. 46–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bryson, R.A., Wilson, C.A. III, Kuhn, P.M. (1964). Some preliminary results of radiation sonde ascents over India Proceedings WMO-IUGG Symposium on Tropical MeteorologyRotorua, New Zealand, November, 1963New Zealand Meteorological Service, Wellington Google Scholar
Das, P.K. (1968). “The Monsoons.” National Book Trust, New Delhi Google Scholar
Ghosh, A. (1966). Personal communication.Google Scholar
Groveman, B.S., Landsberg, H.E. (1979). Reconstruction of northern hemisphere temperature: 1579–1880. Publ. No. 79-181. Meteorology Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742June, 1979Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H. (1972). Climate: Present, Past and Future Vol. 1 Methuen, London Google Scholar
Manabe, S., Hahn, D.G. (1977). Simulation of the tropical climate of an Ice Age. Journal of Geophysical Research 82. 3889–3911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naqvi, S.N. (1962). Data presented at Conference on the Climate of the Eleventh and Sixteenth CenturiesAspen, Colorado, June 16–24, 1962Google Scholar
Rahmatullah, M. (1952). Synoptic aspects of the monsoon circulation and rainfall over Indo-Pakistan. Journal of Meteorology 9. 176–179.Google Scholar
Singh, G. (1971). The Indus Valley Culture seen in the context of postglacial climatic and ecological studies in northwest India. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 6. 177–189.Google Scholar
Singh, G., Chopra, S.K., Singh, A.B. (1973). Pollen-rain from the vegetation of northwest India. New Phytologist 72. 191–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, G., Joshi, R.D., Singh, A.B. (1972). Stratigraphic and radiocarbon evidence for the age and development of three salt lake deposits in Rajasthan, India. Quaternary Research 2. 496–505.Google Scholar
Singh, G., Joshi, R.A., Chopra, S.K., Singh, A.B. (1974). Late Quaternary history of vegetation and climate of the Rajasthan Desert, India. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 267. 467–501.Google Scholar
Sorenson, C.J., Knox, J.C., Larson, J.A., Bryson, R.A. (1971). Paleosols and the forest border in Keewatin. Quaternary Research 1. 468–473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trewartha, G.T., 2nd Ed.(1981). The Earth's Problem Climates. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI 183–190.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bryson, R.A. (1972). Late- and postglacial climatic change in the northern Midwest, USA: Quantitative estimates derived from fossil pollen spectra by multivariate statistical analysis. Quaternary Research 2. 70–115.Google Scholar
Yin, Maung Tun. (1949). A synoptic-aerologic study of the onset of the summer monsoon over India and Burma. Journal of Meteorology 6. 393–400.Google Scholar