Climate and topography change the characteristics of the Asian monsoon over millions of years. These changes affect the region’s climate and topography, and the cycle continues.
monsoons
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Chinese Swamp Core Reveals 47,000 Years of Monsoon History
Magnetic analysis of mineral composition supports the importance of tropical climate processes in shaping long-term monsoon patterns.
Posted inFeatures
Three Times Tectonics Changed the Climate
Fifty years after the birth of modern plate tectonics theory, a group of researchers highlights three key examples of how our planet’s shape-shifting outer layer has altered our climate.
Posted inNews
Ice Drove Past Indo-Pacific Climate Variance
Researchers used both terrestrial and marine proxy data to reconstruct the dramatic and dynamic climatic changes.
Posted inNews
Varying Impact of Earthquake- and Monsoon-Induced Landslides
Using nearly 50 years of satellite data and records stretching back millennia, scientists determine the relative frequency—and the erosional power—of monsoon- and earthquake-induced landslides in Nepal.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Monsoons in Africa Drove Glacier Growth in Europe
A new study shows that low-latitude weather can affect distant glaciers.
Posted inNews
How Old Is the Mekong River Valley?
Granite samples collected from the Mekong River Valley reveal that the river’s path was incised roughly 17 million years ago, most likely by increased erosion from monsoon precipitation.
Posted inFeatures
Making Sense of Landslide Danger After Kerala’s Floods
Scientists traveled to Kerala, a state in India recently devastated by severe monsoon rains. They found a vulnerable population that will soon face fresh landslide risks as a new monsoon approaches.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Better Way to Predict the Indian Monsoon
A new study finds that including Himalayan topography and land-atmosphere interactions improves climate models.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Ice Rafting Events Affect Asian Monsoon Hydroclimate
Cave stalagmites provide isotopic evidence that Bond events and Heinrich events have more variable effects on Asian monsoon hydroclimate during the last glacial period than during the Holocene.