High resolution hematite and goethite records from ODP 1143, South China Sea: Co-evolution of monsoonal precipitation and El Nino over the past 600,000 years

Precipitation has a larger variability than temperature in tropical monsoon regions, thus it is an important climate variable. However, reconstructions of long-term rainfall histories are scarce because of the lack of reliable proxies. Here we document that iron oxide minerals, specifically the ratio of hematite to goethite (Hm/Gt), is a reasonable precipitation proxy. Using diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry, we measured samples from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) 1143 drilling site (9 degrees 21.72'N, 113 degrees 17.1 11'E, 2777 m water depth) for hematite and goethite, whose formation processes are favored by opposing climate conditions. In order to determine the content of hematite and goethite we produced a set of calibration samples by removing the iron oxides to generate the natural matrix to which hematite and goethite in known percentages were added. From these calibration samples we developed a transfer function for determining hematite and goethite concentration from a sample's spectral reflectance. Applying this method to ODP 1143 sediments (top 34 m of a 5 10 m core with sampling interval of 10 cm) we were able to reconstruct a continuous precipitation history for SE Asia of the past 600 kyr using the Hm/Gt ratio as a proxy of the precipitation variability of Asian monsoon. The reliability of this Hm/Gt proxy is corroborated by its consistency with the stalagmite delta O-18 data from South China. Comparing long-term Hm/Gt records with the surface temperature gradient of equatorial Pacific Ocean, we found that monsoon precipitation and El Ni (n) over tildeo are correlated for the last 600 kyr. The development of El Ni (n) over tildeo-like conditions decreased SE Asia precipitation, whereas precipitation increases in response to La Ni (n) over tildeo intensification. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.