Variations in Monsoon Intensity Recorded in Holocene Flood Deposits in India

季风形成了行星大气环流的最重要特征之一，在亚洲、澳大利亚和非洲的热带和亚热带大部分地区，干湿季节模式主导着气候（Webster, 1987a）。印度位于典型季风区的中心，是对季风波动最敏感的地区。它非常适合古洪水的水文气候应用，因为与季风有关的风暴会引起最大的洪水。基岩峡谷中洪水形成的滞流沉积物是离散极端水文事件的直接证据，而不是平均气候条件的代理指标。我们将开发印度几条河流的古洪水记录，以记录几个世纪到几千年来季风强度的波动。季风变化对气候的影响远远超出了印度次大陆，因为季风与厄尔尼诺/南方涛动等其他气候现象之间存在广泛的全球遥相关。我们的研究将解决直接影响地球上人口最多地区居民的全球变化的区域水文效应。

The monsoon forms one of the most important features of the planetary atmospheric circulation, and the wet/dry seasonal pattern dominates the climate over large portions of tropical and subtropical Asia, Australia and Africa (Webster, 1987a). India lies at the heart of the classic monsoon region, and is the area most sensitive to monsoon fluctuations. It is ideally suited for a hydroclimatic application of paleofloods, as monsoon-related storms cause the largest floods. Slackwater deposits from floods in bedrock canyons are direct evidence of discrete extreme hydrologic events rather than proxy indicators of average climatic conditions. We will develop paleoflood records on several rivers in India to chronicle fluctuations in the monsoon intensity over centuries to millennia. The climatic implications of variations in the monsoon extend far beyond the Indian subcontinent through broad global teleconnections between the monsoon and other climatic phenomena such as the El Nino/Southern Oscillation. Our research will address regional hydrologic effects of global change that directly impact the inhabitants of the most populous portions of the Earth.