Southwest Pacific Climate Reconstructions from 20-10 kyr BP

125 calibrated radiocarbon ages support climatic reconstructions from five sites spanning southern New Zealand to Indonesia. The data, from Geoscience Australia, identifies two periods of significant change around 17 and 14.2 thousand years ago. These reconstructions aim to test hypotheses about hemispheric climate teleconnections during the Last Termination.

Use Cases

• Testing hypotheses about hemispheric climate teleconnections based on the multi-site transect.
• Analyzing the timing of climatic shifts associated with events like Meltwater Pulse-1A based on the identified periods of change.
• Investigating regional climate variability in the Southwest Pacific during the 20-10 kyr BP period.
• Assessing geochronological constraints inherent in age models built from radiocarbon dating.

Strengths

• Reconstructions are supported by 125 calibrated radiocarbon ages.
• Data covers a key transect of five sites from southern New Zealand to Indonesia.
• Identifies two specific periods of climatic change at around 17 and 14.2 cal kyr BP.

Limitations

• The description notes a lack of quantified climatic parameters, making detailed interpretations problematic.
• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Age models are described as having severe geochronological constraints inherent to radiocarbon dating.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Climatic reconstructions from palaeoclimatic records, supported by radiocarbon dating.

Time Range

20,000 to 10,000 years before present (20-10 kyr BP)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 18:35:56.418735; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Southwest Pacific, along a transect from southern New Zealand, through Australia to Indonesia.