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The Holocene
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A high-resolution proxy record of rainfall and ENSO since AD 1550 from layering in stalagmites from Anjohibe Cave, Madagascar

George A. Brook

Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Margaret A. Rafter

L. Bruce Railsback

Department of Geology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Shaw-Wen Sheen

Department of Geography, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Joyce Lundberg

Department of Geography, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada

Two stalagmites from Anjohibe Cave have annual layers made up of inclusion-rich calcite over inclusion-free calcite or of darker aragonite over clear aragonite. Geochemical evidence indicates that the basal units are deposited slowly in the wet season and the upper units more rapidly in the dry season. For the period with rainfall and temperature data (ad 1951–1992), layer thickness correlates well with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), as well as rainfall, water surplus, and actual evapotranspiration (AET) at nearby Majunga. Com parison of the layer record for one stalagmite with 1866–1994 SOI data indicates that layer thickness correlates best with the frequency and intensity of warm, low-phase SO (El Niño) events, not with average SOI conditions. In addition, the 415-year layer thickness time-series from that speleothem agrees remarkably well with historical records of El Niño frequency, with Galápagos (Ecuador) coral records of sea-surface temperature in the eastern Pacific, and with accumulation rates on the Quelccaya Ice Cap of Peru, which are lower at times of high El Niño frequency.

Key Words: Speleothems • caves • annual layers • ENSO • palaeoclimates • Madagascar

The Holocene, Vol. 9, No. 6, 695-705 (1999)
DOI: 10.1191/095968399677907790
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