Causes of the climatic change ca 2200 to 1900-1800 BCE?

[Robert Henvell]

Many regions of the world endured a long,cold,dry era from ca 2200 to 1900-1800BCE.
  Deep sea cores recovered volcanic ash,which could have fallen from Arctic icebergs much furthur south than normal ca 2200 BCE.Unless the ash was transported by aeolian activity,this infers colder temperatues.Coevally there were intense coastal sand movements along Jutland and Northumberland,UK.This dune development implies large storms,[A Blackard,2005].
  Glacial cores from 2 Andes Mountain sites,Peru, and sediment cores from near Lake Titicaca indicate a cold dry era from ca 2200-1900 BCE, [M Moseley.2001],which broadly coincides with similar conditions on China's central plain,[Wu& Liu,2004.
  Water levels in Lake Abhe,Ethiopia,were extremely low from 2200-1800 BCE and a low density of sediment cores at Lake Birk Qarum,SW of the Giza Plateau,revealed a contemporary depositional hiatus,[K Alverson.2007].The Egypt Old Kingdom collapsed during this era.
  Sea foor dust suggests that the Akkadian Empire,Mesopotamia endured a long drought from ca 2200-1900 BCE,which roughly equates with the desertion of Tell Beydarin,NE Syria.Cave stalagmite analyses in Romania revealed a cold event ca 2000 BCE.There was a dramatic drop in Dead Sea water levels and a dramatic change in the in the South Asian Monsoon system.
  The Younger Dryas and the "mini ice age" from ca 6200 to 5900-5800 BCE appear to have been initiated by the release of glacial lake waters in Canada,which flowed into the North Atlantic and may have altered the flow of the warm Gulf Stream currents.Any information about the factors,which caused the 2200 to 1900-1800 BCE cold dry era would be appreciated.An El Nino is unlikely to have lasted for this length of time???

[AWSX]

Further confirmation of that dry interval can be found in "A 10,000 year record of dune activity, dust storms, and severe drought in the central Great Plains" available here http://www.geosciences.unl.edu/~dloope/pdf/Miao.pdf

Analysis of loess deposits and eolian activity indicates severe drought with peaks centered on 2.5 and 3.8 ka.

Allan Shumaker

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Many regions of the world endured a long,cold,dry era from ca 2200 to 1900-1800BCE.
  Deep sea cores recovered volcanic ash,which could have fallen from Arctic icebergs much furthur south than normal ca 2200 BCE.Unless the ash was transported by aeolian activity,this infers colder temperatues.Coevally there were intense coastal sand movements along Jutland and Northumberland,UK.This dune development implies large storms,[A Blackard,2005].
  Glacial cores from 2 Andes Mountain sites,Peru, and sediment cores from near Lake Titicaca indicate a cold dry era from ca 2200-1900 BCE, [M Moseley.2001],which broadly coincides with similar conditions on China's central plain,[Wu& Liu,2004.
  Water levels in Lake Abhe,Ethiopia,were extremely low from 2200-1800 BCE and a low density of sediment cores at Lake Birk Qarum,SW of the Giza Plateau,revealed a contemporary depositional hiatus,[K Alverson.2007].The Egypt Old Kingdom collapsed during this era.
  Sea foor dust suggests that the Akkadian Empire,Mesopotamia endured a long drought from ca 2200-1900 BCE,which roughly equates with the desertion of Tell Beydarin,NE Syria.Cave stalagmite analyses in Romania revealed a cold event ca 2000 BCE.There was a dramatic drop in Dead Sea water levels and a dramatic change in the in the South Asian Monsoon system.
  The Younger Dryas and the "mini ice age" from ca 6200 to 5900-5800 BCE appear to have been initiated by the release of glacial lake waters in Canada,which flowed into the North Atlantic and may have altered the flow of the warm Gulf Stream currents.Any information about the factors,which caused the 2200 to 1900-1800 BCE cold dry era would be appreciated.An El Nino is unlikely to have lasted for this length of time???

Dear Bob,

If you could be a bit more precise or correct about your "dates", your terminology,  your references, and your question(s), I am sure someone, out there, would be in a position to help.

Jacques

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Further confirmation of that dry interval can be found in "A 10,000 year record of dune activity, dust storms, and severe drought in the central Great Plains" available here http://www.geosciences.unl.edu/~dloope/pdf/Miao.pdf

Analysis of loess deposits and eolian activity indicates severe drought with peaks centered on 2.5 and 3.8 ka.

Allan Shumaker

Allan,

I just read the very short and nonetheless interesting article you mentioned, but I was very surprised not to find (in the text) references to the rather well-discussed Hypsithermal.

Jacques

[Robert Henvell]

Dear Bob,

If you could be a bit more precise or correct about your "dates", your terminology,  your references, and your question(s), I am sure someone, out there, would be in a position to help.

Jacques

G'day Jacques,
  Endeavours,to date,have failed to locate a publication,which provides a worldwide overview about the circa 2200 to 1900-1800 BCE cold,dry era.Its impact varied temporally and regionally over "some" parts of the world.It appears to be poorly documented,but this one could have missed a lot of relevant material.The data,that has been cited,was obtained piece meal from numerous sources.Age estimates tend to be approximations[ie;R K Booth et al,2004;"Paleocology and high-resolution paleohydrology of a kettle peatland in upper Michigan" stated,that the high amplitude dry period centering on 4050 cal yr BP{2105 BCE} is ca 100-200 years long.].Even the glacial ice core dates from Peru are approximations.Malta was abandoned post 2300 BCE and some Harappan cities were largely abandoned  ca 2200-1800 BCE.There is not sufficient definative data to ascertain,whether these occurrences are related to the cold,dry period under discussion.
Bob

 References:
Peru
The Incas and their Ancestors,Michael Moseley,2001,Thames & Hudson
Africa
Paleoclimate,Keith Alverson,2007[chapter 12,Paleo-Handbook,Springer-Verlag etc
BBC documentary,The Demise of the Old Kingdom,Egypt.
Europe
Climate Change in Prehistory,William Burroughs,2005,Cambridge University Press, [CUP].
Can not find the A Blackard,2005, publication [Misfiled or it is a chapter in a book].
Syria
The Archaeology of Syria,Peter Akkermans & Glenn Schwartz,2003 CUP.
Mesopotamia
W Burroughs [ibid]
Mesopotamia,Glenoblyn [sp?] Leick,2001,Penquin.
China
Wu & Liu,2004,as cited in Neolithic Dispersal Batane etc,A Anderson et al 2005.