{"id":26495,"date":"2016-08-23T16:15:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T20:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?p=26495"},"modified":"2021-11-10T16:38:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T20:38:41","slug":"lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm","title":{"rendered":"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instead of experiencing a long-term dry spell following the Pleistocene Transition some million years ago like many had guessed, southern East Africa actually experienced a wetter climate. Researchers at the University of Minnesota <\/span>made the find after analyzing a sediment core<\/span> taken from Lake Malawi back in 2005. <\/span><\/p>\n

The core that investigators obtained came in at a whopping 380 meters long, giving them an incredibly extensive record of the region\u2019s climate. Since gathering the core more than a decade ago, the researchers have been uncovering its secrets. <\/span><\/p>\n

They ran into some difficulty with radiocarbon dating in that effort because the technique is only accurate back to 50,000 years. To get around that limitation, scientists pulled out all the stops, trying things like reversing magnetic polarity in volcanic ash, tracing changes in the distribution of organic compounds or noting deposition variances and identifying vegetation by studying molecules known to come from oils on leaf coatings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"lake

(Credit: L. Castaneda \/ University of Minnesota)<\/p><\/div>\n

All their efforts helped investigators to develop a sense for the climatic history of southeastern Africa and Lake Malawi going back to 1.3 million years in the past. Analyzing the timeline, they realized that the region hadn\u2019t been experiencing a dry climate as had been assumed. Instead, the core revealed that the area\u2019s climate had been getting progressively wetter. In addition, scientists noted that southern East Africa experienced cycles of fluctuating temperatures and rainfall around the times of several ice ages. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInterglacial periods were relatively warm and moist, while ice ages were cool and dry,\u201d investigators write <\/span>in the journal Nature<\/span>. \u201cThe Malawi record shows limited evidence for precessional variability, which we attribute to the opposing effects of austral summer insolation and the temporal\/spatial pattern of sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists add that their results could impact historical climate models regarding parts of Africa, as well as human evolutionary history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Featured Image:\u00a0Lake Malawi, 1967. (Credit: Public Domain)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Are there other methods that researchers could have used? What other implications could their findings have? Please consider leaving a comment to share your thoughts!<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":26496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,32],"tags":[265,60,103,109,331],"class_list":["post-26495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-lakes-reservoirs","tag-africa","tag-featured","tag-news-2","tag-news-ticker","tag-university-of-minnesota"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\nLake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past, Upending Expectations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past, Upending Expectations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Environmental Monitor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-23T20:15:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-10T20:38:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"679\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daniel Kelly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Kelly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Kelly\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/847643ff7cab0510299c8b13d204eac7\"},\"headline\":\"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-23T20:15:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-10T20:38:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/08\\\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"featured\",\"news\",\"news ticker\",\"University of Minnesota\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Featured Articles\",\"Lakes & Reservoirs\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\",\"name\":\"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past, Upending Expectations\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/08\\\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-23T20:15:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-10T20:38:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/847643ff7cab0510299c8b13d204eac7\"},\"description\":\"University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/08\\\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.fondriest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/08\\\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":679,\"caption\":\"lake malawi sediment core\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Environmental Monitor\",\"description\":\"Application and technology news for environmental professionals\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/847643ff7cab0510299c8b13d204eac7\",\"name\":\"Daniel Kelly\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b1a53273429ff6b46dfea6cf5731e1278d990bbf6958f4de0ca57131c443dd2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b1a53273429ff6b46dfea6cf5731e1278d990bbf6958f4de0ca57131c443dd2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1b1a53273429ff6b46dfea6cf5731e1278d990bbf6958f4de0ca57131c443dd2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Daniel Kelly\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.fondriest.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/daniel-kelly\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past, Upending Expectations","description":"University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past, Upending Expectations","og_description":"University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm","og_site_name":"Environmental Monitor","article_published_time":"2016-08-23T20:15:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-10T20:38:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":679,"url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Daniel Kelly","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Daniel Kelly","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm"},"author":{"name":"Daniel Kelly","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/847643ff7cab0510299c8b13d204eac7"},"headline":"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past","datePublished":"2016-08-23T20:15:13+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-10T20:38:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm"},"wordCount":359,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg","keywords":["Africa","featured","news","news ticker","University of Minnesota"],"articleSection":["Featured Articles","Lakes & Reservoirs"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm","url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm","name":"Lake Malawi Sediment Core Reveals Wet Past, Upending Expectations","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg","datePublished":"2016-08-23T20:15:13+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-10T20:38:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/847643ff7cab0510299c8b13d204eac7"},"description":"University of Minnesota scientists find that Lake Malawi had a past climate much wetter than previously thought, thanks to sediment analysis.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/lake-malawi-sediment-core-wet-past.htm#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.fondriest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/lake_malawi_sediment.jpg","width":1024,"height":679,"caption":"lake malawi sediment core"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/","name":"Environmental Monitor","description":"Application and technology news for environmental professionals","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/847643ff7cab0510299c8b13d204eac7","name":"Daniel Kelly","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b1a53273429ff6b46dfea6cf5731e1278d990bbf6958f4de0ca57131c443dd2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b1a53273429ff6b46dfea6cf5731e1278d990bbf6958f4de0ca57131c443dd2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1b1a53273429ff6b46dfea6cf5731e1278d990bbf6958f4de0ca57131c443dd2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Daniel Kelly"},"url":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/author\/daniel-kelly"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32910,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26495\/revisions\/32910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}