Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert
Abstract Abundant geomorphological, biological, and isotopic records show that Arabia repeatedly underwent significant climate-driven environmental changes during late Quaternary humid periods. Precisely mapping how the enhancement and expansion of the African Monsoon during these humid periods have...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Communications Earth & Environment |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02224-1 |
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| author | Abdallah S. Zaki Antoine Delaunay Guillaume Baby Negar Haghipour Cécile Blanchet Anne Dallmeyer Pietro Sternai Sam Woor Omar Wani Hany Khalil Mathieu Schuster Michael Petraglia Florence Sylvestre Giovan Peyrotty Mohamed Ali Frans Van Buchem Abdulkader M. Afifi Sébastien Castelltort |
| author_facet | Abdallah S. Zaki Antoine Delaunay Guillaume Baby Negar Haghipour Cécile Blanchet Anne Dallmeyer Pietro Sternai Sam Woor Omar Wani Hany Khalil Mathieu Schuster Michael Petraglia Florence Sylvestre Giovan Peyrotty Mohamed Ali Frans Van Buchem Abdulkader M. Afifi Sébastien Castelltort |
| author_sort | Abdallah S. Zaki |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Abundant geomorphological, biological, and isotopic records show that Arabia repeatedly underwent significant climate-driven environmental changes during late Quaternary humid periods. Precisely mapping how the enhancement and expansion of the African Monsoon during these humid periods have affected landscape evolution and human occupation dynamics in Arabia remains a scientific challenge. Here we reconstruct an ancient water-sculpted landscape consisting of lake and river deposits, coupled with a large outlet valley in the Rub’ al Khali Desert of Saudi Arabia. During the peak of the Holocene Humid Period or before, intense rainfall reactivated alluvial floodplains and filled a ~1100 km² topographic depression, which eventually breached, carving a deep ~150 km-long valley. Coupling geologic reconstructions with transient Earth system model simulations shows that this hydrological activity was linked to higher seasonal precipitation punctuated by repeated heavy events. Analysis of lacustrine and fluvial sedimentary deposits implies sediment routing across distances of up to 1000 km from the Asir Mountains. Our results indicate that such intense flooding challenges the conventional view of simple, weak, and linear landscape stabilization following increased rainfall in Arabia. Our findings highlight the crucial role of an enhanced African Monsoon in driving rapid landscape transformations in the Arabian Desert. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e035b1d79d8d4d26a871ee4cbadee327 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2662-4435 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Earth & Environment |
| spelling | doaj-art-e035b1d79d8d4d26a871ee4cbadee3272025-08-20T01:54:30ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Earth & Environment2662-44352025-04-016111510.1038/s43247-025-02224-1Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali DesertAbdallah S. Zaki0Antoine Delaunay1Guillaume Baby2Negar Haghipour3Cécile Blanchet4Anne Dallmeyer5Pietro Sternai6Sam Woor7Omar Wani8Hany Khalil9Mathieu Schuster10Michael Petraglia11Florence Sylvestre12Giovan Peyrotty13Mohamed Ali14Frans Van Buchem15Abdulkader M. Afifi16Sébastien Castelltort17Department of Earth Sciences, University of GenevaPhysical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyPhysical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyGeological Institute, ETH ZürichGFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Climate Dynamics and Landscape EvolutionMax Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstrasse 53Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan-BicoccaDepartment of Geoscience, University of the Fraser ValleyDivision of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Geology, Alexandria UniversityUniversité de Strasbourg, CNRS, Institut Terre et Environnement de Strasbourg, UMR 7063, 5 rue DescartesAustralian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith UniversityAix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, CEREGE, Aix en ProvenceDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of GenevaDepartment of Geography & GIS, Ain Shams UniversityPhysical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyPhysical Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyDepartment of Earth Sciences, University of GenevaAbstract Abundant geomorphological, biological, and isotopic records show that Arabia repeatedly underwent significant climate-driven environmental changes during late Quaternary humid periods. Precisely mapping how the enhancement and expansion of the African Monsoon during these humid periods have affected landscape evolution and human occupation dynamics in Arabia remains a scientific challenge. Here we reconstruct an ancient water-sculpted landscape consisting of lake and river deposits, coupled with a large outlet valley in the Rub’ al Khali Desert of Saudi Arabia. During the peak of the Holocene Humid Period or before, intense rainfall reactivated alluvial floodplains and filled a ~1100 km² topographic depression, which eventually breached, carving a deep ~150 km-long valley. Coupling geologic reconstructions with transient Earth system model simulations shows that this hydrological activity was linked to higher seasonal precipitation punctuated by repeated heavy events. Analysis of lacustrine and fluvial sedimentary deposits implies sediment routing across distances of up to 1000 km from the Asir Mountains. Our results indicate that such intense flooding challenges the conventional view of simple, weak, and linear landscape stabilization following increased rainfall in Arabia. Our findings highlight the crucial role of an enhanced African Monsoon in driving rapid landscape transformations in the Arabian Desert.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02224-1 |
| spellingShingle | Abdallah S. Zaki Antoine Delaunay Guillaume Baby Negar Haghipour Cécile Blanchet Anne Dallmeyer Pietro Sternai Sam Woor Omar Wani Hany Khalil Mathieu Schuster Michael Petraglia Florence Sylvestre Giovan Peyrotty Mohamed Ali Frans Van Buchem Abdulkader M. Afifi Sébastien Castelltort Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert Communications Earth & Environment |
| title | Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert |
| title_full | Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert |
| title_fullStr | Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert |
| title_full_unstemmed | Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert |
| title_short | Monsoonal imprint on late Quaternary landscapes of the Rub’ al Khali Desert |
| title_sort | monsoonal imprint on late quaternary landscapes of the rub al khali desert |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02224-1 |
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