Solar Variability Controls on Rainfall in the Last Millennia: Evidence from a Highly Resolved Stalagmite Record from DeSoto Caverns (USA)

Moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) inland has a considerable influence on both regional and continental rainfall patterns. Recent episodes of drought in the Southeastern USA exposed the vulnerability of the regional infrastructure to climate changes and gave rise to inter-state “water wars”. In order to better understand the cause of these periodic droughts and their controlling climate factors we have initiated a study of stalagmites from the DeSoto Caverns (Alabama, USA) that intersect the moisture flow from GOM. Combination of unusually high growth rates (up to 2 mm/decade), prominent dark and light seasonal layers, pristine aragonite mineralogy, precise U/Th dates acquired from mg-size samples and tight sampling (n=195) afforded generation of biannual (δ18O and δ13C of exceptional clarity spanning the last 700 yrs. The stalagmite (DSSG1) top yields isotope values (δ18O=-5.5 per-mill VPDB; δ13C=-10.1 per-mill VPDB) that are in good agreement with the predicted equilibrium isotope values. The oxygen and carbon isotope records exhibit a number of alternating negative and positive phase changes of <century duration. The negative phases occur between 1820-1900 AD, 1680-1740 AD, 1460-1540 AD and <1320 AD that correspond exactly with the Sun quiescence periods known as Dalton, Maunder, Spörer and Wolf Minima, and are corroborated by agreement with the positive shifts in atmospheric radiocarbon levels. Using a forward model we interpret the positive and negative δ18O and δ13C shifts during solar maxima and minima, respectively, as being primarily an expression of rapid shifts in rainfall sourced from GOM moisture and alternating between low and high rainfall intervals. The low and high rainfall intervals discerned in the stalagmite correspond to contemporaneous SST rise and fall in GOM and the Caribbean of about 1 oC amplitude. We suggest that small but measurable SST changes in the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP), controlled by solar radiation changes between maxima and minima cycles, have a pronounced effect on the continental rainfall pattern. The excellent correspondence documented between the DeSoto stalagmite record from a “Humid Subtropical” climate site, the SST in WHWP and the contemporaneous atmospheric radiocarbon shifts suggest that the Sun variability is likely the principal governing factor controlling the continental rainfall pattern in the last millennium.