Precipitation and temperature variability in Northern Mexico during the Eemian Interglacial.

Climate models project that Mexico will become increasingly dry as a result of anthropogenic climate change, but significant uncertainty remains as to how regional rainfall patterns will change. Terrestrial records of hydroclimate variability during past warm climates can help evaluate the rainfall response to external forcing and internal climate variations and contribute to improve model projections, but few such records exist in Northern Mexico. To address this gap, we present the first terrestrial record of precipitation and temperature in Mexico during the Last Interglacial Period (LIG). Our ~annually-resolved precipitation record is based on multiple proxies (δ18O, δ13C, Mg/Ca) in a 22.7 cm long stalagmite (CP-1) from San Luis Potosi that grew for approximately 1,000 years centered at 125,000 years. We also present preliminary results of LIG cave temperature measurements using a novel approach with nucleation assisted fluid inclusion microthermometry. Initial results indicate that LIG cave temperatures may have been slightly warmer than modern temperatures and that LIG precipitation was higher than present. We will present these initial multi-proxy results and discuss decadal to multi-decadal scale hydroclimate variability in Northeast Mexico.