Abstract | Mid Pliocene Warm Period (MPWP) is the earthâ¿¿s recent-most climatic analogue to modern temperature rise (Global Warming). We present here the South Asian Monsoon (SAsM)variability during the late Pliocene (3.3-2.6 million years ago, Ma) including the MPWP utilizing the geochemical data related to terrestrial input (Ti, Ti/Ca), weathering (Mg/Al, K/Al, and K) and productivity (Ba/Al, Caexe) from the Arabian Sea. The late Pliocene is particularly interesting as major climatic shifts including the Cenozoic cooling along with changes in oceanic gateways happened during this period. During MPWP, SAsM intensified during the interglacial periods and weakened during the glacials.After the MPWP (~3 Ma), the drastic increase in all the proxies suggests significant SAsM intensification. This ~3 Ma shift of SAsM seems coeval with the significant change in global circulation patterns induced by the tectonic reorganization of the Indonesian Throughflow that cooled the south equatorial Indian Ocean, which ultimately resulted in the intensification of the SAsM. The spectral and wavelet analysis on the time series of geochemical proxies revealed the orbital control, especially eccentricity, over the SAsM during the late Pliocene. |