Abstract
Evaluating the impact and implications of eolian repositories that mark large-scale climatic transitions requires knowledge about the timing of their emplacement and the mechanisms responsible for their production, which remain highly uncertain. Here we apply numerical modeling of cosmogenic nuclide data, measured in the largest continuous terrestrial body of sand on Earth, to determine settings under which the sand was generated, by constraining the timing of sand introduction into the interior of southern Africa. Our findings reveal that major events of sand formation and accumulation in the Kalahari Basin occurred between ~2.2 and 1 Myr ago. The establishment of the Kalahari sand field corresponds to regional, continental, and global scale morphotectonic and climatic changes that contributed to the mass production and widespread dispersion of sand. These changes substantially altered existing habitats, thus constituting a crucial milestone for flora, fauna, and hominins in southern Africa during the Pleistocene.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 5714 |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This paper is dedicated to the memory of Didier Bourlès who accompanied the early stages of the development of Cosmolian model and the writing of this paper. We thank Mr. and Mrs. Lammer from the Galipoli (Aranos) Farm in Namibia who generously provided us with rare, buried Kalahari sediments. We thank Michael Chazan, Yehouda Enzel, Yigal Erel, Alan Hidy, and Tamir Grodek for their company, assistance, and advice during our travels to the Kalahari. Financial support was provided by SNF grant no. 200021_172944 to E.P.V and the Chateaubriand Fellowship of the French Institute in Israel to S.V.
Funding Information:
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Didier Bourlès who accompanied the early stages of the development of Cosmolian model and the writing of this paper. We thank Mr. and Mrs. Lammer from the Galipoli (Aranos) Farm in Namibia who generously provided us with rare, buried Kalahari sediments. We thank Michael Chazan, Yehouda Enzel, Yigal Erel, Alan Hidy, and Tamir Grodek for their company, assistance, and advice during our travels to the Kalahari. Financial support was provided by SNF grant no. 200021_172944 to E.P.V and the Chateaubriand Fellowship of the French Institute in Israel to S.V.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).