Timing and duration of the Last Interglacial inferred from high resolution U-series chronology of stalagmite growth in Southern Hemisphere

High-precision 230Th–238U ages for a stalagmite from Newdegate Cave in southern Tasmania, Australia define a rare record of precipitation between 100 and 155 ka before the present. The fastest stalagmite growth occurred between 129.2±1.6 and 122.1±2.0 ka (∼61.5 mm/ka), coinciding with a time of prolific coral growth from Western Australia (128–122 ka). This is the first high-resolution continental record in the Southern Hemisphere that can be compared and correlated with the marine record. Such correlation shows that in southern Australia the onset of full interglacial sea level and the initiation of highest precipitation on land were synchronous. The stalagmite growth rate between 129.2 and 142.2 ka (∼5.9 mm/ka) was lower than that between 142.2 and 154.5 ka (∼18.7 mm/ka), implying drier conditions during the Penultimate Deglaciation, despite rising temperature and sea level. This asymmetrical precipitation pattern is caused by latitudinal movement of subtropical highs and an associated Westerly circulation, in response to a changing Equator-to-Pole temperature gradient. Both marine and continental records in Australia strongly suggest that the insolation maximum between 126 and 128 ka at 65°N was directly responsible for the maintenance of full Last Interglacial conditions, although the triggers that initiated Penultimate Deglaciation (at ∼142 ka) remain unsolved.