We examined 14 subaerially deposited speleothems retrieved from submerged caves in the northeastern Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico). These speleothems grew during the Middle to Late Quaternary and were dated by 230Th‐U techniques to provide upper depth limits for past sea levels. We report the first relative sea‐level limits for Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 11 and 6, and present new evidence for sea‐level oscillations during MIS 5 and early MIS 1. For the latter periods, the origin of growth interruptions is evaluated by combining petrographic methods with trace element analyses. The MIS 5c sea‐level highstand probably occurred between 103.94 ± 0.58 ka and 96.82 ± 0.42 ka and must have exceeded ‐10.8 m (relative to present‐day local sea level). The minimum average rate of sea‐level fall over a 9.4 ka‐long period during the MIS 5e/5d transition is calculated from stalagmite and published coral data at 1.74 ± 0.37 m/ka. For the early Holocene, previous discrepancies with respect to a potential multimetre oscillation of local sea level were found to be challenging to reconcile with the existing speleothem data from the area.
A speleothem record from the north-eastern Yucatán peninsula (Mexico) provides new insights into the tropical hydro-climate of the Americas between 11,040 and 9520 a BP on up to sub-decadal scale. Despite the complex atmospheric reorganization during the end of the last deglaciation, the dominant internal leading modes of precipitation variability during the late Holocene were also active during the time of record. While multi-decadal variations were not persistent, Mesoamerican precipitation was dominated by changes on the decadal- and centennial scale, which may be attributed to ENSO activity driven by solar forcing. Freshwater fluxes from the remnant Laurentide ice sheet into the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic have additionally modulated the regional evaporation/precipitation balance. In particular, this study underlines the importance of solar activity on tropical and subtropical climate variability through forcing of the tropical Pacific, providing a plausible scenario for observed recurrent droughts on the decadal scale throughout the Holocene.
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