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Introduction The Mid-Pleistocene Transition and the East Asian MonsoonThe Quaternary period is characterized by glacial-interglacial variability that has been linked to Earth's orbital cyclicity (e.g., Hays et al., 1976;Ruddiman, 2001). During the early part of the Quaternary, glacial-interglacial cycles varied at a frequency of 41,000 years (41 ka), but approximately half-way through the Quaternary, during the mid-Pleistocene, the glacial-interglacial cyclicity shifted to quasi 100,000 years (100 ka) cycles (e.g., Lisiecki & Raymo, 2005;Zachos et al., 2001). The transition period between 41 ka and 100 ka is centred at ∼1200 to 600 ka and often referred to as the mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT). After the MPT, glacials became more intense, producing larger ice-sheets that decayed more rapidly at glacial terminations (e.g.

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