The 3.6-Ma aridity and westerlies history over midlatitude Asia linked with global climatic cooling

Significance We recovered the world’s thickest continuous loess record from the southern margin of the Taklimakan desert, a global-scale dust source area. The continuous high-resolution grain size and flux records of dust emission, reflecting histories of aridity and westerlies climate, indicate an extant dry climate, desert area, and stable land surface supporting continuous loess deposition at least since ∼3.6 Ma, and that global cooling, rather than Tibet uplift, modulated the histories of aridity and westerlies climate changes in inland Asia since ∼3.6 Ma. Moreover, our study may suggest potential positive linkages and feedback among dust emission, marine biogeochemical activity, atmospheric CO2, and global cooling, which might provide insights into dynamics of Earth’s climate system and improve predictions for the future. Midlatitude Asia (MLA), strongly influenced by westerlies-controlled climate, is a key source of global atmospheric dust, and plays a significant role in Earth’s climate system . However, it remains unclear how the westerlies, MLA aridity, and dust flux from this region evolved over time. Here, we report a unique high-resolution eolian dust record covering the past 3.6 Ma, retrieved from the thickest loess borehole sequence (671 m) recovered to date, at the southern margin of the Taklimakan desert in the MLA interior. The results show that eolian dust accumulation, which is closely related to aridity and the westerlies, indicates existence of a dry climate, desert area, and stable land surface, promoting continuous loess deposition since at least ∼3.6 Ma. This region experienced long-term stepwise drying at ∼2.7, 1.1, and 0.5 Ma, coeval with a dominant periodicity shift from 41-ka cyclicity to 100-ka cyclicity between 1.1 Ma and 0.5 Ma. These features match well with global ice volume variability both in the time and frequency domains (including the Mid-Pleistocene Transition), highlighting global cooling-forced aridity and westerlies climate changes on these timescales. Numerical modeling demonstrates that global cooling can dry MLA and intensify the westerlies, which facilitates dust emission and transport, providing an interpretive framework. Increased dust may have promoted positive feedbacks (e.g., decreasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and modulating radiation budgets), contributing to further cooling. Unraveling the long-term evolution of MLA aridity and westerlies climate is an indispensable component of the unfolding mystery of global climate change.