Understanding the impact of the superplume in Eastern Africa during the Miocene on regional climate in EC-Earth simulations.

Sammanfattning: This project attempts to gather more information to link the rise in the topography during the Miocene in Eastern Africa with climate changes that lead to the aridification of the area and ultimately to the split between chimpanzees and hominids. The candidate analysed a series of sensitivity experiments simulated with a climate model EC-Earth by changing the topography in Easter Africa and comparing with control run (pre-industrial-era) to assess the impact of the changes in the superplume in Africa and consequent topography on the climate and environment. The results show that the model data are in accordance with the changes proposed by the literature review which is largely based in paleoclimatological proxies. The evolution in the precipitation regimes in the sensitive experiments follow a parallel evolution with the changes in the topography in the area originated by the African superswell. It is possible to observe in the analysis how the climate has evolved from the Middle-Miocene period to a more arid one in the Pliocene(ultimately represented by the pre-industrial control simulation) and how the changes in the precipitation patterns are related to the main topographic features developed.