RESEARCH BRIEFINGS

21 October 2026

A 450,000-year stalagmite record of rainfall in the Amazon Basin , combined with existing Asian records, shows that the global monsoon system has oscillated regularly, strengthening in one hemisphere while weakening in the other. However, during intervals of warmth and warming climate, monsoons in both hemispheres failed for millennia.

This is a summary of: Olson, E. J. et al . Interhemispheric monsoon dynamics over the past 450,000 years. Nature 658 , 943–950 (2026) .

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-03285-8

‘Expert opinion’ is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence.

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