Indian monsoon dynamics during the 8.2 ka event

The 8.2 ka event refers to a prominent climate anomaly characterized by a sudden and significant global cooling. This event is believed to have been triggered by the release of large amounts of freshwater into the North Atlantic Ocean, disrupting the ocean thermohaline circulation and causing a temporary cooling episode, likely transmitted globally via atmospheric teleconnections. The global impact of this event is highly debated, mainly because of its short-lived nature. The signatures of this event are hard to find in usually centennially resolved marine records. We report a strong influence of 8.2 ka event on the monsoon in the Indian subcontinent, based on a decadal resolution marine sedimentary record recovered from the south-west Bay of Bengal. The abrupt decrease in coarse fraction (>63 µm), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), organic carbon (Corg), and Nitrogen (N) at 8.5 ka, points towards a collapse in productivity. The decrease in the Corg/N ratio at 8.5 ka, also suggests an abrupt weakening of the monsoon that continued till 8.0 ka. We report that this event affected the climate for 500 years in the Indian subcontinent and nearby oceans. Studying the impact of the 8.2 ka event in the Bay of Bengal provides valuable insights into the complex interactions between climate, oceanic systems, and local environments, highlighting the global and regional teleconnections.   Keywords: 8.2 ka event, Monsoon, Productivity, Circulation, Bay of Bengal.