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Evidence for a widespread late Pleistocene humid period in the Kalahari

Abstract

THE nature and extent of late Quaternary environmental changes in the interior of southern Africa are obscure, in part because of a lack of absolutely dated sediments, and landforms of clear palaeoenvironmental significance. Here I present evidence to show that, during the period 17,000–15,000 BP, the Kalahari, now a semi-arid area with little or no surface drainage, was a region of widely distributed small lakes, as a result of a substantial increase in rainfall.

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LANCASTER, I. Evidence for a widespread late Pleistocene humid period in the Kalahari. Nature 279, 145–146 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/279145a0

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