Figure 5: Persistent drying phases over Mesoamerica and volcanic forcing.

(a) Volcanic radiative forcing from 1700–2000 C. E. after ref. 28. Dark vertical shaded areas indicate volcanic eruption clusters noted in the text. (b–d) Different estimates of cumulative top-of-atmosphere radiative flux anomalies from different climate simulations: Bergen Climate Model (Fig. 5b, yellow), CCSM4 (Fig. 5c, white) and ECHAM5/MPIOM (Fig. 5d, brown). (e) Interpolated annual time series of speleothem GU-Xi-1 δ¹⁸O (grey line) with corresponding 11-year moving average values (thick black line).