{
  "abstract": "The Chad Basin in north Central Africa is one of the largest source of mineral aerosols on Earth. During the African Humid Period, much of this area was covered by a giant freshwater body – Lake Mega-Chad, which played an important role in controlling regional climate and Saharan dust emission. Geomorphic evidence and dating of ancient shoreline deposits indicate that Lake Mega-Chad overflowed into the Niger River catchment during the early to mid-Holocene, ultimately draining into the Atlantic Ocean. To date, however, the detailed hydrological evolution of the Chad Basin during the Holocene and the magnitude of inferred Lake Mega-Chad overflow events remain poorly constrained. In this study, we present a 30,000-year high-resolution record of sediment provenance, fluvial discharge and marine productivity from the Niger deep-sea fan. Using radiogenic neodymium isotopes and lipid biomarkers, we show that massive freshwater release from Lake Mega-Chad occurred between 11,000 and 4,500 years ago, episodically accounting for ~80% of the total detrital sediment deposited at the Niger deep-sea fan at that time. Additionally, our results indicate that the African Humid Period was punctuated with abrupt short-lived arid intervals linked to lake-level drops in the Chad Basin, and associated with enhanced dust-driven marine productivity. Finally, we argue that the extension of freshwater plumes in the Gulf of Guinea following Lake Mega-Chad overflow may have amplified regional ocean-atmosphere feedbacks.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Germain Bayon"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jung-Hyun Kim"
    },
    {
      "name": "Charlotte Skonieczny"
    },
    {
      "name": "Guillaume Soulet"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sujin Kang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mathilde Levacher"
    },
    {
      "name": "Barnabé Djatibeye"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jean-François Ghienne"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bernard Dennielou"
    },
    {
      "name": "Eduardo Garzanti"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dz7we11995vz1.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.epsl.2026.120120",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "dz7we11995vz1",
  "issns": [
    "0012-821X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05828922v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "hal",
      "0.sdu"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1902|Geology and Paleoclimatology Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7162121215",
  "pdf_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05828922/document",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-05-22",
  "publisher": "Elsevier",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dz7we11995vz1.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:00Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05828922",
      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://hal.science/hal-05828922v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:1902|Geology and Paleoclimatology Research",
      "subfield": "atmospheric"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Geochemical constraints on Lake Mega-Chad discharge to the Atlantic Ocean during the Holocene",
  "title_text": "Geochemical constraints on Lake Mega-Chad discharge to the Atlantic Ocean during the Holocene",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:00Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/dz7we11995vz1",
  "venue": "Earth and Planetary Science Letters",
  "versions": []
}