When glaciers become rain gauges: reconstructing major hydrological changes in the Andes during the last deglaciation

An international team(1) has reconstructed a paleoprecipitation map which occurred in the tropical Andes 15 500 years ago, allowing to understand atmospheric processes which produced abrupt changes in the water cycle in tropical South America. In the Southern part of the tropical Andes, today's climate is extremely dry in the largest salted desert of the world: the Salar Uyuni. However, 15 500 years ago, this region was covered by the huge Tauca lake, with a size comparable to the Michigan la..