National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

An U (super K') (sub 37) sea-surface temperature (SST) record of the last 28 kyr has been obtained for ODP Site 1202B (24 degrees 48.24'N, 122 degrees 30'E; water depth 1274 m), drilled offshore of NE Taiwan in the southern part of the Okinawa Trough. This millennial-scale record reveals a glacial-interglacial SST difference of 5 degrees C, larger than SST changes at similar latitude of the open Pacific Ocean, but is similar in amplitude with SST changes of the western Pacific's marginal seas, such as the northern South China Sea (SCS). Comparison with a planktonic oxygen isotope record from the same site reveals that the last deglaciation warming was synchronous with ice volume changes, but lagged the warming in Greenland's ice core record and in the monsoon record from the Hulu Cave of Eastern China. The enhanced glacial cooling for this site was likely caused by several factors, including the variability of the Kuroshio, sea level variations, and coastline shift.