Warmings in the far northwestern Pacific promoted pre-Clovis immigration to America during Heinrich Event 1

Well-dated multidecadal- to centennial-scale sediment records from the subarctic northwest Pacific show that the early deglacial 18.5-15.0 ka was marked by 3 pronounced short-term warmings of approximately 5 degrees C. They lasted 500-1500 yr each and were coeval with early to late stages of cold Heinrich event 1 in the North Atlantic. These regional climate windows may have promoted a pre-Clovis emigration of people from the cold-arid monsoon climate in East Asia to the climatically more favorable, then-emerged Beringian and Aleutian shelf regions and the Americas, as suggested by archeological findings.