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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2583</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Late Pleistocene temperature reconstruction of the interior Kalahari Plateau of Northwestern Botswana</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Musa</surname>
<given-names>Sameera</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9216-1041</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Upadhyay</surname>
<given-names>Deepshikha</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Arnold</surname>
<given-names>Alexandrea</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lucarelli</surname>
<given-names>Jamie</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Linol</surname>
<given-names>Bastien</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gebregiorgis</surname>
<given-names>Daniel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4065-1495</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Asrat</surname>
<given-names>Asfawossen</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Tripati</surname>
<given-names>Aradhna</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Geoscience, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, 6001, South Africa</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Center for Developing Leadership in Science, University of California, Los Angeles, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>AEON-ESSRI (Africa Earth Observatory Network-Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute), Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Botswana International University of Science and Technology</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>School of Earth Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>School of Earth Sciences, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>22</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>39</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Sameera Musa et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2583/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2583/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2583/egusphere-2026-2583.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2583/egusphere-2026-2583.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>&lt;p class=&quot;p1&quot;&gt;Late Quaternary climate reconstructions for southern Africa remain poorly constrained due to the scarcity of paleotemperature data, particularly across the interior, highly elevated Kalahari Plateau. This study addresses the gap by focusing on the Late Pleistocene period in Ngamiland of NW Botswana. We conducted an integrated and multi-proxy mineralogical and isotope geochemical study of marlstones, fossil gastropods, soil concretions, calcretes, and pan and lake sediments from short cores and outcrops of the Kalahari Group near the Tsodilo Hills. Our approach was applied to address the following objectives: (i) identify primary carbonates using petrographic screening, (ii) constrain the hydroclimate using &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;13&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;C and &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;18&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;O stable isotope signatures and processes, (iii) provide new age constraints of deposition using radiocarbon &lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;14&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;C dating, and (iv) interpret paleotemperatures by analysing clumped isotopes (∆&lt;sub&gt;&lt;span&gt;47&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;) and dual clumped isotopes (∆&lt;sub&gt;&lt;span&gt;47&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;-∆&lt;sub&gt;&lt;span&gt;48&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sub&gt;). This multi-proxy approach aimed at defining a robust proxy to reconstruct the Late Pleistocene climate in the interior Kalahari. Our studies revealed that the sediments were deposited between 49.05 &amp;plusmn; 1.98 and 24.89 &amp;plusmn; 0.13 ka BP ago based on &lt;span&gt;14&lt;/span&gt;C calibrated ages (SHCal20). The marlstones, calcretes and soil concretions are micritic and sparitic with evidence of bioturbation, whereas fossil gastropods are devoid of reworking and suited for paleoclimate studies. The &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;13&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;C and &amp;delta;&lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;18&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;O values range between 0.1 and 4.2 &amp;permil; VPDB and -0.3 and 9.4 &amp;permil; VPDB, respectively while measured ∆&lt;span&gt;47 &lt;/span&gt;temperatures range between -3.1 and 47.5 &lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;o&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;C. Stable isotope variations suggest a strong biological control in the soil concretions, whereas the groundwater signature is likely overprinted in the calcretes, and a combination of meteoric and groundwater has influenced the texture of marlstones. The extreme temperatures are attributed to organic contaminants in the sediments. It is interpreted that fossil gastropods retain the primary geochemical&amp;nbsp;signatures based on the stable and clumped isotope variations and therefore represent the most reliable material for climate reconstructions in the region. Our study has provided the first direct temperature estimates of the Late Pleistocene for the interior Kalahari region from these gastropods which appear to be cooler than the present at ~15 &lt;sup&gt;&lt;span&gt;o&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;C. This study therefore addresses a major data gap in southern African paleoclimate records, which has implication for global climate models.</p>
</abstract>
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