Editing Little Ice Age (section)

===Pacific islands===
Sea-level data for the [[Pacific islands]] suggest that sea level in the region fell, possibly in two stages, between 1270 and 1475. That was associated with a 1.5&nbsp;°C fall in temperature, as determined from oxygen-isotope analysis, and an observed increase in the frequency of [[El Niño]].<ref name="Nunn2000">{{cite journal |last1=Nunn |first1=Patrick D. |year=2000 |title=Environmental catastrophe in the Pacific Islands around A.D. 1300 |journal=Geoarchaeology |volume=15 |issue=7 |pages=715–740 |doi=10.1002/1520-6548(200010)15:7<715::AID-GEA4>3.0.CO;2-L|bibcode=2000Gearc..15..715N }}</ref> Tropical Pacific [[coral]] records indicate the most frequent and intense [[El Niño–Southern Oscillation]] activity was in the mid-17th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pac.ne.jp/IUGG2003/EN/program.asp?session_id=MC12&program_id=022025-1 |title=The Medieval Cool Period and the Little Warm Age in the Central Tropical Pacific? Fossil Coral Climate Records of the Last Millennium |first1=Kim M. |last1=Cobb |first2=Chris |last2=Charles |first3=Hai |last3=Cheng |first4=R. Lawrence |last4=Edwards |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031120203254/http://www.pac.ne.jp/IUGG2003/EN/program.asp?session_id=MC12&program_id=022025-1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 November 2003}}</ref> [[Foraminifera|Foraminiferal]] 18 O records indicate that the [[Indo-Pacific Warm Pool]] was warm and saline between 1000 and 1400, with temperatures approximating current conditions, but that it cooled from 1400 onwards and reached its lowest temperatures in 1700. That is consistent with the transition from the mid-[[Holocene]] warming to the Little Ice Age.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Field |first1=Julie S. |last2=Lape |first2=Peter V. |date=March 2010 |title=Paleoclimates and the emergence of fortifications in the tropical Pacific islands |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |publisher=Elsevier Incorporated |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=113–124 |doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2009.11.001 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref> The nearby southwestern Pacific, however, experienced warmer-than-average conditions over the course of the Little Ice Age, which is thought to be from the increased trade winds, which increased the evaporation and the salinity in the region. The dramatic temperature differences between the higher latitudes and the equator are thought to have resulted in drier conditions in the subtropics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hendy |first=E. J. |date=22 February 2002 |title=Abrupt Decrease in Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Salinity at End of Little Ice Age |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1067693 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=295 |issue=5559 |pages=1511–1514 |bibcode=2002Sci...295.1511H |doi=10.1126/science.1067693 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=11859191 |s2cid=25698190}}</ref> Independent multiproxy analyses of Raraku Lake (sedimentology, mineralology, organic and inorganic geochemistry, etc.) indicate that [[Easter Island]] was subject to two phases of arid climate that led to drought. The first occurred between 500 and 1200, and the second occurring during the Little Ice Age from 1570 to 1720.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rull |first=Valenti |date=5 January 2020 |title=Drought, freshwater availability and cultural resilience on Easter Island (SE Pacific) during the Little Ice Age |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0959683619895587 |journal=[[The Holocene]] |publisher=Sage Publications |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=774–780 |bibcode=2020Holoc..30..774R |doi=10.1177/0959683619895587 |s2cid=214564573 |via=GeoRef In Process |hdl-access=free |hdl=10261/198861}}</ref> In between both arid phases, the island enjoyed a humid period from 1200 to 1570. That coincided with the peak of the [[Rapa Nui people|Rapa Nui civilization]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Steven Roger |title=Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Island |publisher=Reaktion Books |year=2005 |isbn=1-86189-282-9 |location=London, England |language=en-uk}}</ref>