Eolian biogenic detritus in deep sea sediments: a possible index of equatorial ice age aridity

Opal phytoliths and freshwater diatoms, transported mainly in dust to the equatorial Atlantic, are common in sediments deposited when ocean waters were cool, and sparse in those deposited when waters were warm, during the last 1.8 million years. Climate in source areas of the southern Sahara apparently was more arid during glacials and more humid during interglacials.