A 13,000-year climate record from western Tibet

Gasse, Françoise; Arnold, Maurice; Fontes, Jean-Charles; Fort, Monique; Gibert, E.; Huc, Alain‐Yves; Li, Bingyan; Li, Yuanfang; Liu, Qing; Melieres, F.; Campo, Elise Van; Wang, Fubao; Zhang, Qingsong

doi:10.1038/353742a0

Cited by 542 publications

(297 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Despite an accepted offset determination, if their assumed postglacial age were incorrect, then a significant cornerstone of the extrusion hypothesis would be untenable. The assumed moraine age of 10 AE 2 ka by Liu (1993) was supported by lacustrine sedimentary records from western Tibet (Gasse et al 1991, central and eastern Tibet (Lister et al 1991) and northern Xinjiang (Rhodes et al 1996). Significantly, none of the sedimentary cores provided a climatic record that extended beyond c. 20 ka.…”

Section: Quaternary and Holocene Offsetsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Crustal–lithospheric structure and continental extrusion of Tibet

Searle

Elliott

Phillips

et al. 2011

JGS

237

154

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Crustal shortening and thickening to c. 70-85 km in the Tibetan Plateau occurred both before and mainly after the c. 50 Ma India-Asia collision. Potassic-ultrapotassic shoshonitic and adakitic lavas erupted across the Qiangtang (c. 50-29 Ma) and Lhasa blocks (c. 30-10 Ma) indicate a hot mantle, thick crust and eclogitic root during that period. The progressive northward underthrusting of cold, Indian mantle lithosphere since collision shut off the source in the Lhasa block at c. 10 Ma. Late Miocene-Pleistocene shoshonitic volcanic rocks in northern Tibet require hot mantle. We review the major tectonic processes proposed for Tibet including 'rigid-block', continuum and crustal flow as well as the geological history of the major strikeslip faults. We examine controversies concerning the cumulative geological offsets and the discrepancies between geological, Quaternary and geodetic slip rates. Low present-day slip rates measured from global positioning system and InSAR along the Karakoram and Altyn Tagh Faults in addition to slow long-term geological rates can only account for limited eastward extrusion of Tibet since Mid-Miocene time. We conclude that despite being prominent geomorphological features sometimes with wide mylonite zones, the faults cut earlier formed metamorphic and igneous rocks and show limited offsets. Concentrated strain at the surface is dissipated deeper into wide ductile shear zones.

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Section: Quaternary and Holocene Offsetsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Crustal–lithospheric structure and continental extrusion of Tibet

Searle

Elliott

Phillips

et al. 2011

JGS

237

154

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“…This period was subsequently followed by a climate reversal (11.5-10 ka BP) coinciding with the Younger Dryas (YD) event, as evidenced by the lowered water stands for many lakes on the Tibetan Plateau such as Lake Seling [14] and Songxico [15][16][17].…”

Section: Alpine Lakes In the Frigid Tibetan Plateaumentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal variations of Chinese lakes and their driving mechanisms since the Last Glacial Maximum: A review and synthesis of lacustrine sediment archives

Shen

2012

Chin. Sci. Bull.

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In this article, the author provides the first synthesis and classification of available environment-indicating proxies for lacustrine sediment. A review of spatio-temporal variations in lakes from the Tibetan Plateau, the dry areas of Northwestern China, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the plains of Eastern China since the LGM is then provided. The driving mechanism for variations in lake processes and characteristics is also discussed based on various temporal scales. The author then proposes that future investigations be conducted to: (1) strengthen the study of theoretics and interpretation of environment-indicating proxies, (2) enhance the study of high-resolution time series and spatial variability of lake environment evolution, (3) provide more attention on the influence of human activities on lake environments, and (4) boost construction of the Quaternary lake database of China. Lakes are normally formed under various geological and geographical backgrounds. As a component of the terrestrial hydrosphere, lakes have close relationships with the atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere, and serve as the connection between these systems. Once a lake is formed, it is influenced by a series of tectonic, climatic and anthropogenic factors. As a result, lacustrine evolutional processes usually involve geological, physical, chemical and biological processes and the interactions between them, and these processes are all documented by lacustrine sediment archives. Because lakes are widely distributed worldwide and normally undergo a long history of evolution, lacustrine sediment generally possesses a continuous record with highresolutions that provides abundant information regarding regional environmental and climatic variations that can be used in global change studies. Lacustrine sediment also contains information pertaining to human activities, since people tend to settle around lakes owing to the resources they provide. Synthesis and classification of proxies in lacustrine sediment describing environmental conditionsLakes generally have an independent watershed that serves as a source of water, sediment, biomass and chemicals, while the lake serves as a sink for all of these materials. Accordingly, lacustrine sediment can record all information regarding the source-sink interactions and mass balances including water balances (watershed rainfall and lake level stands), sediment balances (watershed erosion intensity and lake sedimentation rate), biological balances (watershed vegetation and lake biomass) and chemical balances (watershed soluble materials and lake water ion concentrations) [1].

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“…Lacustrine pollen is an important proxy for reconstructing paleovegetation and paleoclimate, because pollen grains are usually well preserved in lake sediments (Sun and Wu, 1987;Gasse et al, 1991;Chen et al, 2006). Interpretation of the pollen signal and reconstruction of palaeovegetation is underpinned by assumptions about the spatial area reflected by the pollen signal and the taphonomy of different pollen types.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen source areas of lakes with inflowing rivers: modern pollen influx data from Lake Baiyangdian, China

Tian

Bunting

et al. 2012

Quaternary Science Reviews

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a b s t r a c tComparing pollen influx recorded in traps above the surface and below the surface of Lake Baiyangdian in northern China shows that the average pollen influx in the traps above the surface is much lower, at 1210 grains cm À2 a À1 (varying from 550 to 2770 grains cm À2 a À1 ), than in the traps below the surface which average 8990 grains cm À2 a À1 (ranging from 430 to 22310 grains cm À2 a À1 ). This suggests that about 12% of the total pollen influx is transported by air, and 88% via inflowing water. If hydrophyte pollen types are not included, the mean pollen influx in the traps above the surface decreases to 470 grains cm À2 a À1 (varying from 170 to 910 grains cm À2 a À1 ) and to 5470 grains cm À2 a À1 in the traps below the surface (ranging from 270 to 12820 grains cm À2 a À1 ), suggesting that the contribution of waterborne pollen to the non-hydrophyte pollen assemblages in Lake Baiyangdian is about 92%. When trap assemblages are compared with sedimentewater interface samples from the same location, the differences between pollen assemblages collected using different methods are more significant than differences between assemblages collected at different sample sites in the lake using the same trapping methods. We compare the ratios of terrestrial pollen and aquicolous pollen types (T/A) between traps in the water and aerial traps, and examine pollen assemblages to determine whether proportions of long-distance taxa (i.e. those known to only grow beyond the estimated aerial source radius); these data suggest that the pollen source area of this lake is composed of three parts, an aerial component mainly carried by wind, a fluvial catchment component transported by rivers and another waterborne component transported by surface wash. Where the overall vegetation composition within the 'aerial catchment' is different from that of the hydrological catchment, the ratio between aerial and waterborne pollen influx offers a method for estimating the relative importance of these two sources, and therefore a starting point for defining a pollen source area for a lake with inflowing rivers.

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A 13,000-year climate record from western Tibet

Cited by 542 publications

References 18 publications

Crustal–lithospheric structure and continental extrusion of Tibet

Crustal–lithospheric structure and continental extrusion of Tibet

Spatiotemporal variations of Chinese lakes and their driving mechanisms since the Last Glacial Maximum: A review and synthesis of lacustrine sediment archives

Pollen source areas of lakes with inflowing rivers: modern pollen influx data from Lake Baiyangdian, China

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