Climatic and glacial impact on erosion patterns and sediment provenance in the Himalayan rain shadow, Zanskar River, NW India

Jonell, Tara N.; Carter, Andrew; Böning, Philipp; Pahnke, Katharina; Clift, Peter D.

doi:10.1130/b31573.1

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 156 publications

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“…In the absence of absolute chronology, it is difficult to assign the glacial stages to individual outwash gravel terraces. However, given the fact that ISM fluctuated since MIS-2 (Thompson et al 1997;Schulz et al 1998, figure 11), the outwash gravel terraces would represent the phases of warm climatic intervals, which led to the mobilization of glacial and paraglacial sediment as also recently suggested by Jonell et al 2017) in the Doda river valley. The alluvial fans show cross-cutting relationship with older terraces, and suggest that these were activated at the end of deglaciation events.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Geomorphic investigation of the Late-Quaternary landforms in the southern Zanskar Valley, NW Himalaya

et al. 2018

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The Suru, Doda and Zanskar river valleys in the semi-arid region of Southern Zanskar Ranges (SZR) preserve a rich repository of the glacial and fluvial landforms, alluvial fans, and lacustrine deposits. Based on detailed field observations, geomorphic mapping and limited optical ages, we suggest four glaciations of decreasing magnitude in the SZR. The oldest Southern Zanskar Glaciation Stage (SZS-4) is inferred from glacially polished bedrock and tillite pinnacles. The SZS-4 is ascribed to the Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS)-4/3. The subsequent SZS-3 is represented by obliterated and dissected moraines, and is assigned to MIS-2/Last Glacial Maximum. The multiple recessional moraines of SZS-2 glaciation are assigned the early to mid Holocene age whereas, the youngest SZS-1 moraines were deposited during the Little Ice Age. We suggest that during the SZS-2 glaciation, the Drang-Drung glacier shifted its course from Suru Valley (west) to the Doda Valley (east). The study area has preserved three generations of outwash gravel terraces, which broadly correlate with the phases of deglaciation associated with SZS-3, 2, and 1. The alluvial fan aggradation, lacustrine sedimentation, and loess deposition occurred during the mid-to-late Holocene. We suggest that glaciation was driven by a combination of the mid-latitude westerlies and the Indian Summer Monsoon during periods of cooler temperature, while phases of deglaciation occurred during enhanced temperature.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Geomorphic investigation of the Late-Quaternary landforms in the southern Zanskar Valley, NW Himalaya

et al. 2018

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“…Here, the 63–250 µm size fraction is analyzed because this fraction yields all significant U-Pb age populations present in detrital sedimentary samples (Yang et al, 2012). The application of U-Pb zircon dating to Zanskar River terrace sediments is in part enabled from similar analysis of modern Zanskar sediments with this technique (Jonell et al, 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Volumetric estimates, combined with cosmogenic-nuclide derived evidence, suggest erosion of valley fills may easily dominate over contributions from fresh bedrock erosion since the Pleistocene (Blöthe and Korup, 2013; Munack et al, 2016). Provenance studies, though just focused on the latest part of these time scales, do not indicate substantial erosion from Pleistocene terraces into the modern river bedload (Blöthe et al, 2014; Jonell et al, 2017) but also do not preclude valley-fill erosion having played a stronger role in the past under different climatic conditions and episodes of river incision. Although initial attempts to quantify buffering indicate rain shadow valley fills are not a dominant source in the Indus basin, these prior budgets were based on a number of assumptions and extrapolations that require age constraints and further validation from the field to establish their significance over wider areas of the Himalaya and over 10 3 –10 4 yr time scales (Clift and Giosan, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying episodic erosion and transient storage on the western margin of the Tibetan Plateau, upper Indus River

et al. 2017

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Transient storage and erosion of valley fills, or sediment buffering, is a fundamental but poorly quantified process that may significantly bias fluvial sediment budgets and marine archives used for paleoclimatic and tectonic reconstructions. Prolific sediment buffering is now recognized to occur within the mountainous upper Indus River headwaters and is quantified here for the first time using optically stimulated luminescence dating, petrography, detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology, and morphometric analysis to define the timing, provenance, and volumes of prominent valley fills. This study finds that climatically modulated sediment buffering occurs over 103–104yr time scales and results in biases in sediment compositions and volumes. Increased sediment storage coincides with strong phases of summer monsoon and winter westerlies precipitation over the late Pleistocene (32–25 ka) and mid-Holocene (~8–6 ka), followed by incision and erosion with monsoon weakening. Glacial erosion and periglacial frost-cracking drive sediment production, and monsoonal precipitation mediates sediment evacuation, in contrast to the arid Transhimalaya and monsoonal frontal Himalaya. Plateau interior basins, although volumetrically large, lack transport capacity and are consequently isolated from the modern Indus River drainage. Marginal plateau catchments that both efficiently produce and evacuate sediment may regulate the overall compositions and volumes of exported sediment from the Himalayan rain shadow.

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“…It is fundamental to controlling environmental conditions in South Asia. Erosion patterns in the Himalaya and the Indus River flood plains are largely influenced by variations in monsoon strength (Bookhagen et al, 2005; Clift and Giosan, 2014; Giosan et al, 2012; Jonell et al, 2017a). Marine sediments supplied from rivers are often used to reconstruct continental erosion and the environmental evolution of the onshore drainage basins.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asian summer monsoon influence on chemical weathering and sediment provenance determined by clay mineral analysis from the Indus Submarine Canyon

Clift

Murray

et al. 2019

Quat. res.

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Clay minerals from the Indus Canyon and eastern clinoform since ~12 ka are uniformly rich in smectite and illite, similar to those from the Holocene Indus flood plains. A systematic enrichment of smectite in the proximal delta compared to the canyon and eastern clinoform argues for preferential capture of smectite close to the river mouth since ~12 ka. There is a rapid shift to a more smectite-rich assemblage in the canyon and eastern clinoform after ~5 ka. This change is probably caused by a change in sediment source, with less direct flux from the Himalaya and more erosion of older, weathered, smectite-rich sediment from the Indus River flood plains, driven by incision of the Indus and its tributaries into the floodplain as summer monsoon rains weakened. This influx of smectite is consistent with lower kaolinite/smectite values since ~5 ka. The onset of large-scale agricultural activities since ~5 ka, especially starting with the Harappan Civilization, may also have enhanced incision and erosion of floodplain sediments over the same time period. This study reports for the first time how monsoon strength variations since ~12 ka affected the clay mineral assemblages and sediment provenance in a major submarine canyon.

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Climatic and glacial impact on erosion patterns and sediment provenance in the Himalayan rain shadow, Zanskar River, NW India

Cited by 24 publications

References 156 publications

Geomorphic investigation of the Late-Quaternary landforms in the southern Zanskar Valley, NW Himalaya

Geomorphic investigation of the Late-Quaternary landforms in the southern Zanskar Valley, NW Himalaya

Quantifying episodic erosion and transient storage on the western margin of the Tibetan Plateau, upper Indus River

Asian summer monsoon influence on chemical weathering and sediment provenance determined by clay mineral analysis from the Indus Submarine Canyon

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