Late Quaternary valley infill and dissection in the Indus River, western Tibetan Plateau margin

Blöthe, Jan Henrik; Munack, Henry; Korup, Oliver; Fülling, Alexander; Garzanti, Eduardo; Resentini, Alberto; Kubik, Peter W.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.04.011

Cited by 63 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…The poorly sorted, moderately imbricated, sub‐angular to sub‐rounded, clast‐supported gravel was deposited by high‐energy flows that are akin to catastrophic flood outbursts from glacial lakes. Regional evidence of warm climate conditions during MIS‐3 are reported from the Indus River (Blöthe et al ., ), central Ganga Plain (Srivastava et al ., ) and the southern Thar Desert margin (Juyal et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors responsible for driving the glaciation in the Sarchu Plain, eastern Zanskar Himalaya, during the late Quaternary

Sharma

Chand

Bisht

et al. 2016

J Quaternary Science

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Detailed geomorphological investigation supported by field stratigraphy and optical dating enabled us to identify three major events of glaciation in the eastern Zanskar Himalaya (Sarchu Plain). The oldest and most extensive glaciation is the Sarchu Glaciation Stage‐1 (SGS‐1) that pre‐dates the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and is assigned to the cold and wet Marine Isotope Stage‐4 (MIS‐4). The second glacial advance (SGS‐2) is optically dated to ∼20 ka and the youngest SGS‐3 is assigned to the 8.2 ka cooling event. Evidence of deglaciation is preserved as outwash terrace gravels and is assigned to the pluvial MIS‐3 and the early Holocene (∼9 ka). Increased strength of westerlies (winter precipitation) and associated temperature decline were responsible for driving the glaciation in the study area, a conclusion that accords well with modern meteorological data showing a reasonable correlation between the modern equilibrium line altitude, enhanced mid‐latitude westerlies (winter precipitation) and winter temperatures. The phases of deglaciation occurred during periods of warmer climatic excursions. Overall a broad correspondence between the Sarchu Plain glaciation phases and northern latitude ice sheet dynamics is suggested, implying that the glaciers in the trajectory of the mid‐latitude westerlies are likely to respond in phase with northern latitude glaciation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors responsible for driving the glaciation in the Sarchu Plain, eastern Zanskar Himalaya, during the late Quaternary

Sharma

Chand

Bisht

et al. 2016

J Quaternary Science

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“…Massive staircases of river-derived fill terraces (Fort et al, 1989;Clift and Giosan, 2014) located up to 400 m above present river levels, together with stacks of lake sediments and local landslide and fan deposits (Hewitt, 2002;Phartiyal et al, 2005; 2013), testify to major alternating cut-and-fill cycles in the upper Indus catchment (Blöthe et al, 2014). Some of these prominent sediment bodies are between 100 and 530 ka old Blöthe et al, 2014;Scherler et al, 2014), and demonstrate the longevity of valley fills in the rain shadow of the Higher Himalayas. How these large valley fills affect sediment flux and drainage patterns along the western Tibetan Plateau margin (Blöthe and Korup, 2013;Clift and Giosan, 2014) remains to be resolved in more detail, though.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 96%

Recycling of Pleistocene valley fills dominates 135 ka of sediment flux, upper Indus River

Munack

Blöthe

Fülöp

et al. 2016

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Rivers draining the semiarid Transhimalayan Ranges at the western Tibetan Plateau margin underwent alternating phases of massive valley infill and incision in Pleistocene times. The effects of these cut-and-fill cycles on millennial sediment fluxes have remained largely elusive. We investigate the timing and geomorphic consequences of headward incision of the Zanskar River, a tributary to the Indus, which taps the >250-m thick More Plains valley fill that currently plugs the endorheic high-altitude basins of Tso Kar and Tso Moriri. In situ 10Be exposure dating and topographic analyses show that a phase of valley infill gave way to net dissection and the NW Himalaya's first directly dated stream capture in late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6, ∼135 ka ago. Headwaters of the Indus are currently capturing headwaters of the Sutlej, and rivers have eroded >14.7 km3 of sediment from the Zanskar headwaters since, mobilising an equivalent of ∼8% of the Indus' contemporary sediment storage volume from only 0.3% of its catchment area. The resulting specific sediment yields are among the rarely available rates averaged over the 105-yr timescale, and surpass 10Be-derived denudation rates from neighbouring catchments three-to tenfold. We conclude that recycling of Pleistocene valley fills has fed Transhimalayan headwaters with more sediment than liberated by catchment denudation, at least since the last glacial cycle began. This protracted release of sediment from thick Pleistocene valley fills might bias estimates of current sediment loads and long-term catchment denudation. Disciplines Medicine and Health Sciences | Social and Behavioral Sciences

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“…There are multiple opportunities for sediment buffering in the Indus basin, especially because the flood plains are long (>1,000 km; Figures 1 and 2). Sediment storage in mountain terraces is also well documented (Blöthe et al, 2014;Jonell, Owen, Carter, Schwenniger, & Clift, 2017;Munack et al, 2016), and a high fraction of the Holocene sediment supply appears to be derived by reworking from these terraces , as well as large-scale incision of the flood plains . Furthermore, the Indus River recycles sediment from the neighbouring Thar Desert (Figure 2), which itself is supplied by aeolian sediment transport from the delta, especially during interglacial times when the summer monsoon winds are powerful (East, Clift, Carter, Alizai, & VanLaningham, 2015).…”

Section: Buffering and Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Millennial and centennial variations in zircon U‐Pb ages in the quaternary indus submarine canyon

Clift

O’Sullivan³

2018

Basin Research

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Use of deep‐water sediments in submarine fans to reconstruct changing erosion onshore is based on the premise of relatively simple transport between source and sink. However, debate continues regarding the degree of sediment buffering and recycling in the sediment transport process. In this study, we investigate the origin of sediment in the Indus Submarine Canyon since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ~20 ka) using zircon U‐Pb dates. Zircon grains in the submarine canyon are resolvably different from those at the river mouth, at least before 6.6 ka, implying a disconnection between the river mouth and the canyon up to that time. Sand may be stored near the river mouth as sea level rose, while finer‐grained sediment was directly transferred into deeper water. Since 1 ka the upper canyon has shown big and rapid provenance changes, most notably a sharp increase in erosion from Nanga Parbat, whose influence is minor in the modern river. Such rapid changes imply a lack of buffering in the recent past. The modern river contrasts with sediments in the canyon in terms of its zircon U‐Pb age populations and may be influenced by significant anthropogenic impact on the terrestrial drainage basin, especially damming.

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Late Quaternary valley infill and dissection in the Indus River, western Tibetan Plateau margin

Cited by 63 publications

References 83 publications

Factors responsible for driving the glaciation in the Sarchu Plain, eastern Zanskar Himalaya, during the late Quaternary

Factors responsible for driving the glaciation in the Sarchu Plain, eastern Zanskar Himalaya, during the late Quaternary

Recycling of Pleistocene valley fills dominates 135 ka of sediment flux, upper Indus River

Millennial and centennial variations in zircon U‐Pb ages in the quaternary indus submarine canyon

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