Linkage of paraglacial processes from last glacial to recent inferred from Spituk sequence, Leh valley, Ladakh Himalaya

Abstract

The paraglacial sequence in the Leh valley, Ladakh Himalaya preserves imprints of various processes active during deglaciation in the late phase of Last Glacial. In present work, a high resolution sedimentological record generated for Spituk is presented identifying aeolian episodes, mudflow events from Ladakh Range and debris flows extending from Zanskar Range across present Indus River. Two temporal phases of water ponding within Spituk Sequence are also identified. The seismites recorded at various stratigraphic depths and their association with the sediment facies signifies gravity induced process besides possible seismic activity as an added phenomena. Linkage between paraglacial processes since Last Glacial to Recent is tracked and evaluated.

Early-Holocene to present palaeoenvironmental shifts and short climate events from the tropical wetland and lake sediments, Kukkal Lake, Southern India: Geochemistry and palynology

“…In particular, in the Indian subcontinent, many types of natural archives such as lake and marine sediment cores, palynology, tree rings and corals (Mayewski et al, 2004) have been used to restructure late Quaternary-Holocene palaeoclimatic changes. Such records include fluvial archives of the Gujarat region (Chamyal et al, 2002), deep marine sediment cores studied from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal (Achyuthan et al, 2014;Chauhan et al, 2010;Gupta et al, 2003Gupta et al, , 2005Nagasundaram, 2014;Nagasundaram et al, 2014), lacustral and aeolian sediments from the Thar desert (Achyuthan et al, 2007a(Achyuthan et al, , 2007bEnzel et al, 1999), lacustrine sediments from Kerala (Farooqui et al, 2010;Farooqui and Sekhar, 2011;Kumaran et al, 2008;Veena et al, 2014), peat deposits from the foreland basin of the Himalayas (Rawat et al, 2015;Sharma et al, 2006), glacial moraines and proglacial deposits of the Ladakh region (Sant et al, 2011), speleothems (Yadava and Ramesh, 2005), stalagmites (Sinha et al, 2007) and tree rings (Esper et al, 2002a(Esper et al, , 2002b(Esper et al, , 2003Shah and Bhattacharya, 2009;Yadav and Singh, 2002).…”

The role of climate and tectonics in aggradation and incision of the Indus River in the Ladakh Himalaya during the late Quaternary

“…Studies in the upper reaches of the Indus River system have so far dealt with the following: (1) chronology of past glaciations (Derbyshire and Owen, 1997; Owen and Benn, 2005; Owen et al, 2006a; Dortch et al, 2013; Sharma et al, 2016b; Orr et al, 2017); (2) catchment-scale erosion rates (Dortch et al, 2011b; Clift and Giosan, 2014; Munack et al, 2014); (3) neotectonic deformation (Sinclair et al, 2017); (4) phases of aggradation and incision along segments of the river and their relationship to climate (Dortch et al, 2011a; Sant et al, 2011a, 2011b; Blöthe et al, 2014); (5) paleolake records (Phartiyal and Sharma, 2009; Sangode et al, 2011, 2013; Sant et al, 2011b); and (6) paraglaciation (Owen et al, 1997, 2001; Pant et al, 2005; Saha et al, 2016; Sharma et al, 2016b). These studies, however, do not provide a synoptic view of the evolution of the upper Indus River and its relation to climate and tectonics.…”

Sedimentary characteristics of palaeolake deposits along the Indus River valley, Ladakh, Trans‐Himalaya: Implications for the depositional environment

“…Lakes in the Ladakh region are of two types; closed basins and open basins. Most of the palaeo‐lakes reported so far from the vicinity of the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) and Karakorum Fault (KF; Phartiyal et al ., , , ; Sangode et al ., ; Sant et al ., ; Nag & Phartiyal, ) are valley lakes, formed by the blockage of the river drainage due to tectonic or climatic effects or a combination of both. Several lakes of the region are well‐studied: Lamayuru lake (Fort et al ., ; Sangode & Bagati, ; Bagati et al ., ; Kotlia et al ., ,b, ; Shukla et al ., ) and Tsokar lake for lake morphology, sedimentation and palaeoclimate (Demske et al ., ; Wünnemann et al ., ); Tso Morairi for endogenic carbonates as a climate‐proxy (Mishra et al ., ); and Pangong Tso for fluctuating lake levels and climate (Fontes et al ., ; Gasse et al ., ; Hui et al ., ; Phartiyal et al ., ).…”