Timing of Late Quaternary glaciation along the southwestern slopes of the Qilian Shan, Tibet

Owen, Lewis A.; Spencer, Joel Q.G.; Ma, Hao; Barnard, Patrick L.; Derbyshire, Edward; Finkel, Robert C.; Caffee, Marc W.; NIAN, ZENG YONG

doi:10.1080/03009480310001632

Cited by 68 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…There is increasing evidence for limited glacier advances during MIS-2 (LGM) throughout the semiarid and monsoon-influenced regions of Tibet (Schäfer et al 2002;Owen et al 2003aOwen et al , b, c, 2005. Schäfer et al (2002), for example, produced cosmogenic surface exposure ages on erratics from the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (close to the city of Litang, 99 33 0 E, 30 15 0 E) indicating that valley glaciation was only 10 km away from the present glacier snout.…”

Section: Tibetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are only a few published studies on the Lateglacial and Holocene fluctuations of mountain glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and the surrounding areas (Pu 1991;Lehmkuhl 1997;Owen et al 2003aOwen et al , b, c, 2005. Glacier advances have been dated to about 15 ka in West Kunlun, in the Tian Shan and in the mountain areas surrounding the Qaidam Basin (Kang 1992;Shi 1992;Guo et al 1995;Owen et al 2003a).…”

Section: Tibetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Glacier advances have been dated to about 15 ka in West Kunlun, in the Tian Shan and in the mountain areas surrounding the Qaidam Basin (Kang 1992;Shi 1992;Guo et al 1995;Owen et al 2003a). Several Chinese authors (e.g.…”

Section: Tibetmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Quaternary glaciation of Tibet and the bordering mountains: a review

Lehmkuhl

Owen

2008

Boreas

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2005 (May): Late Quaternary glaciation of Tibet and the bordering mountains: a review. Boreas, Vol. 34, pp. 87-100. Oslo. ISSN 0300-9483.Abundant glacial geologic evidence present throughout Tibet and the bordering mountains shows that glaciers have oscillated many times throughout the late Quaternary. Yet the timing and extent of glacial advances is still highly debated. Recent studies, however, suggest that glaciation was most extensive prior to the last glacial cycle. Furthermore, these studies show that in many regions of Tibet and the Himalaya glaciation was generally more extensive during the earlier part of the last glacial cycle and was limited in extent during the global Last Glacial Maximum (marine oxygen isotope stage 2). Holocene glacial advances were also limited in extent, with glaciers advancing just a few kilometers from their present ice margins. In the monsoon-influenced regions, glaciation appears to be strongly controlled by changes in insolation that govern the geographical extent of the monsoon and consequently precipitation distribution. Monsoonal precipitation distribution strongly influences glacier mass balances, allowing glaciers in high altitude regions to advance during times of increased precipitation, which are associated with insolation maxima during glacial times. Furthermore, there are strong topographic controls on glaciation, particular in regions where there are rainshadow effects. It is likely that glaciers, influenced by the different climatic systems, behaved differently at different times. However, more detailed geomorphic and geochronological studies are needed to fully explore regional variations. Changes in glacial ice volume in Tibet and the bordering mountains were relatively small after the global LGM as compared to the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. It is therefore unlikely that meltwater draining from Tibet and the bordering mountains during the Lateglacial and early Holocene would have been sufficient to affect oceanic circulation. However, changes in surface albedo may have influenced the dynamics of monsoonal systems and this may have important implications for global climate change. Drainage development, including lake level changes on the Tibetan plateau and adjacent regions has been strongly controlled by climatic oscillations on centennial, decadal and especially millennial timescales. Since the Little Ice Age, and particularly during this century, glaciers have been progressively retreating. This pattern is likely to continue throughout the 21st century, exacerbated by human-induced global warming.

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Section: Tibetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tibetmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Quaternary glaciation of Tibet and the bordering mountains: a review

Lehmkuhl

Owen

2008

Boreas

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“…Since the mountain glaciers that produced these landforms respond sensitively to fl uctuations in local and regional climate, dating these landforms allows a reconstruction of Late Quaternary climate and provides a tool for investigating the relationship between local and global climate change. This approach has recently been used in numerous studies throughout eastern, northern, and southern Tibet and the Himalaya and the Transhimalaya, which together comprise the monsoon-infl uenced regions of Tibet and the Himalaya (Porter, 1970;Shroder et al, 1993;Sharma and Owen, 1996;Richards et al, 2000aRichards et al, , 2000bPhillips et al, 2000;Owen et al, 2001Owen et al, , 2002aOwen et al, , 2002bOwen et al, , 2002cOwen et al, , 2003aOwen et al, , 2003bTsukamoto et al, 2002;Finkel et al, 2003). However, little research has been undertaken on the glacial geology of the high mountain deserts at the western end of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen, which lies at the extreme edge of monsoon infl uence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Quaternary glaciation of Muztag Ata and Kongur Shan: Evidence for glacier response to rapid climate changes throughout the Late Glacial and Holocene in westernmost Tibet

Seong

Owen

et al. 2009

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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164

112

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The glacial geology of two massifs, Muztag Ata and Kongur Shan, in western Tibet was examined to help defi ne the timing and style of glaciation in the semiarid regions of western Tibet. Remote sensing, geomorphic mapping, and 10 Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) surface-exposure dating of boulders on the moraines and sediment in depth profi les show that glaciers advanced at least 12 times during at least the last two glacial cycles. Over this time, the style of glaciation changed progressively from one that produced ice caps to one that produced less extensive and more deeply entrenched valley glaciers. The timing of the two earliest glaciations is poorly defi ned, but they likely occurred prior to the penultimate glacial cycle (the Karasu glacial stage) and the early part of the last glacial cycle or during the penultimate glacial cycle (the Subaxh glacial stage). In contrast, the timing of later glacial advances (the Olimde glacial stage) is relatively well defi ned showing quasiperiodical oscillations on millennial time scales (17.1 ± 0.3 ka, 13.7 ± 0.5 ka, 11.2 ± 0.1 ka, 10.2 ± 0.3 ka, 8.4 ± 0.4 ka, 6.7 ± 0.2 ka, 4.2 ± 0.3 ka, 3.3 ± 0.6 ka, 1.4 ± 0.1 ka, and a few hundred years before the present). These data suggest that since the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the glaciers in western Tibet likely responded to Northern Hemisphere climate oscillations (rapid climate changes), with minor infl uences from the south Asian monsoon. This study provides the fi rst well-defi ned glacial geologic evidence to suggest that glaciers in western Tibet respond to rapid climate changes on millennial time scales throughout the Late Glacial and Holocene.

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“…These exposure ages are in agreement with the relative height of the surfaces, their degree of weathering, and the height of the fault scarp uplifting them. Sample ages on the terraces tend to group into well-defined clusters whereas the moraine shows more scattered ages, as observed in other fluvioglacial settings [e.g., Owen et al, 2003;Mériaux et al, 2004]. To reduce age scattering, we defined outliers having a potential complex exposure history.…”

Section: Ages Of Surfaces Cut By the Aksu Thrust Faultmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irregular earthquake cycle along the southern Tianshan front, Aksu area, China

et al. 2005

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[1] A long deformation record ($16.5 ka) showing nonsteady earthquake recurrence is established for the Aksu thrust (Tianshan, China) on the basis of cosmogenic 10 Be dating of faulted surfaces. Topographic leveling across the Aksu fault scarp indicates up to $10 m uplift across a moraine abandoned $16.5 ka and similar uplift of $6 m across two inset surfaces yielding ages of $12.5 and $5 ka. Successively smaller uplifts of terraces younger than 5 ka indicate that three or more major earthquakes occurred during this period. These data show that the Aksu thrust fault was quiet for at least 7500 years and active in the last $5000 years and probably in the interval 16.5-12.5 ka. The seismic cycle along the Aksu thrust fault over the last $16,500 years was thus strongly irregular showing long quiescence and clustering, which is a challenge for paleoseismology and hazard assessment. This irregularity also makes it more difficult to estimate long-term shortening rates. Nevertheless, we are able to constrain a minimum total shortening rate (>7 mm/yr) across the southern Tianshan front for the last 12,500 years that is about a third of the total geodetic rate for the western Tianshan ($20 mm/yr).

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Timing of Late Quaternary glaciation along the southwestern slopes of the Qilian Shan, Tibet

Cited by 68 publications

References 34 publications

Late Quaternary glaciation of Tibet and the bordering mountains: a review

Late Quaternary glaciation of Tibet and the bordering mountains: a review

Quaternary glaciation of Muztag Ata and Kongur Shan: Evidence for glacier response to rapid climate changes throughout the Late Glacial and Holocene in westernmost Tibet

Irregular earthquake cycle along the southern Tianshan front, Aksu area, China

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