Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Seong, Y. B. Articles by Finkel, R. C. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

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

Yeong Bae Seong^1,, Lewis A. Owen¹, Chaolu Yi² and Robert C. Finkel³

¹ Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, USA
² Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China
³ Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA

Correspondence: Corresponding author: ybseong{at}hotmail.com

The glacial geology of two massifs, Muztag Ata and Kongur Shan, in western Tibet was examined to help define the timing and style of glaciation in the semiarid regions of western Tibet. Remote sensing, geomorphic mapping, and ¹⁰Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) surface-exposure dating of boulders on the moraines and sediment in depth profiles 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 defined, 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 defined 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 influences from the south Asian monsoon. This study provides the first well-defined 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.

Key Words: glacial geology • Tibet • Muztag Ata • Kongur Shan • geochronology • terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide surface-exposure dating • midlatitude westerlies • Late Glacial • Holocene • rapid climate changes