Timing of Late Quaternary glaciation along the southwestern slopes of the Qilian Shan, Tibet
Corresponding Author
LEWIS A. OWEN
Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorJOEL Q. SPENCER
Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMA HAIZHOU
Institute of Saline Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, Qinghai, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorPATRICK L. BARNARD
Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Search for more papers by this authorEDWARD DERBYSHIRE
Centre for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey YW20 0EX, UK
Search for more papers by this authorROBERT C. FINKEL
Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMARC W. CAFFEE
Department of Physics/PRIME Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Search for more papers by this authorZENG YONG NIAN
Institute of Saline Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, Qinghai, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
LEWIS A. OWEN
Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorJOEL Q. SPENCER
Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMA HAIZHOU
Institute of Saline Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, Qinghai, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorPATRICK L. BARNARD
Department of Earth Science, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
Search for more papers by this authorEDWARD DERBYSHIRE
Centre for Quaternary Research, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey YW20 0EX, UK
Search for more papers by this authorROBERT C. FINKEL
Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA
Search for more papers by this authorMARC W. CAFFEE
Department of Physics/PRIME Laboratory, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Search for more papers by this authorZENG YONG NIAN
Institute of Saline Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, Qinghai, P.R. China
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Moraines along the southwestern slopes of the Qilian Shan were dated using cosmogenic radionuclide (CRN) surface exposure techniques to help define the timing of glaciation in northernmost Tibet. The CRN data show glaciers extending 5–10 km beyond their present positions during the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and probably maintained at their maximum extent until the Lateglacial. These data help support the view that glaciers throughout Tibet and the Himalaya were maintained at or near their maximum LGM extent until the Lateglacial. An optically stimulated luminescence date of 11.8 ± 1.0 ka on silt that caps a latero-frontal moraine shows that glaciers had retreated significantly by the end of the Pleistocene and that loess was beginning to form in this region in response to the changing climate during and after the Younger Dryas Stade.
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