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Timing of glacier fluctuations and trigger mechanisms in eastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau during the late Quaternary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

XianJiao Ou ,
ZhongPing Lai ,
ShangZhe Zhou  and
LanHua Zeng
XianJiao Ou
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Tourism, Jiaying University, Meizhou 514015, China State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China School of Geographical Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
ZhongPing Lai*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China CAS Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China
ShangZhe Zhou
Affiliation:
School of Geographical Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
LanHua Zeng
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Tourism, Jiaying University, Meizhou 514015, China
*
*Corresponding author at: CAS Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China. E-mail address:zplai@isl.ac.cn (Z.P. Lai).
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Abstract

It is highly debated whether glacial advances on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) occurred as a response to temperature cooling, or whether they were forced by an increase in moisture brought by the intensive Indian summer monsoon. We here report a case study investigating this issue. Multiple moraine series in the Yingpu Valley, Queer Shan ranges of the Hengduan Mountains, and eastern QTP, provide an excellent archive for examining the timing and trigger mechanism of glacier fluctuations. Twenty-seven optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) samples of glacial sediments were collected from this valley. The quartz OSL ages show that the moraine series of Y-1, I, M and O were formed during the Late Holocene, Late Glacial, the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (likely mid-MIS-3). The youngest Y-2 moraines probably formed during the Little Ice Age (LIA). The oldest H moraines formed before MIS-3. We found that glacial advances during the late Quaternary at the Yingpu Valley responded to cold stages or cold events rather than episodes of enhanced summer monsoon and moisture. As a result, glaciers in the monsoonal Hengduan Mountains were mainly triggered by changes in temperature. Millennial time scale temperature oscillations might have caused the multiple glacial advances.

Keywords

OSL chronologyGlacier fluctuationsLate QuaternaryTrigger mechanismsEastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , May 2014 , pp. 464 - 475
Copyright
University of Washington

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