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Luminescence-dated aeolian deposits of late Quaternary age in the southern Tibetan Plateau and their implications for landscape history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

ZhongPing Lai ,
Knut Kaiser  and
Helmut Brückner
ZhongPing Lai*
Affiliation:
Luminescence Dating Group, Key Laboratory of Salt Lake Resources and Chemistry, Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining 810008, China Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
Knut Kaiser
Affiliation:
German Academy of Science and Engineering, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
Helmut Brückner
Affiliation:
Faculty of Geography, University of Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail addresses:zplai@isl.ac.cn (Z. Lai), knut.kaiser@gmx.net (K. Kaiser), h.brueckner@staff.uni-marburg.de (H. Brückner).
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Abstract

Aeolian deposits are widely distributed in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau, and their chronology is poorly known. It is not yet clear whether they accumulated only after the last deglaciation, or over a longer time. We applied quartz OSL dating to aeolian samples from the Lhasa area with OSL ages ranging from 2.9 ± 0.2 to at least 118 ± 11 ka. The probability density frequency (PDF) distribution of 24 ages reveals age clusters at about 3, 8, 16–21, 33, and 79–83 ka, indicating enhanced sediment accumulation then. The results show that aeolian deposition occurred throughout most of the last 100 ka. This implies that: 1) an ice sheet covering the whole Tibetan Plateau during the last glacial maximum (LGM) could not have existed; and 2) erosion during the last deglaciation was not as strong as previously proposed, such that not all pre-Holocene loess was removed. The age distribution shown in the PDF indicates that aeolian accumulation is episodic. Sand-formation events revealed by age clusters at 3, 8, and 16–21 ka imply roughly synchronous environmental responses to corresponding global-scale arid events.

Keywords

Aeolian depositsQuartz luminescence datingPalaeoenvironmental changeTibetan Plateau
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , November 2009 , pp. 421 - 430
Copyright
University of Washington

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