The timing and style of Late Quaternary glaciation throughout the high mountains of Central Asia defined by geomorphic, sedimentological, geochronologic and ice core studies

HR: 16:30h
AN: C44A-03 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: The timing and style of Late Quaternary glaciation throughout the high mountains of Central Asia defined by geomorphic, sedimentological, geochronologic and ice core studies
AU: * Owen, L A
EM: Lewis.Owen@uc.edu
AF: University of Cincinnati, Department of Geology, Cincinnati, OH 45221 United States
AB: Tibet and the bordering mountains are the most extensively glaciated tract outside the polar regions, exerting an important influence on regional and global environmental change. The glacial system provides water for many hundreds of millions of people in central Asia, and variations in the glacial and associated hydrological systems have profound socio-economic and political consequences. Yet despite the regional and global importance of glaciation in High Asia, the dynamics, extent and timing of Quaternary glaciation in this region are poorly understood and defined. This is partially because of the inaccessibility and vastness of the region, and hence lack of field studies. During recent years, however, numerous ice core and glacial geologic studies have begun to examine some of the more accessible mountain ranges in High Asia to help quantify the nature of Late Quaternary paleoclimatic change in the region. While the new ice core records provide high resolution data defining the magnitude and frequency of climatic oscillations, mainly for the Late Pleistocene and Holocene, the glacial geologic data is enabling reconstructions of the extents of former glaciers to be determined for the last several glacial cycles. Taken together, these data suggest that regional patterns and timing of glaciation throughout the region reflect temporal and spatial variability in the south Asian monsoon and, in particular, regional precipitation gradients, as well as cooling cycles that are broadly associated with Heinrich event. Understanding these patterns of glaciation and the forcing factors are essential for helping to develop and test climatic models that are critical for predicting the likely consequences of global warming on the glaciological and hydrological systems of Central Asia.
DE: 9320 Asia
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 1625 Geomorphology and weathering (1824, 1886)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting