Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
1284017 
Journal Article 
A note on the extent of glaciation throughout the Himalaya during the global last glacial maximum 
Owen, LA; Finkel, RC; Caffee, MW 
2002 
Quaternary Science Reviews
ISSN: 0277-3791 
Pergamon 
United Kingdom (GBR) 
21 
1-3 (January 2002) 
147-157 
Quantitative chronologies for the impressive glacial successions that occur throughout the Himalaya have, until recently, been almost totally lacking. Within the last decade two new techniques have promised to remedy this situation. These techniques, optically stimulated luminescence and cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating, enable the age of many glacial features to be determined and have allowed us to study the extent and timing of Himalayan glaciation in the late Quaternary. New data show that the local Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) occurred during the early part of the last glacial cycle, in most areas during marine isotope stage 3 (MIS-3). MIS-3 was a time of increased insolation, when the South Asian summer monsoon strengthened and penetrated further north into the Himalaya. The concomitant increased precipitation, occurring as snow at high altitudes, produced positive glacier mass balances, thereby allowing glaciers to advance. On the other hand, during the global LGM, approximately 18-24 ka, Himalayan glaciation was very restricted in extent, generally extending 
Pakistan; moraines; India; metals; paleoclimatology; glaciation; Cenozoic; cosmogenic elements; alpine environment; Pleistocene; Nepal; glacial extent; Asia; glaciers; beryllium; Indian Peninsula; monsoons; dates; exposure age; fluorimetry; spatial distribution; absolute age; alkaline earth metals; isotopes; Be-10; Al-26; aluminum; Himalayas; terrestrial environment; Quaternary; radioactive isotopes; last glacial maximum