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The pleistocene glaciation of Tibet and the onset of ice ages — An autocycle hypothesis

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Abstract

During seven expeditions new data were obtained on the maximum extent of glaciation in Tibet and the surrounding mountains. Evidence was found of moraines at altitudes as low as 980 m on the S flank of the Himalayas and 2300 m on the N slope of the Tibetan Plateau, in the Qilian Shan. On the N slopes of the Karakoram, Aghil and Kuen Lun moraines occur as far down as 1900 m. In S Tibet radiographic analyses of erratics document former ice thicknesses of at least 1200 m. Glacial polishing and knobs in the Himalayas, Karakoram etc. are proof of glaciers as thick as 1200–2000 m. On the basis of this evidence, a 1100–1600 m lower equilibrium line altitude (ELA) was reconstructed for the Ice Age, which would mean 2.4 million km2 of ice covering almost all of Tibet, since the ELA was far below the average altitude of Tibet. On Mt. Everest and K2 radiation was measured up to 6650 m, yielding values of 1200–1300 W/m2. Because of the subtropical latitude and the high altitude solar radiation in Tibet is 4 times greater than the energy intercepted between 60 and 70° N or S. With an area of 2.4 million km2 and an albedo of 90% the Tibetan ice sheet caused the same heat loss to the earth as a 9.6 million km2 sized ice sheet at 60–70° N. Because of its proximity to the present-day ELA, Tibet must have undergone large-scale glaciation earlier than other areas. Being subject to intensive radiation, the Tibetan ice must have performed an amplifying function during the onset of the Ice Age. At the maximum stage of the last ice age the cooling effect of the newly formed, about 26 million km2 sized ice sheets of the higher latitudes was about 3 times that of the Tibetan ice. Nevertheless, without the initial impulse of the Tibetan ice such an extensive glaciation would never have occurred. The end of the Ice Age was triggered by the return to preglacial radiation conditions of the Nordic lowland ice. Whilst the rise of the ELA by several hundred metres can only have reduced the steep marginal outlet glaciers, it diminished the area of the lowland ice considerably.

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  1. Institute of Geography, University of Goettingen, Goldschmidtstraße 5, D-3400, Goettingen, Germany

    Kuhle Matthias Prof. Dr.

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Kuhle, M. The pleistocene glaciation of Tibet and the onset of ice ages — An autocycle hypothesis. GeoJournal 17, 581–595 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00209444

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