To delineate the transition in pattern and timing of glaciation between two contrasting regions, Lahul to the south and Ladakh to the north, moraines in the Puga and Karzok valleys of Zanskar in the Transhimalaya of northern India were mapped and dated using cosmogenic 10 Be. In Lahul, Late Quaternary glaciation was extensive glaciers advanced > 100 km from the modern ice margin, whereas glaciation in Ladakh has been comparatively restricted, glaciers advanced only ~30 km from the contemporary glaciers during the last 200 ka. In the Puga valley, glaciers advanced > 10 km at ~115 ka and < 10km at ~40 ka, ~3.3 ka, and ~0.5 ka. In the Karzok valley glaciers advanced < 2 km at ~3.6 ka. Boulder exposure ages from a large moraine complex in Karzok indicate a glacial advance at ~80 ka of < 5 km. The oldest moraine in Karzok is ~310 ka, indicating that glaciers advanced > 10 km during MIS-9 or older. The glacial chronology of the two valleys shows a lack of early Holocene glaciation and generally asynchronous glaciation between them. Moraines in the Puga and Karzok valleys broadly correlate with previous studies in the Zanskar Range but the paucity of data for many of the glacial stages across the Zanskar region makes the correlations tentative. The lack of early Holocene glaciation in the Puga and Karzok valleys is in stark contrast to many regions of the Himalaya, including Lahul, and the restricted glacial extent in Zanskar is more similar to the style of glaciation in Ladakh. The similarity between the glacial records in the Puga and Karzok study areas suggests that the transition to Lahul style glaciation is to the south of the Karzok valley; this geographical transition is abrupt.iv v
AcknowledgmentsThe author would like to thank her committee members Lewis A. Owen, Craig Dietsch, and Marc W. Caffee for their interest, support, and invaluable feedback and contributions towards this project. Additionally, she would like to thank Discover Ladakh Adventure for
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