Late Quaternary glaciation in the Tianshan and implications for palaeoclimatic change: a review

Abstract

The Tianshan mountain range has been extensively and repeatedly glaciated during the late Quaternary. Multiple moraines in this region record the extent and timing of late Quaternary glacier fluctuations. The moraines and their ages are described in three sub-regions: eastern, central and western Tianshan. Notable glacial advances occurred during marine oxygen isotope stages (MIS) 6, 4, 3, 2, the Neoglacial and the Little Ice Age (LIA) in these subregions. Glaciers in western Tianshan advanced significantly also during MIS 5, but not in eastern and central Tianshan. The local last glacial maximum (llgm) of the three sub-regions pre-dated the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and occurred during MIS 4 in eastern and central Tianshan, but during MIS 3 in western Tianshan. The spatial and temporal distribution of the glaciers suggests that precipitation (as snow at high altitude) is the main factor controlling glacial advance in the Tianshan. The late Quaternary climate in the Tianshan has been generally cold-dry during glacial times and warm-humid during interglacial times. Between neighbouring glacial times, the climate has had a more arid tendency in eastern and central Tianshan. These palaeoclimatic conditions inferred from glacial landforms indicate important relationships between the mid-latitude westerly, the Siberian High and the Asian monsoon.

Glacial geomorphology of the Tian Shan

“…Landforms typically associated with ice sheet style glaciation, such as ribbed moraine, eskers, and drumlin swarms, were not found in the mapped area which indicates that only mountain glaciation has occurred in the Tian Shan range. Available radiometric dates seem to indicate that restricted glaciation occurred during the last glacial cycle (Koppes et al, 2008;Kong et al, 2009;Xu et al, 2010, and references therein).…”

“…Marginal moraines indicate the presence of glacial advances of varying size and age (cf. Koppes et al, 2008;Xu et al, 2010). Glacial landforms occur mostly in the various massifs of the Tian Shan or in close proximity to them.…”

“…In contrast, Kong et al (2009) in China that are consistent with a maximum ice extent during the LGM. Xu et al (2010) summarized these and other evidence for glaciations in the western and eastern Tian Shan during the Late Quaternary. Although such investigations across the Tian Shan have yielded local chronologies, a comprehensive picture of former glaciation across this important central Asian mountain range is lacking.…”

Climate Evolution in Central Asia during the Past Few Million Years: A Case Study from Issyk Kul

“…As noted earlier, alpine glaciers and continental ice sheets seem to respond differently to orbital scale forcing (Abramowski et al, 2006;Gillespie and Molnar, 1995;Owen et al, 2005), including the Tien Shan (Koppes et al, 2008;Xu et al, 2010), but such evidence, both global and specific to the Tien Shan, spans only the last glacial period, since ~100 kyr BP. In particular, due to the present-day aridity of the Issyk Kul region, glacial mass balance is most sensitive to amount of precipitation.…”

Glacial geomorphology of the Parlung Zangbo Valley, southeastern Tibetan Plateau

“…Glacial geomorphological reconstructions have been conducted mainly in individual mountain areas (Lehmkuhl & Liu, 1994;Li et al, 1986;Liu, Zhang, Cui, Wu, & Ju, 2006;Shi, Cui, & Su, 2006a;Zheng & Rutter, 1998;Zhou, Li, Zhang, Zhao, & Cui, 2004), for example, the eastern Tibet (Lehmkuhl & Liu, 1994), the southern and eastern Tibet (Klinge & Lehmkuhl, 2004), Tian Shan (Shan = Mountain) (Chen et al, 2015;Li et al, 2011Li et al, , 2014Xu et al, 2010;Zhao et al, 2010;Zhao et al, 2015), Kunlun Pass (Liu et al, 2006), and the eastern Pamir (Wang, Zhou, Zhao, Zheng, & Guo, 2011). With the effort of many scientists, Li, Li, and Cui (1991) summarized and published an overall map of Quaternary glaciations on the Tibetan Plateau.…”