Hornsey, J., Rowan, A.V., Kirkbride, M.P. et al. (6 more authors) (2022) Be‐10 Dating of Ice‐Marginal Moraines in the Khumbu Valley, Nepal, Central Himalaya, Reveals the Response of Monsoon‐Influenced Glaciers to Holocene Climate Change. Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface, 127 (8). e2022JF006645. ISSN 2169-9003
Abstract
The dynamic response of large mountain glaciers to climatic forcing operates over timescales of several centuries and therefore understanding how these glaciers change requires observations of their behavior through the Holocene. We used Be-10 exposure-age dating and geomorphological mapping to constrain the evolution of glaciers in the Khumbu Valley in the Everest region of Nepal. Khumbu and Lobuche Glaciers are surrounded by high-relief lateral and terminal moraines from which seven glacial stages were identified and dated to 7.4 ± 0.2, 5.0 ± 0.3, 3.9 ± 0.1, 2.8 ± 0.2, 1.3 ± 0.1, 0.9 ± 0.02, and 0.6 ± 0.16 ka. These stages correlate to each of the seven latest Holocene regional glacial stages identified across the monsoon-influenced Himalaya, demonstrating that a coherent record of high elevation terrestrial palaeoclimate change can be extracted from dynamic mountain landscapes. The time-constrained moraine complex represents a catchment-wide denudation rate of 0.8–1.4 mm a⁻¹ over the last 8 kyr. The geometry of the ablation area of Khumbu Glacier changed around 4 ka from a broad, shallow ice tongue to become narrower and thicker as restricted by the topographic barrier of the terminal moraine complex.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Himalaya; glacier change; Be-10; moraines; Holocene; palaeoclimate |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > River Basin Processes & Management (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 15 Jul 2024 14:07 |
Last Modified: | 15 Jul 2024 14:07 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2022jf006645 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:214731 |