Lake-expanding events in the Tibetan Plateau since 40 kaBP

Since 40 kaBP, the current endorheism on the Tibetan Plateau had experienced at least four lake-expanding events, at 40-28 kaBP, 19-15 kaBP, 13-11 kaBP, 9.0-5.0 kaBP, respectively. The 40-28 kaBP and 9.0-5.0 kaBP lake-expanding events, corresponding to the global warming periods, were mainly determined by the abundant summer monsoon rainfall brought by strong Indian monsoon, aroused by enhanced solar radiation at earth orbital precessional cycle. The 40-28 kaBP lake-expanding event, also called the great lake period or the pan-lake period, for several great lake groups had come into being by the interconnection of the presently isolated and closed lake catchments. The total lake area over the Tibetan Plateau was estimated at least up to 150000 km(2), 3.8 times of the present, and the lake supply coefficients were about 3-10. The 9.0-5.0 kaBP lake-expanding, with a total lake area of 68000 km(2), less than the above mentioned reflected the Indian monsoon rainfall less than that of 40-28 kaBP. The expanded lakes at 19-15 kaBP and 13-11 kaBP, distributed in these basins with more or less existing glacial, indicated plenty of glacial meltwater discharged to balance evaporation on expansive lake surface. At the same time, the enhanced precipitation by the westerlies at 19-15 kaBP and by Indian monsoon at 13-11 kaBP plays an important role in maintaining the high lake level. Heinrich events greatly affected the evolution of climate system over the Tibetan Plateau, and thus gave a clear boundary of the high lake level change in the late Quaternary.