Luminescence-dated aeolian deposits of late Quaternary age in the southern Tibetan Plateau and their implications for landscape history

Aeolian deposits are widely distributed in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau. and their chronology is poorly known. It is not yet clear whether they accumulated only after the last deglaciation, or over a longer time We applied quartz OR dating to aeolian samples from the Lhasa area with OSI, ages ranging from 2 9 0 2 to at least 118 +/- 11 ka. The probability density frequency (PDF) distribution of 24 ages reveals age clusters at about 3, 8, 16-21, 33. and 79-83 ka. indicating enhanced sediment accumulation then. The results show that aeolian deposition Occurred throughout most of the last 100 ka This implies that 1) an ice sheet covering the whole Tibetan Plateau during the last glacial maximum (LGM) could not have existed: and 2) erosion during the last deglaciation was not as strong as previously proposed. Such that not all pre-Holocene loess was removed The age distribution shown in the PDF indicates that aeolian accumulation is episodic Sand-formation events revealed by age clusters at 3, 8, and 16-21 ka imply roughly synchronous environmental responses to corresponding global-scale and events. (C) 2009 University of Washington Published by Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.