Dating of the late Quaternary high lake levels in the Jilantai area, northwestern China, using optical luminescence of quartz and K-feldspar

Abstract

High lake levels were developed in wide areas of western China during the late Quaternary as revealed by an increasing number of studies on dating shorelines; however, whether the high lake level of these lakes occurred simultaneously and what drove them are unresolved problems. In this study, in the Jilantai sub-depression within the Jilantai–Hetao Basin, dating results of the single-aliquot quartz and potassium-enriched feldspar (K-feldspar) single grains from the sediments at the western bank of the present Jilantai Salt Lake indicate that the ∼1070 m and 1060–1050 m shorelines formed after ∼136 ka and 49–22 ka, respectively, supporting the hypothesis that higher lake levels developed at intervals of marine isotope stage (MIS) 5e and MIS 3a–Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in the Jilantai sub-depression. Considering the previous assumption that the lake at an altitude of 1080–1050 m was fed mainly by water from the Yellow River, the changes in the lakeshore landform features are sensitive to climate change in the Jilantai area, among which the development of lakeshore during MIS 3a–LGM was likely a geomorphic response to the development of dry climatic conditions rather than a representative of the humid climate in arid regions.