Global Last Glacial Maximum climate inferred from reconstructing the Eryehai Valley, Mount Taibai, Qinling Mountains, eastern China

Abstract

Although numerous global Last Glacial Maximum (gLGM) dating-based paleoclimatic and paleoglacial reconstructions exist for the Tibetan Plateau, no such study is available for the mountains to the Tibetan Plateaus east. Mount Taibai lies east of the Tibetan Plateau, and is known to have experienced glaciation during the Quaternary. In this study, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was employed to determine the ages of two lateral moraines in the Eryehai Valley on Mount Taibai. The ages obtained were 22.1 ± 1.7–18.7 ± 1.1 ka and 25.8 ± 1.8–24.3 ± 1.5 ka, constrain the timing of the gLGM glaciation in the study area. Using GlaRe and equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) calculations, these two toolboxes, based on a Geographic Information System (GIS), were used to reconstructed the extent of the study areas paleoglacial surface and the ∆ELA. The glacial coverage and ELA for the gLGM in the Eryehai Valley on Mount Taibai were 0.17 km3 and 3351.5 ± 5 m above sea level (asl), respectively. This gLGM ELA is lower than the modern theoretical ELA (4816.5 m asl) by 1465 ± 5 m. From the sporopollen records of the Zoigê Basin in the northwestern Mount Taibai, the precipitation during the gLGM period was equivalent to 60–80% of the present, combined with this record, ∆ELA-based models of the precipitation–temperature relationship (P-T) and the temperature lapse rate (LR) model at the ELA indicate that this area was 7.0 –9.4 °C colder during the gLGM. Combined with other paleoclimatic proxies, a decrease in temperature emerges as the primary driver of glaciation during the gLGM on Mount Taibai. Paleoclimatic reconstructions of paleoglaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and its adjacent mountains also indicate that a drop in temperatures was the principal driver of glacial advances in these regions during the gLGM. Regions affected by the East Asian Monsoon, the Indian Monsoon and the Westerlies would have experienced a greater cooling during the gLGM, while regions blocked by high mountains, and therefore less affected by monsoons and westerly winds, would have seen less cooling.