Geological Society of America

9 Glacial Landscapes as Recorders of Geomorphic Process and Climate Change (Posters)

Monday, 21 March 2016
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Convention Hall

10BE SURFACE-EXPOSURE CHRONOLOGY OF HOLOCENE GLACIER FLUCTUATIONS IN THE BHUTANESE HIMALAYA

Paper number: 9-10
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Authors

Aaron E. Putnam Presenting Author
Columbia University, Palisades, NY
Joerg M. Schaefer
Columbia University, Palisades, NY
Summer B. Rupper
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Edward R. Cook
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY
Paul Krusic
Stockholm University, Stockholm
David E. Putnam
University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle, ME
Nicolas Young
Columbia University, Palisades, NY

Abstract

Nearly one quarter of Earth’s population depends on water derived from melting snow and ice, as well as monsoonal rainfall, in the upper reaches of the greater Himalayan watershed. However, the degree to which Himalayan runoff will change with industrial atmospheric warming is unclear. Identifying links between past climate changes and mountain water reserves aids understanding of how water availability will change with increasing atmospheric temperatures. Mountain glaciers monitor the long-term health of the mountain snowpack and provide an important contribution to Himalayan runoff. Here we present a new cosmogenic ¹⁰Be surface-exposure chronology of moraine ridges deposited by mountain glaciers in the Rinchen Zoe La and Lunana regions of the eastern monsoonal Himalaya of Bhutan. Our chronologies document mountain glacier fluctuations at the core of the Indian Monsoon since the earliest Holocene. On the basis of our glacier reconstruction, we examine the relationships among glacier extent, monsoon variability, and global climate changes during the pre-industrial Holocene, as well as implications for the future of Himalayan mountain glaciers in a warming world.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 1

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016NE-272292

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