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Surface exposure dating reveals MIS-3 glacial maximum in the Khangai Mountains of Mongolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Henrik Rother ,
Frank Lehmkuhl ,
David Fink  and
Veit Nottebaum
Henrik Rother*
Affiliation:
Institute for Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, F.-L-Jahnstr. 17a, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Frank Lehmkuhl
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Wüllnerstr. 5b, 52056 Aachen, Germany
David Fink
Affiliation:
Institute for Environmental Research, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), PMB1, Menai 2234, Australia
Veit Nottebaum
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University, Wüllnerstr. 5b, 52056 Aachen, Germany
*
*Corresponding author.E-mail address:henrik.rother@uni-greifswald.de (H. Rother).
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Abstract

This study presents results from geomorphological mapping and cosmogenic radionuclide dating (10Be) of moraine sequences at Otgon Tenger (3905 m), the highest peak in the Khangai Mountains (central Mongolia). Our findings indicate that glaciers reached their last maximum extent between 40 and 35 ka during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Large ice advances also occurred during MIS-2 (at ~ 23 and 17–16 ka), but these advances did not exceed the limits reached during MIS-3. The results indicate that climatic conditions during MIS-3, characterized by a cool-wet climate with a greater-than-today input from winter precipitation, generated the most favorable setting for glaciation in the study region. Yet, glacial accumulation also responded positively to the far colder and drier conditions of MIS-2, and again during the last glacial–interglacial transition when precipitation levels increased. Viewed in context of other Pleistocene glacial records from High Asia, the pattern of glaciation in central Mongolia shares some features with records from southern Central Asia and NE-Tibet (i.e. ice maxima during interstadial wet phases), while other features of the Mongolian record (i.e. major ice expansion during the MIS-2 insolation minimum) are more in tune with glacier responses known from Siberia and western Central Asia.

Keywords

Late Pleistocene glaciationsMongoliaKhangai Mountains10Be exposure datingGlacial chronology

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Quaternary Research , Volume 82 , Issue 2 , September 2014 , pp. 297 - 308
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University of Washington

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