Loess in Kunlun Mountains and its implications on desert development and Tibetan Plateau uplift in west China  

作　　者：方小敏 吕连清 杨胜利 李吉均 安芷生 蒋平安 陈秀玲 

机构地区：National Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems of Ministry of Education of China and Department of Geography, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chi[1] National Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems of Ministry of Education of China and Department of Geography, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China[2] State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710054, China[3]

出　　处：《Science China Earth Sciences》2002年第4期289-299,共11页中国科学（地球科学英文版）

基　　金：This work was supported jointly by the NSFC 'Excellent Researchers' Fund' (grant No. 49928101);the National Tibetan Project (Grant No. 1998040802) ; Hundred Talents Project' ofCAS(Renjiaozi[2000]005). We thank Wu Fuli, Nie Junsheng, Wu Hongqi, Xi Xi

摘　　要：Loess on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountains is the synchronous deposition of the Taklimakan Desert. The paleomagnetism and climatic records of an over 80 m loess-paleosol sequence on the highest river terrace at the foot of Kunlun Mountains show that the loess formed at ~ 880 ka B.P., suggesting a roughly synchronous occurrence of the present-like air circulation and extremely dry climate and the initial desert. The uplift of the Tibetan-Pamir Plateau and Tian-shan Mountains may initiate these events. The rise of the plateau and adjacent mountains caused the drying and desertification of China inland and Tarim Basin, which was dramatically enhanced at ~ 500 ka B.P., leading the desert to expand to its present scale. Global change just overprints this drying trend. Local climate response to global change both in long-term evolution and glacial-interglacial cycles manifests that the stronger the westerlies, the more the precipitation. But the heat-moisture pattern seems still similar to that in the Asian monsoon region.Loess on the northern slope of Kunlun Mountains is the synchronous deposition of the Taklimakan Desert. The paleomagnetism and climatic records of an over 80 m loess-paleosol sequence on the highest river terrace at the foot of Kunlun Mountains show that the loess formed at ≈ 880 ka B.P., suggesting a roughly synchronous occurrence of the present-like air circulation and extremely dry climate and the initial desert. The uplift of the Tibetan-Pamir Plateau and Tian-shan Mountains may initiate these events. The rise of the plateau and adjacent mountains caused the drying and desertification of China inland and Tarim Basin, which was dramatically enhanced at ≈ 500 ka B.P., leading the desert to expand to its present scale. Global change just overprints this drying trend. Local climate response to global change both in long-term evolution and glacial-interglacial cycles manifests that the stronger the westerlies, the more the precipitation. But the heat-moisture pattern seems still similar to that in the Asian monsoon region.

关 键 词：Taklimakan Desert  loess-paleosol  westerly  TARIM Basin  Tibetan Plateau. 

分 类 号：X144[环境科学与工程—环境科学]