4. Late Pleistocene and Holocene palaeoglaciations of the Nepal Himalaya:
4.3.2 Langtang Valley
The rockfall covering the moraine at the end of the Ghora Tabela (LT1) surface has a very young exposure age of 1.0 ± 0.5 ka and is therefore unsuitable for constraining the age of the glacial advance. However, our dates shows that such a short time is sufficient for the formation of a well developed cambic horizon in fine material covering the deposit under the climatic conditions in an altitude of ~3000 m, which is not the case on a neoglacial moraine of roughly the same age in about 3700 m near Kyangchen Gomba (Baeumler et al, 1996).
The high lateral moraine opposite Kyangchen Gomba, LT2, yielded older exposure ages than the other moraines studied in the Langtang Valley, as was already suggested by the soil parameters studied by Baeumler (2001a). With ages of 11.6-14.7 ka (Tab. 4.1, Fig.
4.5), it is clearly correlative with the Pheriche II stage in the Khumbu area (Finkel et al., 2003, KH 4 in Fig. 4.5).
The end moraine of the main valley glacier east of Kyangchen Gomba, LT3, dated by Baeumler (2001a) to be older than 6 ka is in fact 7.7-8.7 ka old (Tab. 4.1, Fig. 4.5). A single younger exposure age of ~4.8 ka can be explained by later exhumation of this
particular boulder. This deposit excellently correlates with the Chhukung stage in the Khumbu area (Finkel et al., 2003, KH5, CH5 in Fig. 4.5), which is also documented in the Kangchenjunga Himal by an OSL age of 9 ka (Asahi et al., 2000). This stage occurred during the Holocene maximum of monsoon strength (Leuschner & Sirocko, 2000) and is clearly indicative of monsoon influence on glaciation in the Himalaya. It has also been recognized in the Nanga Parbat massif at the present-day margin of the Indian monsoon (Phillips et al., 2000).
Finally, the moraine at Langtang village, LT6, has an exposure age of 3.3-3.5 ka (Tab.
4.1), again confirming earlier radiocarbon dating (Shiraiwa & Watanabe, 1991), and correlating with the Thukhla stage of the Khumbu area (Finkel et al., 2003, KH6 in Fig.
4.5) and a similar advance in the Macha Khola Valley (this work, MK4 in Fig. 4.5).
Barnard et al. (2003) in parallel, dating all sorts of landforms in the Langtang Valley, found 10Be surface exposure dates of Holocene moraines of 3.5 ka, and 8.5 ka, confirming our dating of moraines LT3 and LT6. They also found moraine ages of 19-23 ka, proving the existence of a glacier advance in the Langtang Valley correlated to the Pheriche I stage of the Khumbu area.
4.4 Conclusions
Late Pleistocene and Holocene glacier advances in the Macha Khola Valley have been dated at 70-100, 20-23, 11-12 and around 3 cal. ka B.P. In the Langtang Valley, lateglacial and Holocene glacier advances have been dated at 14-15, 8-9 and ~3.5 cal. ka B.P.
Except for the Younger Dryas advance in the Macha Khola Valley, all ages excellently agree with the glacial chronology of the Khumbu area defined by Finkel et al. (2003).
The new glacial chronology of the Nepal Himalaya shows that, except for the MIS 2, the Indian monsoon rather than the westerly circulation has controlled the glacial activity in the region. During the coldest phase of the MIS 2, the westerly jetstream appears to have shifted far enough south to affect glaciation all over the Himalaya. During the Younger Dryas, the eastern limit of the influence of the westerly circulation on Himalaya glaciation may have been situated between the Manaslu and Langtang Himal.
10Be surface exposure ages have excellently confirmed and complemented former soil geographic work in the studied valleys.
4.5 Acknowledgements
This work was made possible by the German Research Foundation (DFG), grant ZE 154-51, and was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation (Az. I/71665). We gratefully ack-nowledge all support.
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