A 108.83-m ice-core record of atmospheric dust deposition at Mt. Qomolangma (Everest), Central Himalaya

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Xu, Jianzhong, Hou, Shugui, Qin, Dahe, Kaspari, Susan, Mayewski, Paul Andrew, Petit, Jean Robert, Delmonte, Barbara, Kang, Shichang, Ren, Jiawen, Chappellaz, Jerome, Hong, Sungmin
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: New York, Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2022
• Subjects: ice core
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2009.09.005; http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/298255

The central Himalaya can be regarded as an ideal site for developing a long-term ice core dust record to reflect the environmental signals from regional to semi-hemispheric scales. Here we present a dust record from segments of a 108.83-m ice core recovered from the East Rongbuk (ER) Glacier (27°59′N, 86°55′E; 6518 m a.s.l.) on the northeast slope of Mt. Qomolangma (Everest) in the central Himalaya, covering the period AD 600-1960. Due to rapidly layer thinning and coarse sampling, we primarily discuss the changes in the dust record since AD 1500 in this paper. Results show a significant positive relationship between the dust concentration and reconstructed air temperatures during this period, suggesting a likely cold-humid and warm-dry climatic pattern in the dust source regions, namely Central Asia. This is associated with the variability in the strength of the westerlies and its corresponding precipitation. © 2009 University of Washington.