Late Quaternary geomorphic evolution of Teesta-Khangtse basin, north Sikkim

• Published in: Polar Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Teesta; Sikkim; Late Quaternary; Paleoclimate; Deglaciation; Polar Science
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=16990; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00016859/

Quaternary climate change in eastern Himalaya is evidenced by a variety of glacial and fluvial landforms. In eastern Himalaya, the Teesta Khangtse glacier region located in the North District, Sikkim, has preserved many glacial and glacio-fluvial geomorphic features. The Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) geochronology of lateral, recessional and ground moraines has provided proper evidence of episodic deglaciation and corresponding landform evolution of the region. The field disposition ground moraines exhibit the existence of a vast glacier system before 52 ka and successive different stages of its recession in the Late Quaternary time. The thinning of the glacier system laid down a thick cover of the ground moraine. Data show that the major recession of the Teesta glacier system took place in the Upper Pleistocene at around 52 ± 3 ka. This was followed by many episodic deglaciations between 11.4 and 1.4 ka. The recessional phase, close to the beginning of the Meghalayan stages of Holocene at 3.4 ± 0.2 ka, has been marked by fluvial and aeolian activities.