Lake level and climate changes between 42,000 and 18,000 C-14 yr BP in the Tengger Desert, Northwestern China

Multiple lines of stratigraphic, geochemical, and fossil data suggest that fresh-mesohaline paleolakes were widespread in the Tengger Desert of northwestern China and underwent major fluctuations during the late Pleistocene. The paleolakes started to develop at ca. 42,000 C-14 yr B.P. The lake level...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quaternary Research
Main Authors: Zhang, HC, Wunnemann, B, Ma, YZ, Peng, JL, Pachur, HJ, Li, LJ, Qi, Y, Chen, GJ, Fang, HB, Feng, ZD
Other Authors: UCL
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science 2002
Subjects:
Tengger Desert
climate change
lake levels
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/41734
https://doi.org/10.1006/qres.2002.2357
Description
Summary:Multiple lines of stratigraphic, geochemical, and fossil data suggest that fresh-mesohaline paleolakes were widespread in the Tengger Desert of northwestern China and underwent major fluctuations during the late Pleistocene. The paleolakes started to develop at ca. 42,000 C-14 yr B.P. The lake levels were the highest between 35,000 and 22,000 C-14 yr B.P., during which Megalake Tengger dominated the landscape. The climatic conditions at this time were unique for this area and have no modem analogue. After an episode of decline between 22,000 and 20,000 C-14 yr B.P. and an episode of rebound between 20,000 and 18,600 C-14 yr B.P., the paleolakes started to desiccate and completely disappeared around 18,000 C-14 yr B.P. The environmental proxy data indicate that the Megalake Tengger formed under warm-humid climates. The reconstructed climatic variations appear to be correlative with the abrupt climatic events reconstructed for the North Atlantic. (C) 2002 University of Washington.

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