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
• Other Authors: State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS)-Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS)-Chinese Academy of Sciences Changchun Branch (CAS), School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University (NJU), Climate Change Institute Orono (CCI), University of Maine, CLIPS, Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS)-Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing (CAS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX3-SW-344 and 100 Talents Project) the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 40825017)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: Dust; Ice core; Qomolangma (Everest); Himalaya; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; ice core
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-00562461; https://doi.org/10.1016/J.YQRES.2009.09.005

International audience 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.