Abstract
14C dating of shoreline deposits of closed-basin lake Baqan Tso in the western Tibetan Plateau shows that lake level regressed from the undated highstand (46m above modern, 4.3× modern surface area) of likely earliest Holocene age by 11.5ka, and remained larger than modern until at least ≈5.0ka. The shoreline record broadly matches other regional climate records, with lake level closely following Northern Hemisphere summer insolation overprinted by sub-millennial lake-level oscillations. A model coupling modern land runoff and lake surface heat closely reproduces estimated modern precipitation of ≈240mm/yr. We estimate that the Baqan Tso basin required ≈380mm/yr precipitation to sustain the maximum early Holocene lake area, a 55% increase over modern. Precipitation increases, not glacial meltwater, drove lake-level changes, as Baqan Tso basin was not glaciated during the Holocene. Our estimate assumes early Holocene insolation (≈1.3% overall increase), and mean annual increases of 2°C in temperature, and 37% in relative humidity. We additionally developed a Holocene precipitation history for Baqan Tso using dated paleolake areas. Using the modern and early Holocene model results as end-members, we estimate precipitation in the western Tibetan Plateau which was 300-380mm/yr between 5.0 and 11.5ka, with error of ±29-57mm/yr (±12-15%).
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 80-93 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Quaternary Research (United States) |
Volume | 83 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2015 |
Keywords
- Carbon-14 dating
- Holocene
- Monsoon
- Paleohydrologic model
- Paleolake
- Precipitation
- Shoreline dating
- Tibetan Plateau
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Earth-Surface Processes
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)