EGU21-5983, updated on 04 Nov 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5983
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The dynamics of Holocene monsoon based on meteoric 10Be at Kunlun Pass on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Peng Chen1,2,3, Zhongbo Yu2,3, Markus Czymzik4, Ala Aldahan5, Jinguo Wang1, Peng Yi2,6, Göran Possnert7, Xuegao Chen2,3,6, Minjie Zheng8, Huijun Jin9,10, Dongliang Luo9, and Qingbai Wu9
Peng Chen et al.
  • 1School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China (cp@hhu.edu.cn)
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
  • 3Joint International Research Laboratory of Global Change and Water Cycle, Nanjing, China
  • 4Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), Marine Geology, Rostock, Germany
  • 5Department of Geology, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
  • 6College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
  • 7Tandem Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
  • 8Department of Geology - Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
  • 9State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soils Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
  • 10School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

Multiple proxy records have been used for the understanding of environmental and climate changes during the Holocene. For the first time, we here measure meteoric 10Be isotope of sediments from a drill core collected at the Kunlun Pass (KP) on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (NETP) to investigate mositure and atmospheric circulation changes during the Holocene. The 10Be flux suggests relative low levels in the Early Holocene, followed by a sharp increase to high values at around 4 ka BP (4 ka BP = 4000 years before present). Afterwards, the 10Be flux remains on a high level during the Late Holocene, but decreases slightly towards today. These 10Be deposition patterns are compared to moisture changes in regions dominated by the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM), and the Westerlies. Different from the gradual changes in monsoon patterns, the 10Be data reveal low levels during the Early Holocene until ~4 ka BP when an obvious increase was indicated and a relative high level continues to this day, which is relatively more in agreement with patterns of the Westerlies. This finding provides a new evidence for a shift in the dominant pattern of atmospheric circulation at the KP region from a more monsoonal one to one dominated by the Westerlies. Our results improve the understanding of non-stationary interactions and spatial relevance of the EASM, the ISM and the Westerlies on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

How to cite: Chen, P., Yu, Z., Czymzik, M., Aldahan, A., Wang, J., Yi, P., Possnert, G., Chen, X., Zheng, M., Jin, H., Luo, D., and Wu, Q.: The dynamics of Holocene monsoon based on meteoric 10Be at Kunlun Pass on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-5983, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-5983, 2021.