Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:30:35.029Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A 108.83-m Ice-Core Record of Atmospheric Dust Deposition at Mt. Qomolangma (Everest), Central Himalaya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jianzhong Xu ,
Shugui Hou ,
Dahe Qin ,
Susan Kaspari ,
Paul Andrew Mayewski ,
Jean Robert Petit ,
Barbara Delmonte ,
Shichang Kang ,
Jiawen Ren  and
Jerome Chappellaz
...Show all authors
Jianzhong Xu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS), Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, China
Shugui Hou*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS), Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, China MOE, Key Laboratory for Coast and Island Development, School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences (SGOS), Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Dahe Qin
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS), Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, China
Susan Kaspari
Affiliation:
Climate Change Institute (CCI) and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono ME 04469, USA
Paul Andrew Mayewski
Affiliation:
Climate Change Institute (CCI) and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Maine, Orono ME 04469, USA
Jean Robert Petit
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, St Martin d'Hères, France
Barbara Delmonte
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, St Martin d'Hères, France
Shichang Kang
Affiliation:
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
Jiawen Ren
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences (SKLCS), Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, China
Jerome Chappellaz
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement (LGGE), CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, St Martin d'Hères, France
Sungmin Hong
Affiliation:
Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), Incheon 406-840, Korea
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +86(931)8277094. E-mail address:[email protected] (S. Hou).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Keywords

DustIce coreQomolangma (Everest)Himalaya
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 33 - 38
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boomer, I., Aladin, N., Plotnikov, I., Whatley, R., (2000). The palaeolimnology of the Aral Sea: a review. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 1259–1278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, F., Yu, Z., Yang, M., Ito, E., Wang, S., Madsen, D.B., Huang, X., Zhao, Y., Sato, T., Birks, H.J.B., Boomer, I., Chen, J., An, C., Wunnemann, B., (2008). Holocene moisture evolution in arid central Asia and its out-of-phase relationship with Asian monsoon history. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 351–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delmonte, B., Petit, J.R., Maggi, V., (2002). Glacial to Holocene implications of the new 27000-year dust record from the EPICA Dome C (East Antarctica) ice core. Climate Dynamics 18, 647–660.Google Scholar
Duan, K., Yao, T., Thompson, L.G., (2006). Response of monsoon precipitation in the Himalayas to global warming. Journal of Geophysical Research 111, D19110, 10.1029/2006JD007084 Google Scholar
Fang, X.M., Han, Y., Ma, J., Song, L., Yang, S., Zhang, X., (2004). Dust storms and loess accumulation on the Tibetan Plateau: a case study of dust event on 4 March 2003 in Lhasa. Chinese Science Bulletin 49, 953–960.Google Scholar
Fisher, D.A., Koerner, R.M., (1981). Some aspects of climatic change in the high Arctic during the Holocene as deduced from ice cores. Mahaney, W.C. Quaternary Paleoclimate.University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K..249–271.Google Scholar
Hammer, C.U., (1977). Dust studies on Greenland ice cores. Oeschger, H. Isotopes and Impurities in Snow and Ice, Proceedings of the Grenoble Symposium, IAHS, 118.365–370.Google Scholar
Hammer, C.U., Clausen, H.B., Dansgaard, W., Neftel, A., Kristinsdottir, P., Johnson, E., (1985). Continuous impurity analysis along the Dye 3 deep core. Langway, C.C. Greenland Ice Core: Geophysics, Geochemistry and the Environment, Geophysical Monograph Series 33, AGU, Washington, D.C..90–94.Google Scholar
Hoogendoorn, R.M., Boels, J.F., Kroonenberg, S.B., Simmons, M.D., Aliyeva, E., Babazadeh, A.D., Huseynov, D., (2005). Development of the Kura delta, Azerbaijan: a record of Holocene Caspian sea-level changes. Marine Geology 222-223 359–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, S., Chappellaz, J., Jouzel, J., Chu, P.C., Masson-Delmotte, V., Qin, D., Raynaud, D., Mayewski, P.A., Lipenkov, V.Y., Kang, S., (2007). Summer temperature trend over the past two millennia using air content in Himalayan ice. Climate of the Past 3, 89–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hou, S., Jouzel, J., Chappellaz, J., Qin, D., Masson-Delmotte, V., von Grafenstein, U., Landais, A., Caillon, N., (2004). Age of Himalayan bottom ice cores. Journal of Glaciology 50, 467–468.Google Scholar
Hou, S., Qin, D., Zhang, D., Kang, S., Mayewski, P.A., Wake, C.P., (2003). A 154a high-resolution ammonium record from the Rongbuk Glacier, north slope of Mt. Qomolangma (Everest), Tibet–Himalayas region. Atmospheric Environment 37, 721–729.Google Scholar
Hurrell, J.W., (1995). Decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: regional temperatures and precipitation. Science 269, 5224, 676–679.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaspari, S., Hooke, R., Mayewski, P.A., Kang, S., Hou, S., Qin, D., (2008). Snow accumulation rate on Qomolangma (Mount Everest) Himalaya: synchroneity with sites across the Tibetan Plateau on 50–100 year timescales. Journal of Glaciology 54, 343–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaspari, S., Mayewski, P.A., Kang, S., Sneed, S., Hou, S., Hooke, R., Kreutz, K., Introne, D., Handley, M., Maasch, K., Qin, D., Ren, J., (2007). Reduction in northward incursions of the South Asian monsoon since ∼1400 AD inferred from a Mt. Everest ice core. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L16701, 10.1029/2007GL030440 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, R.M., Fisher, D.A., (1982). Acid snow in the Canadian High Arctic. Nature 295, 137–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuang, X.Y., Zhang, Y.C., (2005). Seasonal variation of the East Asian Subtropical Westerly Jet and its association with the heating field over East Asia. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences 22, 831–840.Google Scholar
Kumai, M., (1977). Electron microscope analysis of aerosols in snow and deep ice cores from Greenland. Oeschger, H. Isotopes and Impurities in Snow and Ice, Proceedings of the Grenoble Symposium, 1975, IAHS Publication, 118.341–350.Google Scholar
Legrand, M., Mayewski, P.A., (1997). Glaciochemistry of polar ice cores: a review. Reviews of Geophysics 35, 143–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, M.E., Bradley, R.S., Hughes, M.K., (1999). Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: inferences, uncertainties, and limitations. Geophysical Research Letters 26, 759–762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Twickler, M.S., Whitlow, S.I., Yang, Q., Lyons, W.B., Prentice, M., (1997). Major features and forcing of high-latitude northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation using a 110,000-year-long glaciochemical series. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 26345–26366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murozumi, M., Chow, T.J., Patterson, C., (1969). Chemical concentrations of pollutant lead aerosols, terrestrial dusts and sea salts in Greenland and Antarctic snow strata. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 33, 1247–1294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osada, K., Ida, H., Kido, M., Matsunga, K., Iwasaka, Y., (2004). Mineral dust layers in snow at Mount Tateyama, central Japan: formation processes and characteristics. Tellus B 56, 382–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petit, J.R., 18, others., (1999). Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420000 years from the Vostok ice core. Antarctica. Nature 399, 429–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prasad, A.K., Singh, R.P., (2007). Changes in aerosol parameters during major dust storm events (2001–2005) over the Indo-Gangetic Plains using AERONET and MODIS data. Journal of Geophysical Research 112, D09208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prospero, J.M., Ginoux, P., Torres, O., Nicholson, S.E., Gill, T.E., (2002). Environmental characterization of global sources of atmospheric soil dust identified with the Nimbus 7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) absorbing aerosol product. Reviews of Geophysics 40, 1002, 10.1029/2000RG000095 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ren, J.W., Jing, Z.F., Pu, J.C., Qin, X., (2006). Glacier variations and climate change in the central Himalaya over the past few decades. Annals of Glaciology 43, 218–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ren, J.W., Qin, D.H., Kang, S.C., Hou, S.G., Pu, J.C., Jing, Z.F., (2004). Glacier variations and climate warming and drying in the central Himalayas. Chinese Science Bulletin 49, 65–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shao, X.M., Huang, L., Liu, H.B., Liang, E.Y., Fang, X.Q., Wang, L.L., (2005). Reconstruction of precipitation variation from tree rings in recent 1000 years in Delingha. Qinghai. Science in China (D) 48, 939–949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shi, Y.F., Kong, Z.C., Wang, S.M., (1994). Climates and environments of the Holocene megathermal maximum in China. Science in China (Series B) 37, 4, 481–493.Google Scholar
Shi, Y.F., Shen, Y.P., Kang, E.S., Li, D.L., Ding, Y.J., Zhang, G.W., Hu, R.J., (2006). Recent and future climate change in northwest China. Climatic Change 80, 379–393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorrel, P., Oberhänsli, H., Boroffka, N., Nourgaliev, D., Dulski, P., Röhl, U., (2007). Control of wind strength and frequency in the Aral Sea basin during the late Holocene. Quaternary. Research 67, 371–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steffensen, J.P., (1988). Analysis of the seasonal variation in dust, Cl—, NO3 —, and SO4 2— in two central Greenland firn cores. Annual of Glaciology 10, 171–177.Google Scholar
Steffensen, J.P., (1997). The size distributions of microparticle from selected segments of the Greenland Ice Core Project ice core representing different climatic periods. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, C12, 26755–26763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Syed, F.S., Giorgi, F., Pal, J.S., King, M.P., (2006). Effect of remote forcings on the winter precipitation of central southwest Asia: Part 1. Observations. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 86, 147–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, L.G., Yao, T., Thompson, E.M., Davis, M.E., Henderson, K.A., Lin, P.N., (2000). A high-resolution millennial record of the South Asian Monsoon from Himalayan ice cores. Science 289, 1916–1919.Google Scholar
Wake, C.P., Mayewski, P.A., Kang, S., (2004). Climatic interpretation of the gradient in glaciochemical signals across the crest of the Himalaya. Cecil, L.D. Earth Paleoenvironments: Records Preserved in Mid- and Low-Latitude Glaciers. Kluwer Academic Press, Netherlands, Vol. 9.81–94.Google Scholar
Wake, C.P., Mayewski, P.A., Li, Z., Han, J., Qin, Q., (1994). Modern eolian dust deposition in central Asia. Tellus B 46, 220–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wake, C.P., Mayewski, P.A., Xie, Z., Wang, P., Li, Z., (1993). Regional variation of monsoon and desert dust signals recorded in Asian glaciers. Geophysical Research Letters 20, 1411–1414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, X.D., Lin, Z.Y., (1981). Climatic change during the last 2000 years in Tibet. Proceedings of Symposium on Climate Change. Science Press, Beijing, 18–25.Google Scholar
Xu, J., Hou, S., Chen, F., Ren, J., Qin, D., (2009b). Trace the sources of particles in the East Rongbuk ice core from Mt. Qomolangma. Chinese Science Bulletin 54, 10, 1781–1785.Google Scholar
Xu, J., Hou, S., Qin, D., Kang, S., Ren, J., Ming, J., (2007a). Dust storm activity over the Tibetan Plateau recorded by a shallow ice core from the north slope of Mt. Qomolangma (Everest), Tibet–Himalayas region. Geophysical Research Letters 34, L17504, 10.1029/2007GL030853 Google Scholar
Xu, J., Hou, S., Ren, J., Petit, J., (2007b). Insoluble dust in a new core from Dome Argus, central East Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology 53, 154–156.Google Scholar
Xu, J., Kaspari, S., Hou, S., Kang, S., Qin, D., Ren, J., Mayewski, P., (2009a). Records of volcanic events since AD 1800 in the East Rongbuk ice core from Mt. Qomolangma. Chinese Science Bulletin 54, 8, 1411–1416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, B., Bräuning, A., Dong, Z., Zhang, Z., Jiao, K., (2007). Late Holocene monsoonal temperate glacier fluctuations on the Tibetan Plateau. Global and Planetary Change 07, 035, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha2006 Google Scholar
Yang, B., Braeuning, A., Johnson, K.R., Shi, Y., (2002). General characteristics of temperature variation in China during the last two millennia. Geophysical Research Letters 29, 1324, 10.1029/2001GL014485 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yao, T., Jiao, K., Yang, Z., (1996). Climatic variations since the Little Ice Age recorded in the Guliaya Ice Core. Science in China Ser D 39, 587–596.Google Scholar
Ye, T.Z., Gao, Y.X., (1979). The Meteorology of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau. Science Press, Beijing.35–38.Google Scholar
Yuan, Y., Han, S., (1991). Features of dry and wet changes for 500 years in the northern of Xinjiang. Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology 315-322, in Chinese, 13.Google Scholar
Zdanowicz, C.M., Zielinski, G.A., Wake, C.P., (1998). Characteristics of modern atmospheric dust deposition in snow on the Penny Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Arctic Canada. Tellus B 50, 506–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zdanowicz, C.M., Hall, G., Vaive, J., Amelin, Y., Percival, J., Girard, I., Biscaye, P., Bory, A., (2006). Asian dustfall in the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon, Canada. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70, 3493–3507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, J., Jin, M., Chen, F., Battarbee, R.W., Henderson, A.C.G., (2003). High-resolution precipitation variations in the Northeast Tibetan Plateau over the last 800 years documented by sediment cores of Qinghai Lake. Chinese Science Bulletin 48, 1451–1456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, L.P., Zhang, P.Z., Xia, W.L., Li, B.Y., Chen, L., (2003). 1400-year cold/warm fluctuations reflected by environmental magnetism of a lake sediment core from the Chen Co, southern Tibet, China. Journal of Paleolimnology 29, 391–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar