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Northeastern Section - 51st Annual Meeting - 2016

Paper No. 9-10
Presentation Time: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM

10BE SURFACE-EXPOSURE CHRONOLOGY OF HOLOCENE GLACIER FLUCTUATIONS IN THE BHUTANESE HIMALAYA


PUTNAM, Aaron E., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Comer Geochemistry, Palisades, NY 10964, SCHAEFER, Joerg M., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, RUPPER, Summer B., Department of Geography, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Dr., Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9155, COOK, Edward R., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, KRUSIC, Paul, Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SE106 91, Sweden, PUTNAM, David E., Environmental Science and Sustainability, University of Maine at Presque Isle, 181 Main Street, Presque Isle, ME 04769 and YOUNG, Nicolás E., Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, 219 Comer, 61 Route 9W - PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964-8000, aaron.putnam@maine.edu

Nearly one quarter of Earth’s population depends on water derived from melting snow and ice, as well as monsoonal rainfall, in the upper reaches of the greater Himalayan watershed. However, the degree to which Himalayan runoff will change with industrial atmospheric warming is unclear. Identifying links between past climate changes and mountain water reserves aids understanding of how water availability will change with increasing atmospheric temperatures. Mountain glaciers monitor the long-term health of the mountain snowpack and provide an important contribution to Himalayan runoff. Here we present a new cosmogenic 10Be surface-exposure chronology of moraine ridges deposited by mountain glaciers in the Rinchen Zoe La and Lunana regions of the eastern monsoonal Himalaya of Bhutan. Our chronologies document mountain glacier fluctuations at the core of the Indian Monsoon since the earliest Holocene. On the basis of our glacier reconstruction, we examine the relationships among glacier extent, monsoon variability, and global climate changes during the pre-industrial Holocene, as well as implications for the future of Himalayan mountain glaciers in a warming world.

Session No. 9--Booth# 48

T4. Glacial Landscapes as Recorders of Geomorphic Process and Climate Change (Posters)
Monday, 21 March 2016: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Convention Hall (Empire State Plaza Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 2
doi: 10.1130/abs/2016NE-272292
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