THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HIGH MOUNTAIN GLACIATION AND DESERT EVOLUTION ON THE NORTHERN SLOPE OF KUNLUN MOUNTAINS

In order to examine the relationship between environmental change and landscape evolution in mountains and desert margins on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains we made field investigation along Keriya River, that traverse the Kunlun Mountains and Taklamakan Desert. The research was mainly based on sedimentological and geomorphological methods, and radiocarbon chronology was implemented to have dated the various deposits. The region is characterized by four key geomorphic landscapes: desert with active dunes and sand seas; desert pediment with fans; and foothills with deep gorges as well as glaciated mountains. A succession of three fans with dunes is differentiated according to morphostratigraphy and relative weathering. We are in the opinion that these fans probably formed as a response to increased meltwaters and sediment loads associated with activities of glaciers in the Kunlun mountains during the last glacial. Periglacial and glacial features throughout the region indicate about 10 degree centigrade as maximal temperature depression during the last glacial. We think that the terraces in the lower reaches of the Keriya River may have formed in response to increased precipitation during more humid times at ca 2ka and during the Little Ice Age, and the high terrace at late glacial, respectively. Generally speaking, the landforms and sediments in this region are polygenetic in origin, being transported, eroded and deposited by glacial, fluvial, aeolian and lacustrine processes.