Late Quaternary climatic changes in the eastern Kumaun Himalaya, India, as deduced from multi-proxy studies

Abstract

An event of neotectonic activity on an NE-SW trending subsidiary fault in the zone of E-W running intracrustal boundary thrust (South Almora Thrust) in the Champawat district of eastern Kumaun Himalaya resulted in creation of a lake at ca. 21.5 BP. The lake drained in the late Holocene, leaving behind a 5.0 m thick sedimentary sequence of mostly black and carbonaceous mud, with a minor magnetic reversal between 20.5 and 19.7 ka BP at the base. The profile, studied by using multi-proxies (e.g., carbon isotopes, pollen analysis, palaeo and mineral magnetism and clay minerals) has recorded globally well established abrupt climatic events in the last 20,000 years, such as the LGM, Older Dryas (OD), Younger Dryas (YD), Holocene warming, 8.2 ka, and 4.2 ka events. Most events, estimated assuming a constant rate of sediment accumulation for similar lithologies, may be related to the rapid changes in the local climate and albedo structure. The ITCZ may have played a key role in controlling the behavior of the southwest monsoon from the LGM. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA.