Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Mountain glaciers are very sensitive to (past) climate changes. Paleoglaciation of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya received plenty of attention for the reconstruction of past climate and environmental conditions, whereas few studies have been conducted so far in the adjacent Altai and Sayan Mountains in Siberia, although they promise a complex history.
The investigated Sayan Mountains in the Russian Altai indicate extensive glacial activity during the Pleistocene and a shifting of the local Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Rich glacial residues in terms of moraine ridges and erratic boulders in the region provide excellent opportunities to establish a detailed age chronology using in-situ cosmogenic ¹⁰Be surface exposure dating and derive information about paleoclimatic conditions.
We present 28 ¹⁰Be surface exposure ages from the Ergaki Range and Tuva Uplands in the western Sayan Mountains. Distinct lateral moraines document the extents of former glaciation during a last glacial maximum. Several recessional moraines in the Ergaki Range additionally record stand stills or readvances during the last glacial termination.
The prominent lateral moraine in the Ergaki Range yields three exposure ages of ~19 ka, indicating a MIS 2 glaciation. The maximum advances correlate with the end of the global LGM. Concluding, glaciers in the Ergaki Range existed continuously during the late Pleistocene only varying in their extent. The well-clustered ages of the Ergaki Range provide a robust deglaciation chronology. The readvances/ stand stills consistently date to ~18 ka (three boulders), ~17.5 ka (two boulders), ~17 ka (three boulders), and ~16 ka (two boulders), with a deglaciation starting after 16 ka. The valley is not elevated enough to record younger, less extensive glaciation, e.g. during the Younger Dryas and the Holocene. Exposure ages from the Tuva Uplands are more difficult to interpret: The lateral moraine documenting the most extensive glaciation yields two exposure ages of ~22 ka. The immediately adjacent inner lateral moraine has two slightly younger and stratigraphically consistent ages of ~21 ka, yet three more boulders from that moraine are ~27 and 43 ka. At this point, we suspect these older boulders to have inheritance, but we cannot confidently exclude a much older deposition age for both moraines. Planned are analyzes of other cosmogenic nuclides, such as ²⁶Al and/or in situ ¹⁴C, which might help to more robustly identify inheritance and complex exposure histories.