Glacial geomorphology of the Altai and Western Sayan Mountains, Central Asia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Location of the mapped area and previously published glacial geomorphological maps from Central Asia and the Tibetan Plateau. (A) Altai and Western Sayan Mountains (Fig. 2; this study). (B) Tian Shan (Stroeven et al., 2013), (C) Tangula Shan (Morén et al., 2011), (D) Bayan Har Shan (Heyman et al., 2008), and (E) Shaluli Shan (Fu et al., 2012).

Figure 2. Physiography and administrative borders of the Altai region. The locations of previous studies of paleoglaciology and glacial geomorphology are shown: (1) Rudoy (2002), (2) Lehmkuhl et al. (2004), (3) Herget (2005), (4) Reuther et al. (2006), (5) Xu et al. (2009), (6) Xu (2010), and (7) Zhao et al. (2013). Red boxes with numbers denote the locations of Figures 3^{Figure 4Figure 5}–6. The background topographic data consist of the Aster Global Digital Elevation Model (AGDEM). Contemporary glacier extent is from the Randolph Glacier Index (RGI) (Arendt et al., 2012).

Figure 3. The Tsambagarav Massif (See Fig. 2 for location). (a) Mapped landforms and a gray-scale AGDEM (b) False IR Landsat 7 ETM+ image, (c) coloured AGDEM draped by a semi-transparent gray-scale slope model, and (d) coloured AGDEM draped by a semi-transparent gray-scale hillshade model and with the maximum paleo-glacier reconstruction from the landform record (panel a) superimposed. Roman numbers indicate examples of (i) freshly exposed latero-frontal moraine and medial supra glacial moraine, (ii) marginal moraine, (iii) large degraded marginal moraine, and (iv) large lateral moraine.

Figure 4. The Tavan Bogd marginal moraine complex (see Fig. 2 for location). (a) Mapped landforms. (b) False IR Landsat 7 ETM+ image.

Figure 5. Glacial lineations in the northern Russian Altai (see Fig. 2 for location). (a) Mapped landforms. (b) False IR Landsat 7 ETM+ image.

Figure 6. Interaction between glacial and fluvial processes in the Western Sayan Mountains (see Fig. 2 for location). Colured AGDEM draped by a semi-transparent gray-scale slope model with a dashed white line showing the longitudinal elevation profile (b) and non-dashed lines showing location of cross-valley profiles in (c) and (d). Profiles A, B, C, and D show a smoother U-shaped glacial imprint while profiles E, F, G, and H show a clear V-shaped fluvial imprint in their cross-valley section.

Figure 7. Minimum extent of maximum glaciation and inferred glaciation centres in the Altai and Western Sayan Mountains.

Stroeven, A. P., Hättestrand, C., Heyman, J., Harbor, J., Li, Y. K., Zhou, L. P., … Liu, G. N. (2009). Landscape analysis of the Huang He headwaters, NE Tibetan Plateau – patterns of glacial and fluvial erosion. Geomorphology, 103(2), 212–226. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.04.024

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Morén, B., Heyman, J., & Stroeven, A. P. (2011). Glacial geomorphology of the central Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Maps, 7(1), 115–125. doi:10.4113/jom.2011.1161

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Heyman, J., Hättestrand, C., & Stroeven, A. P. (2008). Glacial geomorphology of the Bayan Har sector of the NE Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Maps, 4, 42–62.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Fu, P., Heyman, J., Hättestrand, C., Stroeven, A. P., & Harbor, J. M. (2012). Glacial geomorphology of the Shaluli Shan area, southeastern Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Maps, 8(1), 48–55.

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Reuther, A. U., Herget, J., Ivy-Ochs, S., Borodavko, P., Kubik, P. W., & Heine, K. (2006). Constraining the timing of the most recent cataclysmic flood event from ice-dammed lakes in the Russian Altai Mountains, Siberia, using cosmogenic in situ 10Be. Geology, 34(11), 913–916. doi:10.1130/G22755A.1

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Lehmkuhl, F., Klinge, M., & Stauch, G. (2004). The extent of Late Pleistocene glaciations in the Altai and Khangai Mountains. In J. Ehlers & P. L. Gibbard (Eds.), Quaternary Glaciations – Extent and chronology, Part III (1st ed., pp. 243–454). Amsterdam: Elsevier B. V.

 Google Scholar

Herget, J. (2005). Reconstruction of Pleistocene Ice-Dammed Lake outburst floods in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, GSA Special Paper 386, 118 p. Boulder, CO: GSA Inc.

 Google Scholar

Owen, L. A. (2013). Late Quaternary in Highland Asia. In S. A. Elias (Ed.), Encyclopedia of quaternary science (2nd ed., pp. 236–244). Amsterdam: Elsevier B. V. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-53643-3.00119-9

 Google Scholar

World Atlas of Snow and Ice Resources. (1997). (p. 392). Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences (In Russian).

 Google Scholar

Xu, X., Yang, J., Dong, G., Wang, L., & Miller, L. (2009). OSL dating of glacier extent during the Last Glacial and the Kanas Lake basin formation in Kanas River valley, Altai Mountains, China. Geomorphology, 112(3–4), 306–317. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.06.016

 Web of Science ®Google Scholar

Xu, X. K. (2010). Late Pleistocene glacial geomorphology and dating in Kanas River valley, Altai Mountains (Unpublished Ph.D thesis). Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (in Chinese with English abstract).

 Google Scholar

Arendt, A., Bolch, T., Cogley, J. G., Gardner, A., Hagen, J.-O., Hock, R., … Zheltyhina, N. (2012). Randolph Glacier Inventory – a dataset of global glacier outlines: Version 3.2. Global Land Ice Measurements from Space. Boulder, CO: Digital Media.

 Google Scholar