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Landslide Developmental Characteristics and Response to Climate Change since the Last Glacial in the Upper Reaches of the Yellow River, NE Tibetan Plateau
Author(s) -
YIN Zhiqiang,
QIN Xiaoguang,
YIN Yueping,
ZHAO Wuji,
WEI Gang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
acta geologica sinica ‐ english edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1755-6724
pISSN - 1000-9515
DOI - 10.1111/1755-6724.12219
Subject(s) - landslide , geology , glacial period , holocene , loess , physical geography , period (music) , plateau (mathematics) , chronology , climate change , paleosol , geomorphology , quaternary , younger dryas , paleoclimatology , last glacial maximum , paleontology , oceanography , geography , mathematical analysis , physics , mathematics , acoustics
The upper reaches of the Yellow River in northeastern Tibetan Plateau are geohazards areas. The evolution of the Yellow River, chronology of some landslides, and spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of super large scale and giant landslides within the region are summarized using paleoclimate evidence, and the relationship between the intensive landslide period and climatic changes since the Last Glacial period is analyzed. It is concluded that (1) Super large scale and giant landslides are distributed widely within the region, particularly in the Qunke‐Jianzha basin. (2) The chronological sequence of landslides is established by dating the slip zones of landslides and analyzing the relations between landslides and their overlying or underlying loess formations. Five landslide development periods are determined: 53–49 ka BP, 33–24 ka BP, 10–8 ka BP, 5–3.5 ka BP, and the present. (3) These correspond closely to warm and wet periods during the last 100,000 years, i.e., two weak paleosol development stages of Malan loess deposited during the last Glacial period in the Chinese loess Plateau, L 1–4 and L 1–2 that belong to the marine oxygen isotope stage 3, the last deglacial period, the Holocene Optimum, and the modern global warming period. (4) Landslide triggers may be closely linked to warm and wet periods related to rapid climatic transitions.