<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Manas Lake is a closed lake basin in northern Xinjiang Province of China, with its current lake bed at 244 m a.s.l. Sediments from the lake area provide valuable information about the paleoenvironmental changes in the Westerlies-dominated arid region. To obtain a chronological constraint on the past changes, optically stimulated luminescence dating was conducted on sediments from the lake beaches. The results show that lacustrine episodes dated at ~80–73 ka ago were recorded in northwestern side of the lake at 270 m a.s.l., while paleoshoreline to near-shore environments during ~80–90 ka ago were recorded in the opposite side of the lake at 262 m a.s.l. The ~80 ka old sedimentary layers are overlain by paleoshoreline sediments formed within the last ~1 ka, separated by a large age gap. From this study and the results from previous studies, it is concluded that breaks in sedimentary records are common in the lake area at elevation > 260 m a.s.l. When comparing sedimentary environments at different times from different sites in this study and previous studies, it is suggested that a small amount of uplift of the northwestern side of Manas Lake relative to the southeastern side may have occurred in the last 80 ka.</p></abstract>

Manas Lake is a closed lake basin in northern Xinjiang Province of China, with its current lake bed at 244 m a.s.l. Sediments from the lake area provide valuable information about the paleoenvironmental changes in the Westerlies-dominated arid region. To obtain a chronological constraint on the past changes, optically stimulated luminescence dating was conducted on sediments from the lake beaches. The results show that lacustrine episodes dated at ~80–73 ka ago were recorded in northwestern side of the lake at 270 m a.s.l., while paleoshoreline to near-shore environments during ~80–90 ka ago were recorded in the opposite side of the lake at 262 m a.s.l. The ~80 ka old sedimentary layers are overlain by paleoshoreline sediments formed within the last ~1 ka, separated by a large age gap. From this study and the results from previous studies, it is concluded that breaks in sedimentary records are common in the lake area at elevation > 260 m a.s.l. When comparing sedimentary environments at different times from different sites in this study and previous studies, it is suggested that a small amount of uplift of the northwestern side of Manas Lake relative to the southeastern side may have occurred in the last 80 ka.

Optical dating of sediments from manas lake in northwestern china: Paleoenvironmental and neotectonic implications

Geochronometria

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Manas Lake is a closed lake basin in northern Xinjiang Province of China, with its current lake bed at 244 m a.s.l. Sediments from the lake area provide...

Optical dating of sediments from manas lake in northwestern china: Paleoenvironmental and neotectonic implications

Published Online: Oct 05, 2017

Page range: 175 - 187

Received: Jan 31, 2017

Accepted: Mar 29, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0063

Keywords
Manas Lake, lacustrine and paleoshoreline sediments, quartz OSL dating, uplift

© 2017 Y.-Y. Tse and S.-H. Li

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Optical dating of sediments from manas lake in northwestern china: Paleoenvironmental and neotectonic implications

Published Online: Oct 05, 2017

Page range: 175 - 187

Received: Jan 31, 2017

Accepted: Mar 29, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/geochr-2015-0063

KeywordsManas Lake, lacustrine and paleoshoreline sediments, quartz OSL dating, uplift

© 2017 Y.-Y. Tse and S.-H. Li

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Manas Lake, lacustrine and paleoshoreline sediments, quartz OSL dating, uplift