Cosmogenic 10Be and equilibrium-line altitude dataset of Holocene glacier advances in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Sourav Saha; Lewis A Owen; Elizabeth N Orr; Marc W Caffee

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.104412

Cosmogenic ¹⁰Be and equilibrium-line altitude dataset of Holocene glacier advances in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Data Brief. 2019 Aug 20:26:104412. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104412. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Authors

Sourav Saha^{1

2}, Lewis A Owen³, Elizabeth N Orr⁴, Marc W Caffee⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
² Department of Physics, Geology, and Engineering Technology, Northern Kentucky University, KY, 41099, USA.
³ Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
⁴ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), University of Potsdam, Institute for Geosciences, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
⁵ Department of Physics, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.

Abstract

A comprehensive analysis of the variable temporal and spatial responses of tropical-subtropical high-altitude glaciers to climate change is critical for successful model predictions and environmental risk assessment in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen. High-frequency Holocene glacier chronostratigraphies are therefore reconstructed in 79 glaciated valleys across the orogen using 519 published and 16 new terrestrial cosmogenic ¹⁰Be exposure age dataset. Published ¹⁰Be ages are compiled only for moraine boulders (excluding bedrock ages). These ages are recalculated using the latest ICE-D production rate calibration database and the scaling scheme models. Outliers for the individual moraine are detected using the Chauvenet's criterion. In addition, past equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) are determined using the area-altitude (AA), area accumulation ratio (AAR), and toe-headwall accumulation ratio (THAR) methods for each glacier advance. The modern maximum elevations of lateral moraines (MELM) are also used to estimate modern ELAs and as an independent check on mean ELAs derived using the above three methods. These data may serve as an essential archive for future studies focusing on the cryospheric and environmental changes in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen. A more comprehensive analysis of the published and new ¹⁰Be ages and ELA results and a list of references are presented in Saha et al. (2019, High-frequency Holocene glacier fluctuations in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen. Quaternary Science Reviews, 220, 372-400).

Keywords: Central asia; Cosmogenic nuclides; Equilibrium-line altitudes; Glaciation; Holocene.