Yan Qing, Owen Lewis A, Wei Ting, Hughes Philip D, Kong Xiaohan, Jiang Nanxuan, Zhang Jinzhe, Zhang Zhongshi, Wang Huijun
State Key Laboratory of Earth System Numerical Modeling and Application/Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jun 4;16(1):5185. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60438-5.
In contrast to the well-established onset of Northern Hemisphere high-latitude glaciation at 2.7 Ma, the timing and drivers of the intensified glaciation over High Mountain Asia (HMA) remain elusive, as glacial geologic evidence within this region is inherently fragmentary. Here, we offer a spatiotemporally complete view of glacier behavior over HMA spanning the last 3 Ma using transient climate-glaciation simulations to address this challenge. We illustrate that intensified glaciations with expanded ice caps and widespread valley glaciation began at ~0.9 Ma over the monsoonal-influenced southern HMA confirmed by the glacial sediments, whereas the intensification started earlier (1.5 Ma) over the westerly-influenced western HMA, with a further intensification at ~1.0-0.9 Ma, supported by paleoenvironmental proxies. The intensification of glaciation masks obvious shifts in the amplitude and pacing of glacier variability (e.g., the establishment of the 100-ka cycle) and induces larger environmental perturbations, which are in line with geologic evidence and largely linked with the long-term global cooling during the mid-Pleistocene transition.
与北半球高纬度地区在约270万年前已确定的冰川作用开始时间不同，亚洲高山地区（HMA）冰川作用加剧的时间和驱动因素仍然难以捉摸，因为该地区的冰川地质证据本身就支离破碎。在这里，我们利用瞬态气候-冰川模拟，提供了过去300万年中亚洲高山地区冰川行为的时空全景，以应对这一挑战。我们表明，冰川沉积物证实，在受季风影响的亚洲高山地区南部，约90万年前开始出现冰盖扩张和广泛山谷冰川作用加剧的情况，而在受西风影响的亚洲高山地区西部，冰川作用加剧开始得更早（约150万年前），在约100 - 90万年前进一步加剧，古环境指标提供了支持。冰川作用的加剧掩盖了冰川变化幅度和节奏的明显转变（例如，10万年周期的建立），并引发了更大的环境扰动，这与地质证据一致，并且在很大程度上与更新世中期过渡期间的长期全球变冷有关。
