A case study from Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

Climate evolution in Central Asia during the past few million years

The sedimentary record of the Lake Issyk-kul in the NW Tien Shan holds a long climatic history for this environmentally sensitive region. The plan is to examine the sediment records of the lake, focusing on the time frame through the Pliocene and into the late (and maybe middle) Miocene. The sediment archive provides insight into

  • glacial history in the hinterland (i) 2-3 Ma, (ii) 150 -10 ka
  • vegetation history, diversity patterns as a reaction on specific climate states,
  • dust mobilisation as a reaction on changed atmospheric patterns
  • erosional history for different time windows, like (i) since 10 Ma, (ii) 4 Ma, (iii) 150 ka 

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