Relict proglacial lake of Spituk (Leh), northwest (NW) Himalaya: A repository of hydrological changes during Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS)-2
In the northwestern Himalaya (Ladakh and Karakoram), the spatial and temporal changes in the late Quaternary glaciation were modulated by a combination of two contrasting moisture sources (viz., the Indian Summer Monsoon and the mid-latitude westerlies). The inferences about their relative contribution to glacier expansion are based on the ages obtained on moraines. Since the moraines suffer from poor preservation and chronological uncertainty, the present study, therefore, resorted to a near-continuous relict proglacial lake succession in order to reconstruct the continuous pattern of glacier fluctuations during Marine Isotopic Stage-2 (MIS-2). Since the AMS radiocarbon ages (both organic and inorganic matter) suffered from various complexities such as hard water effect, the paleohydrological inferences in this study were drawn primarily based on optical ages (along with sedimentological and geochemical analysis).