HIMALAYAN JOURNAL of SCIENCES VOL 2 ISSUE 4 (SPECIAL ISSUE) JULY 2004 73 the 19Th Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet Workshop
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Volume 2 Issue 4 (special issue) July 2004 ISSN 1727 5210 EXTENDED ABSTRACTS The 19th Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet Workshop 10-12 July, 2004 Niseko Higashiyama Prince Hotel Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan Guest Editors Kazunori ARITA Pitambar GAUTAM Lalu Prasad PAUDEL Youichiro TAKADA Teiji WATANABE HIMALAYAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCES VOL 2 ISSUE 4 (SPECIAL ISSUE) JULY 2004 73 The 19th Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet Workshop including a special session on Uplift of Himalaya-Tibet Region and Asian Monsoon: Interactions among Tectonic Events, Climatic Changes and Biotic Responses during Late Tertiary to Recent Times Co-hosted by The Organizing Committee of The 19th HIMALAYA-KARAKORAM-TIBET WORKSHOP The 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program on “Neo-Science of Natural History – Origin and Evolution of Natural Diversity” Hokkaido University The 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program on “Dynamics of the Sun-Earth-Life Interactive System” Nagoya University Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University Sponsored by International Lithosphere Program (ILP) Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan Niseko Town, Japan Tokyo Geographical Society Geological Society of Japan Japan Association for Quaternary Research Tectonic Research Group of Japan Kajima Foundation, Tokyo Hokkaido Geotechnical Consultants Association, Sapporo Hakusan Corporation, Fuchu, Tokyo Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences, Tokyo Tethys Society, Sapporo Confectionary Kinotoya, Sapporo Shugakuso Outdoor Equipment, Sapporo JEOL Ltd, Akishima, Tokyo HIMALAYAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCES VOL 2 ISSUE 4 (SPECIAL ISSUE) JULY 2004 75 Preface The Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet (HKT) region, well known as “the roof of the world,” embraces the highest elevations and the greatest relief on earth. The formation and uplift of the HKT region during the Cenozoic was a crucial event in the geological evolution of our planet and its major rivers support more than two-thirds of the world’s human population. In geoscientific terms, the HKT region is important in two ways. First, it serves as a natural laboratory for study of the composition, structure and formational process of the continental crust. The area today occupied by the Tibetan Plateau was the focus of subduction-related magmatism before the collision of India with Eurasia. After the collision, continental deformation led to the formation of the earth’s thickest crust beneath Tibet. Early in this process the Karakoram-Kohistan area was at the island-arc stage of formation and now is the site of ultra- high-pressure rocks. The Himalaya, a foreland fold-thrust belt with metamorphic core, formed along the northern margin of the Indian continent after the collision. It exhibits the effects of thrust tectonics resulting in rapid uplift – most dramatically, an unrivalled array of the eight-thousand-meter giants. The highest section extends more than halfway into the troposphere and exerts a major influence on the global atmospheric circulation. In order to develop future global climatic scenarios it is necessary to understand: (i) the timing, underlying causes, and mechanism of the uplift; (ii) the monsoon climate, its time of initiation and manner of evolution; and (iii) the relationship between the two. The HKT region is a natural laboratory where one can observe the diversity of both geological and biological phenomena, a thorough understanding of which is vital for the development of rational resource-use policies. The HKT Workshops, since their inception in 1985, have become an important forum for sharing scientific knowledge and experience. The present workshop, held in Japan, will include a special session on “Uplift of the Himalaya-Tibet region and the Asian Monsoon: Interactions among Tectonic Events, Climatic Change and Biotic Responses during Late Tertiary to Recent Times”. Despite its distance from the HKT region, Japan is an appropriate venue for the workshops. The northern side of Japan, facing the Japan Sea, experiences some of the world’s highest annual snowfall. The Japanese monsoon (tsuyu) occurs in June. Thanks to the water derived from snowmelt, together with the accompanying rainfall during the tsuyu, Japan has evolved a remarkable form of rice cultivation. It was the uplift of the HKT region that was essential to this development, which in the old days was called a toyo-ashihara-no-mizuho-no- kuni (literally, “beautiful country of rice”). If the HKT region in its present form did not exist, Japan probably would have no monsoon and conditions would be very different from those of today. This special issue of the Himalayan Journal of Sciences contains one hundred and thirty-six abstracts. One hundred and fifty scholars from fourteen countries have pre-registered for the Workshop. It is our hope that all the participants will take advantage of this meeting to express their views, listen to the opinions of others, and exchange scientific knowledge. The Organizing Committee would like to express its sincere thanks to the many organizations and enterprises that provided financial support and facilitated the participation of many scholars from the HKT region (China, India, Nepal, Pakistan) and Japan (especially graduate students from abroad). Twenty-one participants received registration grants and sixteen received grants covering registration and full or partial travel expenses. Furthermore, special gratitude is expressed to Prof. Arvind K. Jain for his assistance in evaluating the abstracts, to Prof. Mitsuhiro Nakagawa for his generous offer to lead an excursion to the active volcanic area of Mt. Usu, and to Mr. Takahiro Tajima for managing the HKT19 homepage. Members of the Organizing Committee of the 19th Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet Workshop: Kazunori ARITA (Hokkaido University) Kazuhisa CHIKITA (Hokkaido University) Pitambar GAUTAM (Hokkaido University) Shuji IIWATA (Tokyo Metropolitan University) Takashi NAKATA (Hiroshima University) Hiroshi NISHI (Hokkaido University) Harutaka SAKAI (Kyushu University) Tetsuya SAKAI (Shimane University) Teiji WATANABE (Hokkaido University) HIMALAYAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCES VOL 2 ISSUE 4 (SPECIAL ISSUE) JULY 2004 77 Editorial Policy Himalayan Journal of Sciences (ISSN 1727 5210) is a peer-reviewed multi-disciplinary journal published twice yearly. HJS focuses on biodiversity, natural resource management, ecology and environment, and other fields related to Himalayan conservation, and develop- ment. HJS invites authors to communicate their knowledge and uncertainties from all the sciences. HJS publishes works in the following genres: i)i)i) Research papers:papers report on original research ii)ii)ii) Review papers: thorough account of current developments and trajectories in any field covered in the journal iii)iii)iii) ArticlesArticlesArticles: narrowly-focused account of a current development in any field covered in the journal iv)iv)iv) EditorialEditorialEditorial: opinionated essay on an issue of public interest v)v)v) EssayEssayEssay: similar to editorial but longer and more comprehensive; may include tables and figures vi)vi)vi) Commentary and Correspondence:Correspondence persuasive and informed commentary on any topical issues or on articles published in prior issues of the journal vii)vii)vii) PolicyPolicyPolicy: critical review of some topic of high public interest, hybrid of essay and review article, with the basis of highly valid facts and figures viii)viii)viii) Resource review:review evaluation of books, websites, CDs, etc. pertinent to the scope of HJS ix)ix)ix) Publication preview:preview description/epitome of the forthcoming important books x)x)x) CalenderCalenderCalender: notice of forthcoming conferences, seminars, workshops, and other events related to science and the Himalayas. Permission Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of any article published in HJS for personal use or educational use within one’s home institution is hereby granted without fee, provided that the first page or initial screen of a display includes the notice “Copyright © 2004 by the Himalayan Association for the Advancement of Science,” along with the full citation, including name of author(s). We assert the authors’ moral right to post their papers on their personal or home institution’s Web pages and to make and distribute unlimited photocopies of their papers. In all of the above cases, HimAAS expects to be informed of such use, in advance or as soon as possible. To copy or transmit otherwise, to republish, to post on the public servers, to use any component of a paper in other works, or to use such an article for commercial or promotional purposes requires prior specific permission. HimAAS does not grant permission to copy articles (or parts of articles) that are owned by others. Acknowledgments We would like to acknowledge the logistic support (office space, computers, furniture) of International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD); and we are especially grateful to Dr J Gabriel Campbell and Mrs Greta Rana. We are thankful to Mr Kamal Thapa for providing us with computer facility for page set up and printing and to Manpur Chaudhary for assistance. The generous help of Dr Megh Raj Dhital in proof-reading the manuscripts is highly appreciated. Special Acknowledgments In the business of dissemination of new knowledge relevant to Himalaya, we are assisted in our publication and pre-publication work by certain commercial collaborators. By offering HJS generous discounts (and in some cases waiving all fees), they have significantly reduced