LATE QUATERNARY CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN THE INDIAN MONSOON DOMAIN Praveen Kumar Mishra Fachbereich Geowissenschaften, Freie Universität, Berlin December 2014 Late Quaternary climate variability in the Indian monsoon domain (Spät-quartäre klimavariabilität im Gebiet des Indischen monsun) Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) am Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin vorgelegt von Praveen Kumar Mishra Berlin, 2014 Als Dissertation angenommen vom Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin. auf Grund der Gutachten Erstgutachter: Dr. (Habil) Sushma Prasad Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Cubasch Datum der Verteidigung: den 07 Mai 2015, Berlin Statement of Authorship The thesis entitled “Late Quaternary climate variability in the Indian monsoon domain” has been submitted for the degree of Doctor in Natural Sciences. I hereby declare that: I have fully acknowledged and referenced the ideas and work of others, whether published or unpublished, in my thesis. This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any other institution. Praveen Kumar Mishra Berlin, 2014 Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, PD Dr. Sushma Prasad, for her excellent guidance, motivation, encouragement during my research. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge Prof. Achim Brauer, for permitting access to laboratory facilities and providing a positive working atmosphere during my stay in the section. I would also like to thank Dr. Peter Dulski, Dr. Birgit Plessen, Dr. Georg Schettler and Mr. Rudolf Naumann for training and permitting me to use their laboratories for sample analysis. Without their help and guidance, it would not have been possible to generate and interpret such a large data set. My grateful thanks are due to other members of the research team, Dr. Birgit Gaye, Dr. A. Anoop, Dr. Philip Menzel, Dr. Elisabeth Dietze, Dr. Stefan Polanski, Dr. Martin Wiesner. My investigations would not been possible without the scientific knowledge and active participation of the Indian partners, especially Prof. A.R. Yousuf, Dr. Arshid Jehangir (Kashmir University), and Prof. N. Basavaiah and Dr. K. Deendayalan (Indian Institute of Geomagnetism, Mumbai). Thanks again to Dr. A. Anoop and Dr. Philip Menzel for their helpful and critical comments on this thesis. In addition, I would like to extend special thanks to Ms. Sylvia Pinkerneil and Ms. Christine Gerschke for helping me in navigating though the complicated administrative matters. I owe additional thanks to Dr. Birgit Plessen and Ms Pinkerneil for their help in laboratory and the fieldwork. I would also like to acknowledge Mr. Dieter Berger, Ms. Gabi Arnold and Mr. Brian Brademann for their help during the laboratory work, and Ms. Ursula Kegel for assisting me during the grain size analysis. My sincere thanks to Mr. Andreas Hendrich for helping me with the beautification of figures and graphs for the manuscripts. I express my warm thanks to Mr. Marcus Günzel and Mr. Matthias Köppl for their help with computer related technical matters. I would also like to thank Arun, Bernhard and the students of Potsdam University, who provided their valuable help during sample processing. My study would not have been possible without Mr. Richard Niederreiter, Mr. Michael Köhler, and Mr. Daniel Niederreiter who were responsible for raising the cores from the Tso Moriri Lake in difficult weather conditions. I thank to all my friends from our ‘Potsdam Gang’ for the unforgettable fun time in Potsdam’s Balzac coffee house’ and enjoyable discussions on various aspect of science, politics and culture. I warmly thank Tarique and Chiranjit for helping me with the editing of the thesis. Additionally, special thanks go to Dharmu, JD bhai, Nishant, Rajak bhai, Sandeep, Somu, Varun, and Vinay for their wonderful and unforgettable friendship, and their encouragement for doing research. Finally, I express my sincere thanks to my father Mr. R.K. Mishra, my mother Mrs. Shila Mishra, and all my family members, for their constant encouragement and support in untold ways. This Ph.D. study has been carried out as part of the research unit “Himalaya: Modern and Past Climates (HIMPAC)” (FOR 1380) which is funded by the “DeutscheForschungsGemeinschaft”. Praveen Kumar Mishra Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................... I List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................... II Abstract ...................................................................................................................................................... III Kurzfassung ................................................................................................................................................ IV Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1. The modern climate system ......................................................................................................... 2 1.1.2. Forcing factors and teleconnections ............................................................................................ 5 1.2. STATE OF THE ART ............................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.1. Literature review: Palaeomonsoon studies .................................................................................. 9 1.3. MOTIVATION AND OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................................... 13 1.4. STUDY AREA ...................................................................................................................................... 15 1.4.1. Tso Moriri Lake, NW Himalaya ............................................................................................... 15 1.4.2. Lonar Lake, central India .......................................................................................................... 16 1.5. ORGANISATION OF THESIS ................................................................................................................. 18 Chapter 2: Limnology and modern sedimentation patterns in high altitude Tso Moriri Lake, NW Himalaya – implications for proxy development ..................................................................................... 20 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 3: Reconstructed late quaternary hydrological changes from Lake Tso Moriri, NW- Himalaya ..................................................................................................................................................... 47 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 47 3.1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 48 3.2. STUDY AREA ...................................................................................................................................... 50 3.2.1. Regional climate ........................................................................................................................ 50 3.2.2. Geology ..................................................................................................................................... 50 3.2.3. Hydrology .................................................................................................................................. 50 3.2.4. Modern vegetation ..................................................................................................................... 51 3.3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................. 51 3.3.1. Coring and core correlation ....................................................................................................... 51 3.3.2. Chronology ................................................................................................................................ 53 3.3.3. Laboratory methods ................................................................................................................... 53 3.4. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................................ 55 3.4.1. Lithology ................................................................................................................................... 55 3.4.2. Radiocarbon dating ................................................................................................................... 56 3.4.3. Geochemistry and mineralogy ................................................................................................... 56 3.4.4. Grain-size distribution ..............................................................................................................