Chronology of late Quaternary glaciation in the Pindar valley, Alaknanda basin, Central Himalaya (India) Rameshwar Bali a,⇑ , S. Nawaz Ali b , K.K. Agarwal a , Saurabh Kumar Rastogi a , Kalyan Krishna a , Pradeep Srivastava c a Department of Geology, Lucknow University, Lucknow, UP, India b Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India c Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, UK article info Article history: Received 5 July 2012 Received in revised form 1 January 2013 Accepted 6 January 2013 Available online xxxx Keywords: Chronology of glaciation Moraine stratigraphy OSL dating Pindari glacier Central Himalaya abstract Palaeoglacial reconstruction based on geomorphological mapping in the Pindari glacier valley, Alaknanda basin (Central Himalaya), has revealed five glacial stages with decreasing magnitude. The oldest and most extensive stage-I glaciation deposited sediments at 2200 masl (Khati village). The stage-II glaciation was around 7 km long and luminescence dated to 25 ± 2 ka, and has deposits at 3200 masl (Phurkia vil- lage). Stage-III glaciation is represented by degraded linear moraine ridges and is dated to 6 ± 1 ka and its remnants can be found around 3850 masl. A sharp crested crescentic moraine extending from around 3650 masl to 3900 masl is attributed to stage-IV glaciation and is dated to 3 ± 1 ka. Following this, there appears to have been a gradual recession in Pindari glacier as indicated by four sharp crested unconsol- idated moraines (stage-V) on the valley floor which abuts the stage-IV moraine. We suggest that the stage-I glaciation occurred during the cool and wet Marine Isotopic Stage 3/4 (MIS- 3/4), stage-II glaciations began with the onset of MIS-2, whereas the stage-III and IV glaciations occurred during the mid-to late Holocene (MIS-1). We speculate that the first sharp crested unconsolidated mor- aines around 3600 masl correspond to the later phase of the Little Ice Age (LIA). Historical data suggests that the remaining three ridges represent Pindari glacier snout positions at 1906, 1958 and 1965. We argue that the late Quaternary glaciations in the Pindar valley were modulated by changing insolation and summer monsoon intensity including the LIA, whereas the 20th century recessional trends can be attributed to post-LIA warming. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Mountain glaciers are important geomorphic agents. They cre- ate landforms and provide reliable evidence of cryosphere evolu- tion, and contain important information on past depositional and erosional processes (Zhao et al., 2009). The Himalayan–Tibetan orogen is the most glaciated regions outside of the polar realm (Owen, 2009). Despite the importance of glaciation in high Asia, there is no strong regional pattern for the Himalayan glaciation. It is felt that there is a need for accurate reconstructions of the for- mer extent of glaciers in order to provide valuable data for palae- oenvironmental modelling (Owen et al., 1997). Thus local glacial chronologies need to be developed to elucidate this. Kame terraces, wide ‘U’ shaped valleys, relict moraine ridges and proglacial lake deposits mark the extent of former glaciations. These features have been formed several km downstream of present day snouts (Owen et al., 1998). Most studies indicate multiple glacial advances in the Himalaya, quantitative estimates of their timing remained sparse. Due to the paucity of organic material in the moraines, conven- tional radiocarbon-dating has limited use (Owen et al., 2002). However, with the advent of optically dating technique, better understanding is emerging towards the factors responsible for gla- ciations in the Himalayan region. Chronologically constrained evidence of past glaciations in the monsoon dominated Central Himalayan region are scanty (Sharma and Owen, 1996; Pant et al., 2006; Nainwal et al., 2007). Existing studies suggest that, during the late Quaternary, glaciers broadly responded to changing intensities of the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM). It is important to mention that most of late Quaternary gla- ciation studies were from glaciers located in the transitional zone between the higher Himalaya and the Trans-Himalaya where the influence of the southwest summer monsoon is regulated by the orographic higher Himalayan barrier. However, the Pindari glacier is on the southern face of the higher Himalaya and therefore pro- vides a rare opportunity to understand the temporal variability in ISM and its impact on glacier dynamics. In addition to this, the Pindari glacier is one of the few glaciers in the Indian Himalaya, 1367-9120/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2013.01.011 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: rameshbali@rediffmail.com (R. Bali). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences xxx (2013) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Asian Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jseaes Please cite this article in press as: Bali, R., et al. Chronology of late Quaternary glaciation in the Pindar valley, Alaknanda basin, Central Himalaya (India). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2013.01.011