Timing of exotic, far-traveled boulder emplacement and paleo-outburst flooding in the central Himalayas

Huber, Marius L.; Lupker, Maarten; Gallen, Sean F.; Christl, Marcus; Gajurel, Ananta P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-769-2020

Articles | Volume 8, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-769-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-769-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 3

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

22 Sep 2020

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 22 Sep 2020

Timing of exotic, far-traveled boulder emplacement and paleo-outburst flooding in the central Himalayas

Marius L. Huber, Maarten Lupker, Sean F. Gallen, Marcus Christl, and Ananta P. Gajurel

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-769-2020-supplement

Model code and software

bouldersforpaleohydrology M. L. Huber https://gitlab.com/mlh300/bouldersforpaleohydrology/

Short summary

Large boulders found in two Himalayan valleys show signs of long fluvial transport (>10 km). Paleo-discharges required to mobilize these boulders exceed typical monsoon discharges. Exposure dating shows that a cluster of these boulders was emplaced ca. 5 kyr ago. This period is coeval with a weakening of the Indian monsoon and glacier retreat in the area. We, therefore, suggest that glacier lake outburst floods are likely mechanisms that can explain these exceptional transport processes.