“Greatest lake period” and its palaeo-environment on the Tibetan Plateau

The “greatest lake period” means that the lakes are in the stage of their maximum areas. As the paleo lake shorelines are widely distributed in the lake basins on the Tibetan Plateau, the lake areas during the “greatest lake period” may be inferred by the last highest lake shorelines. They are several, even tens times larger than that at present. According to the analyses of tens of lakes on the Plateau, most dating data fell into the range of 40-25 ka BP, some lasted to 20 ka BP. It was corresponded to the stage 3 of marine isotope and interstitial of last glaciation. The occurrence of maximum areas of lakes marked the very humid period on the Plateau and was also related to the stronger summer monsoon during that period.

青藏高原大湖期

青藏高原湖盆中古湖岸线分布广泛 ,从最高湖岸线的分布确定的大湖期湖泊面积 ,一般比现代湖泊面积大数倍至十多倍。据高原不同地区的十多个湖泊沉积测年数据分析 ,大湖期的年代大致相近 ,在 40～ 2 5ka BP居多 ,有的可能延续至 2 0 ka BP,与深海氧同位素 3阶段、末次冰期间冰段相当。该时期高原环境特别湿润。大湖期的形成与该时期亚洲夏季风特别强盛有关。