Plio‐Pleistocene Establishment of Irtysh River in Junggar, Northwest China: Implications for Siberian‐Arctic River System Evolution and Resulting Climate Impact

The influence of Siberian freshwater input to the Arctic Ocean on Northern Hemisphere ice‐sheet expansions remains poorly known due to the incomplete geologic record of Siberian‐Arctic river systems during the late Pliocene. The Irtysh River is a major Siberian river, rising from the Altay Mountains, northwestern China, and flowing 4,282 km before joining the Ob River. Here, we present new field evidence and chronological data from a combination of cosmogenic 21Ne and 26Al/10Be measurements that constrain the establishment of the Irtysh River to ca. 2.77+0.39/‐0.33 Ma. These first quantitative chronological results, together with previous sedimentological, geomorphological, and geochemical evidence, support a young Siberian‐Arctic river system. Its coincidence with the late Pliocene ice‐sheet expansions in the Northern Hemisphere implies a profound impact of Siberian freshwater input to the Arctic on the major ice advances that significantly affected global oceanographic and climatic systems.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Geophysical Research Letters

• Publication date

  2021-06-08

• Fields of study

  Geology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1029/2021GL093217
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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