TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schwanghart, Wolfgang
A1  - Bernhardt, Anne
A1  - Stolle, Amelie
A1  - Hoelzmann, Philipp
A1  - Adhikari, Basanta R.
A1  - Andermann, Christoff
A1  - Tofelde, Stefanie
A1  - Merchel, Silke
A1  - Rugel, Georg
A1  - Fort, Monique
A1  - Korup, Oliver
T1  - Repeated catastrophic valley infill following medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya
JF  - Science
N2  - Geomorphic footprints of past large Himalayan earthquakes are elusive, although they are urgently needed for gauging and predicting recovery times of seismically perturbed mountain landscapes. We present evidence of catastrophic valley infill following at least three medieval earthquakes in the Nepal Himalaya. Radiocarbon dates from peat beds, plant macrofossils, and humic silts in fine-grained tributary sediments near Pokhara, Nepal’s second-largest city, match the timing of nearby M > 8 earthquakes in ~1100, 1255, and 1344 C.E. The upstream dip of tributary valley fills and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry of their provenance rule out local sources. Instead, geomorphic and sedimentary evidence is consistent with catastrophic fluvial aggradation and debris flows that had plugged several tributaries with tens of meters of calcareous sediment from a Higher Himalayan source >60 kilometers away.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac9865
SN  - 0036-8075
SN  - 1095-9203
VL  - 351
SP  - 147
EP  - 150
PB  - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Stolle, Amelie
A1  - Bernhardt, Anne
A1  - Schwanghart, Wolfgang
A1  - Hoelzmann, Philipp
A1  - Adhikari, Basanta R.
A1  - Fort, Monique
A1  - Korup, Oliver
T1  - Catastrophic valley fills record large Himalayan earthquakes, Pokhara, Nepal
JF  - Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal
KW  - Catastrophic valley infill
KW  - Great Himalayan earthquakes
KW  - Radiocarbon age dating
KW  - Provenance analysis
KW  - Paleoseismology
KW  - Nepal
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.10.015
SN  - 0277-3791
VL  - 177
SP  - 88
EP  - 103
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Menges, Johanna
A1  - Hovius, Niels
A1  - Andermann, Christoff
A1  - Dietze, Michael
A1  - Swoboda, Charlie
A1  - Cook, Kristen L.
A1  - Adhikari, Basanta R.
A1  - Vieth-Hillebrand, Andrea
A1  - Bonnet, Stephane
A1  - Reimann, Tony
A1  - Koutsodendris, Andreas
A1  - Sachse, Dirk
T1  - Late holocene landscape collapse of a trans-himalayan dryland
BT  - human impact and aridification
JF  - Geophysical research letters
N2  - Soil degradation is a severe and growing threat to ecosystem services globally. Soil loss is often nonlinear, involving a rapid deterioration from a stable eco-geomorphic state once a tipping point is reached. Soil loss thresholds have been studied at plot scale, but for landscapes, quantitative constraints on the necessary and sufficient conditions for tipping points are rare. Here, we document a landscape-wide eco-geomorphic tipping point at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and quantify its drivers and erosional consequences. We show that in the upper Kali Gandaki valley, Nepal, soil formation prevailed under wetter conditions during much of the Holocene. Our data suggest that after a period of human pressure and declining vegetation cover, a 20% reduction of relative humidity and precipitation below 200 mm/year halted soil formation after 1.6 ka and promoted widespread gullying and rapid soil loss, with irreversible consequences for ecosystem services.
KW  - geomorphology
KW  - paleoclimate
KW  - human activity
KW  - Tibetan plateau
KW  - late Holocene
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084192
SN  - 0094-8276
SN  - 1944-8007
VL  - 46
IS  - 23
SP  - 13814
EP  - 13824
PB  - American Geophysical Union
CY  - Washington
ER  -