Not Only Himalayan Pink Salt is Paleo

About 200 million years ago, when Pangaea began to break apart, India plate which had been separated by the vast ocean from Eurasia plate since 225 million years ago, started to forge northward into Asian continent, followed by the close of Mesozoic. When the two large landmasses collided about 50 million years ago during Cenozoic driven by the plate-tectonic movement and rock density, the pressure of impingement forced the plates skyward, and marked the beginning of the uplifts of immense Himalaya mountain range and peaks, including Mt. Everest, who had risen to more than 9km high in just 50 million years. The impinging of the two landmasses, India and Eurasia, has yet to end. Many import stories of Himalayan climate history as well as the Earth's current period related to the past, has yet to be told. 

Credit: Zhu Jing (writer), on the way from Skadu  to Baltoro Glacier, K2 Base Camp Trekking 2015

                 Credit: Zhu Jing (writer), Walking on Baltoro Glacier to Concordia campsite, K2 Base Camp Trekking 2015

In this week’s Paleoclimate seminar, Dr Philip Pogge von Strandmann from UCL's Earth Sciences department gave a talk about carbon release rate during past 66 million years, I have got to know the chemical weathering of silicate rocks is one of processes to remove CO2 from the ocean-atmosphere system besides of the well-known process of organic carbon burial. Apart from Himalayan clay mineral and carbonates suitable to reveal climatic variation during a span of time, there are many other additive multi-proxies such as ancient tree rings, moraines (debris and masses of land built up by glaciers),  carbon isotopes, pollen, marine and terrestrial deposits, major and trace elements. They all may contain an amount of useful information, to reveal and establish the past climate.They come from the past, provide an inspiration and contribution for paleoclimate reconstruction, and help scientists to develop sophisticated technology for a higher resolution study with minimum variations. 

You see, not only the lovely Himalaya Pink Salt on the dinner table can tell us a story of the past of Himalaya ^^

Credit: David Putnam. Tshewang Rigzin (Department of Hydromet Services, Royal Government of Bhutan) and Aaron Putnam (Columbia) tinkering with a weather station. Geologist Aaron Putnam of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, his father David Putnam, an archaeologist at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and their colleague on a study expeditions along the Silk Road, from the Tien Shan Mountains to the Taklamakan Desert to the Bhutanese Himalayas

Credit: David Putnam. Tshewang Rigzin (Department of Hydromet Services, Royal Government of Bhutan) and guides sampling boulder on the moraine. Geologist Aaron Putnam of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, his father David Putnam, an archaeologist at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and their colleague on a study expeditions along the Silk Road, from the Tien Shan Mountains to the Taklamakan Desert to the Bhutanese Himalayas


In next few posts, I will try to touch on the monsoon theories and proxies data from certain areas in Himalaya with a view to studying the relationship between Himalaya/Tibetan and Indian summer monsoon.