• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.51-85
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• 1988

The understanding of the faunal sequence and palaeoenvironment of East Asia since the Late Tertiary depends mainly on the knowledge of Chinese fauna and its environmental changes. The recent Chinese researches including geology, geomorphology, climats fluctuation and loess distribution of this area have provided that the rapid uplifting of Himalayas and Qinghai/Xizang Plateau since the Lower Pleistocene was a main selective factor for the process of environmental changes in this vast territory. Although different concepts of the Plio-Pleistocene boundary have been provided, its boundary can not exceed over 2 mya. Instead of the traditional zoogeographical dicthomy in China, faunal compositions of Pleistocene are divided into three faunal zones. The knowledge of macrofaunal evolution in China are useful to understand the palaeoecology of East Asia. Palaeoenvironment of Korea during the Pleistocene Period can be reconstructed by using the analogy of the current Chinese studies.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.2 s.119
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• pp.165-176
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• 2007

Absolute age of the deposition of 1.3 km-thick Bunthang sequence within the Skardu intermontane basin of the Central Karakoram was determined using radioactive decay of cosmogonic $^{10}Be$ and $^{26}Al$ burial dating. The Bunthang sequence deposited around 2.65 Ma, which is the oldest glaciation in the region. The timing of deposition of the Bunthang sequence is consistent with the previous suggestion that the basin filling took place between Brunhess and Matuyama chrons. Four major sedimentary facies interfinger within the Bunthang sequence: glacial diamict, lacustrine, fluvial and lacustrine facies upward. This sedimentary distinctiveness and the lack of evidence on the faults for alternative pull-apart basin model around the Bunthang sequence, suggest that the depressional basin was formed by deep subglacial erosion during the exrtensive Bunthang Glacial Stage and subsequently the sediments underlain by basal diamict, was quickly deposited by preglacial and paraglacial processes. Temporary ponding of the Indus River due to tectonic uplift in the downstream or blockage by mass movements might make the basin filing more possible. The hypothesis that the single ice sheet developed on the Tibetan Plateau during the global last glacial cycle should be refuted by the existence of the older extensive Bunthang glacier Furthermore, the extensive glaciation during the early Quaternary (and thus progressive decrease in extent with time) suggests that there may have been significant uplift of the Pamir to the west and Himalaya to the south, which would have reduced the penetration of westerlies and Indian summer monsoon and hence moisture supply to the region.