Abstract:During the past decade,extensive geological and geographical explorations into numerous moun-tainous areas and in some of the subjoining piedmont plains have brought home large quantitiesof materials ...During the past decade,extensive geological and geographical explorations into numerous moun-tainous areas and in some of the subjoining piedmont plains have brought home large quantitiesof materials positively proving wide distribution of vanished glaciers of the Great Ice Age.Thematerials include:(1) erratic blocks,(2) faceted,polished pebbles and boulders with typicalglacial striae,(3) planed,polished,gouged and striated rock surface,(4) moraines,(5) epitectonicphenomena,namely tectonic disturbances caused by surface drag on loose and stratified deposits orthe superficial layer of bed rock underneath boulder-clay,(6) ice sculptural land forms damagedto various degrees through inter- and post-glacial erosion. The mountainous area of northwestern Hupei,the Lushan and its surrounding plains,thescenically superb mountains of the Huangshan and parts of the Taipěhshan,in central Yangtzevalley,as well as the mountains on the western border of the Red Basin of Szechuan yieldedreliable evidence for glacial action in the initial stage of our research on the subject.Subsequentinvestigation on a wider scope enabled us to recognize that glacial phenomena also prevailed in theGreat Khingan,Chilienshan(Nanshan)and Tienshan areas.Nor does the Yangtze belt markthe southern limit of glaciation as was once supposed.Indisputable evidence for glaciation hasbeen gathered from Kweichow,Yunnan and even northern Kwangsi in recent years.Even inthe region of North China now characterized by a dry climate we have found unmistakable tracesof glacierization in a number of places,notably in certain spots in the Western Hills of Peking. The materials in hand converge to show the occurrence of poly-glaciation essentially of thecorrie type in northern and southern China separated by inter-glacial periods of genial or evensubtropical climate. Many important problems however still remain unsolved.The more significant ones concern:(1) the origin of boulder- and-clay deposits and their associated gravels in places where they areonly partly preserved on a terrace tread or levelled down to a plain in the lowland often coveredby loess or other superficial deposits,(2) the question of demarcation between glacial and inter-glacial periods and of the age of these periods,(3) the question as to whether some or all of sucharctic faunal and floral elements as Coelodonta antiquitatis,Mammuthus primigenius,Saxifraga,Botrychium lunaria,and of the warm climate ones such as Rhinoceros mercki,Bubalus,Ulmus,Salix lived side by side or in separate periods,(4) the question as to how the proved or suspectedglacial and fluvio-glacial deposits are related to the different formations of Huang-Tu(loess),(5) the division of physiographic stages from the point of view of alternating glacial and inter-glacial climates and the influence of post-glacial erosion upon the superimposed erosional effectson past land surfaces throughout the glacial and inter-glacial periods.Read More
Publication Year: 1961
Publication Date: 1961-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 6
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