ON THE UPPER QUATERNARY PALEOECOLOGY OF EASTERN TIBET - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS OF AN EXPEDITION TO THE EASTERN TIBETAN PLATEAU, 1992

During a joint Chinese-German expedition through West Sichuan and the eastern half of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, in the summer of 1992, geologi cal and geomorphological field observations proved that there did not exist a Pleistocene inland ice. This was corroborated by several TL-da ta and by the analysis of quartz-grain surfaces by means of the scanni ng electron microscope. Just like during the 1989 expedition more than 1 250 year-old living juniper trees were found at about 4 600 m a.s.l . to the northwest of Qamdo, which helps to understand the climate his tory of the last 1 500 a there. Dendrochronological investigations on lateral and end-moraines prove that in the area the recent glacier adv ances happened between 1 820 and 1 860 A.D.