Impressive Quaternary lacustrine deposits are present as terrace remna
nts throughout the Karakoram Mountains, northern Pakistan. They are ma
inly the result of damming of drainage systems during glacial advances
or by catastrophic mass movement deposits. The longevity of most lake
s is relatively short, in the order of years to tens of years, but sed
imentation rates are extremely high as a consequence of the high sedim
ent loads within the rivers. This results in deposits that frequently
exceed 10 m in thickness. The sediments comprise dominantly planar bed
ded, massive and, less commonly, planar laminated, silts, comprising d
etrital quartz, feldspar, mica, calcite, chlorite and illite. A facies
model for lacustrine sedimentation in a high-energy semi-arid high mo
untain region is presented, using case studies from a glacially dammed
palaeolake (Glacial Lake Gilgit) and a debris-flow dammed palaeolake
(Lake Serat). The rapid deposition and absence of organic material res
tricts the usefulness of these lacustrine sediments as proxies for pal
aeoenvironmental reconstruction, but they are helpful in reconstructin
g the former extent of glaciers and illustrating the importance of hig
h-magnitude-low-frequency events, such as landsliding, as formative pr
ocesses contributing to the evolution of the Karakoram landscape.