SPREAD OF LOESS AND MARCH OF DESERT IN WESTERN INDIA

Recent studies on loess deposits and deserts have provided clues to cl imatic change in the Quaternary period in the Indian sub-continent. Th e palaeoclimatic record in the Thar Desert apparently dates back to ap proximately 200 ka., while the loess-palaeosol succession in the Kashm ir Basin in NW Himalaya parallels deep-sea oxygen isotope record up to Stage 9. The desert lakes have preserved record of climatic fluctuati ons from Terminal Pleistocene onwards. Loess deposits in the basins of the Son and the Belan rivers in north-central India are good indicato rs of the areal extent of the Quaternary aridity in the sub-continent.