Alpine Glaciation and Mass-Movement Relief Production in the Western Himalaya

气候力、构造活动和地表过程都被认为是影响高山地区地形起伏变化的因素，但这种相互作用发生的复杂动力仍然存在相当大的不确定性。对基于实地的地貌工作和数值模拟都有相当大的需求，数值模拟是对救济生产的主要控制。这项研究项目将实施一个3-D动态景观演变模型，以便于调查与尺度相关的地表过程、侵蚀速率和地貌生产。研究目的是评估高山冰川作用和物质运动对喀喇昆仑喜马拉雅高山K2地貌的多成因影响。具体目标包括：对高海拔切割的冰川阶地进行测年，以重建冰川年代学；冰雹、物质运动沉积和河流沉积的地形分析和地貌测绘；巴尔托罗冰川的冰川学特征；古气候模拟研究；以及数字景观模拟研究。研究人员将通过详细的实地调查、先进的遥感、地形分析和控制地貌生产的内部和外部因素的数值模拟来推进这一项目。该项目应该有助于从学术上理解深度冰川侵蚀、普遍的物质运动、季风冰川增强、多成因地貌生产，以及综合的尺度相关的地貌演变模型，以了解喀喇昆仑地貌生产的一级地球动力学。这些结果为人们普遍认为的地表过程对救济生产的作用以及关于构造是否推动了长期气候变化的辩论提供了新的见解。就更广泛的影响而言，项目成果将产生新的分析方法，用于使用卫星图像和数字高程模型评估复杂地形上的山脉地貌，开发用于研究和教育的景观模拟模型，并阐明景观潜在的危险。对喀喇昆仑喜马拉雅高山冰川和大规模运动的研究还应为利用空间数据评估和绘制山区环境地图的各种学科提供新的能力。

Climatic forces, tectonic activity, and surface processes are all known to interact with each other as factors that influence the transformation of topographic relief in high mountain regions, but considerable uncertainty remains regarding the complex dynamics through which such interactions occur. Considerable need exists for both field-based geomorphological work and for numerical simulations that account for the dominant controls on relief production. This research project will implement a 3-D dynamic landscape-evolution model to facilitate investigation of scale-dependent surface processes, erosion rates, and relief production. The research objective is to evaluate the polygenetic influence of alpine glaciation and mass-movements on relief production at K2 in the high mountains of the Karakoram Himalaya. Specific objectives include dating of high-level, rock-cut glacial terraces to reconstruct a chronology of glaciation; terrain analysis and geomorphological mapping of moraines, mass-movement deposits, and fluvial deposits; glaciological characterization of the Baltoro Glacier; paleoclimate simulation studies; and numerical landscape simulation studies. The investigators will pursue this project through detailed fieldwork, advanced remote sensing, terrain analysis, and numerical modeling of the internal and external factors that govern relief production.The project should contribute to scholarly understanding about deep glacial erosion, pervasive mass movement, monsoonal glacier augmentation, polygenetic relief production, and integrated scale-dependent landscape evolution modeling to understand the first-order geodynamics of relief production in the Karakoram. The results to provide new insights into commonly perceived notions about the role of surface processes on relief production and the debate on whether tectonics has driven long-term climate change or vice versa. In terms of broader impacts, the project results should yield new analytical methods for using satellite imagery and digital elevation models in the assessment of mountain geomorphology over intractable topography, development of a landscape simulation model for research and education, and elucidation of landscape hazard potential. The study of alpine glaciation and mass movement in the Karakoram Himalaya also should provide new capabilities to a wide variety of disciplines for assessing and mapping mountain environments using spatial data.