山西宁武吕梁山北段第四纪冰川遗迹的发现及意义

山西宁武吕梁山北段,平均海拔约2000米,相对高差数百米至千米左右,属中山区。第四纪冰川遗迹十分发育,类型多种多样,特征明显。冰川遗迹有：U形谷、刃脊、角峰、冰斗、冰窖及分布于U形谷中的大量冰川漂砾、冰碛、冰水堆积、冰臼、变形砾石、条痕石等。该区古冰川遗迹的大量发现,不仅证明了我国东部中低山区有大量第四纪冰川运动存在,而且冰川规模之大完全出乎人们意料之外。为研究该区古气候、古环境演化提供重要依据,为我国第四纪冰期划分和对比提供重要资料和证据。

DISCOVERY OF QUATERNARY REMNANTS OF GLACIATION IN THE NORTHERN SEGMENT OF THE LULIANG MOUNTAINS,NINGWU,SHANXI,AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

Lying at an average elevation of~2000 m above sea level and a relative elevation of a few hundred to about one thousand meters, the northern segment of the Lüliang Mountains, Ningwu, Shanxi, belongs to a medium mountain area.In the area Quaternary remnants of glaciation are very well developed and there are a great variety of types with distinctive features.They include U-valleys, knifeedge crests, horns, cirques and firn-basins, as well as many glacial erratic boulders, outwash sediments, moulins, deformed pebbles and streak pebbles in U-valleys.The discovery of abundant Quaternary remnants of glaciation in the northern segment of the Lüliang Mountains, Ningwu, Shanxi, not only proves the existence of many Quaternary glacial movements in the medium and low mountain areas in eastern China, but, as the scale of the glaciers are larger than was expected, the discovery also provides an important basis for the study of the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental evolution and important data and evidence for the division and correlation of China''s Quaternary glacial stages.