青藏高原大冰盖假说的提出与扬弃

M.Kuhle自20世纪80年代,提出青藏高原冰期发育大冰盖假说,连续发表20多篇文章,喧闹一时,吸引很多人注意,一批中国学者首先反对,不少欧、美、日等国学者专程为此问题上高原考察,结果均持异议。1991年第13届INQUA大会前后,很多学者参加的横贯青藏高原考察,未能看到冰盖假说的任何实证。IGCP计划253项为此问题设立的成问题冰盖工作组,工作组组长N.Rutter专文评论M.Kuhle假说中的许多错误,认为绝大多数学者均拒绝接受冰盖论,但M.Kuhle仍坚持其原先论点。现在可以说在科学讨论中大冰盖假说实际上被扬弃了

THE EMERGENCE AND ABANDONMENT OF THE ICE SHEET HYPOTHESIS OVER THE QINGHAI-XIZANG PLATEAU DURING THE ICE AGE

M. Kuhle put forward the presence of a large ice sheet over the Qinghai Xizang Plateau during the Ice Age in the middle of 1980s and published scores of papers to have disseminated his views. He began with the inference that the equilibrium line on both the southern and the northern margin of the plateau during Last Glacial Maximum was lowered by 1 100m to 1 500m, much lowered than that at present, dropping to 4 000m asl on the south slope of the Himalaya and 3 700m on the north slope of the Qilian Mountains. The whole plateau surface was therefore considered to be above the equilibrium line and a large ice sheet with an area of 2～2.4 million km 2 and a thickness of 700～1 200m could be developed. He regarded this hypothesis as the real truth and used it to explain various geomorphological and Quaternary phenomena of the Plateau. He further suggested that the uplifting of the Plateau was caused by the glacioisostacy process. M. Kuhle’s hypothesis on ice sheet was blustered for a while and attracted international attention widely. Chinese scientists firstly pointed out that this hypothesis was not consistent with the reality in the Plateau. Later, the investigations in the Plateau by several European, American and Japanese scientists also demoralized this hypothesis. In 1991, many western scientists having participated in the 13 th INQUA conference held in Beijing, did a field trip to the Qinghai Xizang Plateau and revealed again the serious misunderstanding of M. Kuhle’s hypothesis. The IGCP 253 organized a working group, headed by N. Rutter in order to resolve the confused questions on the Ice Sheet during 1991～1995. Finally, N. Rutter pointed out a lot of mistakes of the ice sheet hypothesis and clearly supported Chinese scientists’ explanations in a special paper. Althouth M. Kuhle still slick his views, the inadequate hypothesis on ice sheet has virtually been given up.