Quantifying Wind Erosion During the Late Quaternary in the Qaidam Basin, Central Asia

Wind erosion is an important surface process on terrestrial planets but is difficult to quantify particularly on long-term timescales. Here we use high-resolution Terrestrial Laser Scanning and cosmogenic Beryllium-10 (Be-10) exposure dating to investigate the yardangs, a wind-eroded landform with aerodynamic forms, within the western Qaidam Basin, Central Asia. The results indicate that the yardangs started to form at similar to 105 ka, coincident with the early phase of the arid last glacial period. We further calibrated the wind erosion rate in the last glacial period to be similar to 0.26 mm/a, twice as fast as that of the present-day interglacial period in our study site. Our results highlight the severe wind erosion during glacial periods and emphasize the fundamental control of global glacial-interglacial climate oscillations on the secular variation in wind erosion in the Qaidam Basin during the late Quaternary period.