Exposure dating of the giant fossil landslide in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, China
<p><strong>A</strong><strong>bstract:</strong>&#160;The upper reaches of the Yellow River&#160;is located in&#160;the transition zone between the Tibetan Plateau and the Loess&#160;Plateau, of which a large area is covered by extensive loess&#160;deposits. The Tibetan Plateau uplift has resulted in a high&#160;geomorphic activity.&#160;One landslide inventory of this region is compiled, which includes about 100 giant ancient landslides. Furthermore, their positions,&#160;boundaries, area, volume and so on&#160;are managed in geographic information system&#160;(GIS).&#160;The determinations of those giant ancient ages are an important&#160;step towards understanding the causes, frequency, hazards, the earth surface uplift and landscape-lowering rate.&#160;Development of OSL techniques has provided another alternative means of dating landslide and colluvial sediment. There are many challenges&#160;and some problems&#160;of luminescence dating of landslide&#160;and colluvial deposits&#160;because of the insufficiently bleached sediments&#160;condition. There are also some controversial issues existing in present studies of landslide dating by using&#160;Cosmic Ray Exposure (CRE) method.&#160;The study use the landslide pond sediments&#160;and the dammed lake deposits&#160;to dating the giant ancient landslide&#160;using OSL techniques,&#160;the surface of landslide scarp&#160;and boulders&#160;to dating the giant ancient landslide&#160;using CRE.&#160;The two dating&#160;results based on different datable&#160;landslide elements&#160;were&#160;be cross-validated&#160;using the typical giant ancient landslides in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, China.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Giant fossil landslide; cosmogenic&#160;nuclides chronology; luminescence dating, the upper reaches of the Yellow River</p><p>&#160;</p>