• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.159-178
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• 2012

Since the suggestions on the paleo-glacial landforms in and around the northern high mountains of Korean Peninsula by some western and Japanese scientists in the early 1900s, the likelihood of the glacier existence in the Baekdusan over the Quaternary glacial period has been had in common among most of the Korean geomorphologists. In the other meaning, some have cast doubt on the likelihood the paleo-glacier in the Baekdusan because there has been no unequivocal evidences for the glacier such as striation, moraines, except morphologic characteristic landforms possibly related to glacier. Here we show some evidences for the existence of the glacier in the Baekdusan and their cosmogenic $^{36}Cl$ exposure ages over the late Quaternary and would put forward a model on the Quaternary landscape evolution of the Baekdusan, with a focus on the relationship of 1000 AD explosive eruption and the glacial landforms. The exposure ages constrained by cosmogenic $^{36}Cl$ abundances of the col surface of the western slope located below the glacier yield 46~26 ka, which is inphase with the last glacial period. Given all the evidences above, we can draw a conclusion that the glacier existed on the Baekdusan over the late Quaternary and the style of glaciation changed from extensive ice cap through valley glacier to restricted cirque.