The raising and westward expansion of central Tibet

Understanding the Cenozoic growth history of the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau (HTP) is essential for elucidating the underlying geodynamic mechanism and interactions among topography, biosphere and atmosphere. However, the spatial-temporal evolution of the HTP, especially that of the Paleogene Central Tibetan Valley (CTV), remains hotly debated. In this study, through radiometric geochronology, plant assemblages, oxygen and clumped isotope paleoaltimetries, we reconstruct the uplift history of the east-west-oriented Luolong Basin in eastern Tibet. Results show that the Luolong Basin was at 0.6 (+0.2/-0.4) km at ca. 54-46 Ma, then rose to 2.9 ± 0.9 km at ca. 44 Ma. The newly discovered Luolong Flora indicates the Eocene CTV extending into eastern Tibet, and that the valley was higher in the east, sloping to the west, inferring a westward progressive rise of the valley floor. Integrated evidence from paleomagnetism, magmatism and seismic tomography suggests that the birth of the near modern plateau is attributed to the stepwise delamination (drip) of the subducted Lhasa lithosphere from east to west.

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Publication Details

Journal
National Science Review
Published
2025-02-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf058
Citations
11
Primary Topic
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
14.31
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article

The raising and westward expansion of central Tibet

Yin Zheng, Robert A. Spicer, Fulong Cai, Zhongyu Xiong et al.
11 citations
National Science Review
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
14.31
article

The raising and westward expansion of central Tibet

Yin Zheng, Robert A. Spicer, Fulong Cai, Zhongyu Xiong, Jing Xie, Wenqing Ding, Chenyuan Zhao, Songlin He, Lin Ding, Yahui Yue, Houqi Wang, Chao Wang, Jinxiang Li, Xiaoyan Xu, Deng Zeng, Amaneh Kaveh-Firouz
article en
11 citations

Abstract

Understanding the Cenozoic growth history of the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau (HTP) is essential for elucidating the underlying geodynamic mechanism and interactions among topography, biosphere and atmosphere. However, the spatial-temporal evolution of the HTP, especially that of the Paleogene Central Tibetan Valley (CTV), remains hotly debated. In this study, through radiometric geochronology, plant assemblages, oxygen and clumped isotope paleoaltimetries, we reconstruct the uplift history of the east-west-oriented Luolong Basin in eastern Tibet. Results show that the Luolong Basin was at 0.6 (+0.2/-0.4) km at ca. 54-46 Ma, then rose to 2.9 ± 0.9 km at ca. 44 Ma. The newly discovered Luolong Flora indicates the Eocene CTV extending into eastern Tibet, and that the valley was higher in the east, sloping to the west, inferring a westward progressive rise of the valley floor. Integrated evidence from paleomagnetism, magmatism and seismic tomography suggests that the birth of the near modern plateau is attributed to the stepwise delamination (drip) of the subducted Lhasa lithosphere from east to west.

National Science ReviewVol. 12(5)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), The Open University (GB), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Ecosystem Sciences (AU)
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
14.31
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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