Pulsed rise and growth of the Tibetan Plateau to its northern margin since ca. 30 Ma

Weitao Wang; Peizhen Zhang; Carmala N Garzione; Caicai Liu; Zhuqi Zhang; Jianzhang Pang; Yizhou Wang; Dewen Zheng; Wenjun Zheng; Huiping Zhang

doi:10.1073/pnas.2120364119

Pulsed rise and growth of the Tibetan Plateau to its northern margin since ca. 30 Ma

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Feb 22;119(8):e2120364119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2120364119.

Authors

Weitao Wang^{1

2}, Peizhen Zhang^{3

2}, Carmala N Garzione^{4

5}, Caicai Liu⁶, Zhuqi Zhang⁶, Jianzhang Pang⁶, Yizhou Wang⁶, Dewen Zheng⁷, Wenjun Zheng^{3

2}, Huiping Zhang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Earth Science and Geological Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, 510275 Guangzhou, China; wangweitao@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
² Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), 519080 Zhuhai, China.
³ School of Earth Science and Geological Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, 510275 Guangzhou, China.
⁴ College of Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.
⁵ Department of the Earth and Environment Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, 100029 Beijing, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640 Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

The onset of mountain building along margins of the Tibetan Plateau provides a key constraint on the processes by which the high topography in Eurasia formed. Although progressive expansion of thickened crust underpins most models, several studies suggest that the northern extent of the plateau was established early, soon after the collision between India and Eurasia at ca. 50 Ma. This inference relies heavily on the age and provenance of Cenozoic sediments preserved in the Qaidam basin. Here, we present evidence in the northern plateau for a considerably younger inception and evolution of the Qaidam basin, based on magnetostratigraphies combined with detrital apatite fission-track ages that date the basin fills to be from ca. 30 to 4.8 Ma. Detrital zircon-provenance analyses coupled with paleocurrents reveal that two-stage growth of the Qilian Shan in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau began at ca. 30 and at 10 Ma, respectively. Evidence for ca. 30 and 10 to 15 Ma widespread synchronous deformation throughout the Tibetan Plateau and its margins suggests that these two stages of outward growth may have resulted from the removal of mantle lithosphere beneath different portions of the Tibetan Plateau.

Keywords: Qaidam basin; magnetostratigraphy; northeastern Tibetan Plateau.