East‐Central Asian Climate Evolved With the Northward Migration of the High Proto‐Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

The evolution of Cenozoic climate patterns in Asia has been linked to uplift of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), retreat of the Paratethys Sea, and global cooling. However, less attention has been placed on the latitudinal change of the TP. Here we report new climate modeling to explore how modern climate changes as a function of topographic growth and spatial migration of the TP. Our results show that the northward displacement of the uplifted proto‐TP within the subtropics can significantly affect the wind and precipitation pattern over East‐Central Asia. By compiling proxy‐based climatic records, paleolatitudinal and paleoelevational evolution models of the proto‐TP, and in comparison with previous modeling under a global paleogeography, we suggest that the northward migration of the proto‐TP in the Paleogene could have intensified the aridity in Central Asia, but its influence on East Asian precipitation and monsoonal circulation could be dependent on the paleogeography and other boundary conditions.

Biologia Futura: rapid diversification and behavioural adaptation of birds in response to Oligocene–Miocene climatic conditions

“…The collision of the Indian and Southeast Asian land masses started as early as 60-58 Mya (Najman et al 2010;DeCelles et al 2014); however, the elevation of the Tibetan Plateau barely exceeded 3000 m until the Eocene-Oligocene era, when the orogenic processes significantly increased the elevation of this area over 4500 m (Botsyun et al 2019). The latitudinal position of the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau had a great impact on the climate of Central and East Asia (Zhu et al 2019). Due to its northward migration, the uplifting Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau formed a barrier to water vapour transport, which resulted in the climate in Central Asia becoming increasingly dry and the formation of the monsoon systems in South and East Asia (Clift and Webb 2019;Zhang et al 2018).…”

Loess‐Like Dust Appearance at 40 Ma in Central China

“…Uplift of the latter is poorly constrained to be late Cenozoic (Vassallo et al., 2007) and therefore postdates the onset of dust in the Xining Basin. In contrast, numerous studies report that the Tibetan Plateau has expanded northwards since 40 Ma (Rohrmann et al., 2012; C. Wang, Dai, et al., 2014) and may have intensified the Siberian High and dust transport (C. Zhu et al., 2019). However, it remains unclear whether this long‐term process could have resulted in the abrupt shifts observed at 40 Ma in the Xining Basin.…”

“…Climate model sensitivity simulations suggest that the winter monsoons and Siberian High are sensitive to uplift of the Tibetan and the Mongolian Plateau (Sha et al, 2015;Yu et al, 2018;C. Zhu et al, 2019).…”

An Initial Collision of India and Asia in the Equatorial Humid Belt

“…The paleoposition of the southern margin of Asia, prior to the India-Asia collision, is important for constraining the geometry of the India-Asia collision, crustal shortening in the Asian interior (e.g., van Hinsbergen et al, 2011) and climatic effects of the India-Asia collision (e.g., Zhang et al, 2018;Zhu et al, 2019). Our updated paleomagnetic pole fully supports the initial collision model proposed by Yi et al (2011) and confirms an initial contact between India and Asia by ∼61 Ma at ∼7°N (Figure 4).…”

“…The India‐Asia collision and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau resulted in significant changes to oceanic and atmospheric circulation and concomitant changes in global climate (Ingalls et al., 2018; Jagoutz et al., 2016; Kent & Muttoni, 2008; Macdonald et al., 2019; Raymo & Ruddiman, 1992). The timing of India‐Asia collision is a starting point for reconstructing the tectonic evolution of the Tibetan Plateau (e.g., Ingalls et al., 2016; Patriat & Achache, 1984; van Hinsbergen et al., 2011) and its global climatic significance (e.g., Ingalls et al., 2018; Jagoutz et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2018; Zhu et al., 2019). As the orogenesis was primarily north‐south between a rapidly moving Indian craton and a relatively stable Asia, paleomagnetism can provide quantitative constraints on the geometry of the India‐Asia collision (e.g., Besse et al., 1984).…”