Eocene Tectonic Uplifts Caused the Early Oligocene Intrusion of the Indian Monsoon Into the Tuotuohe Basin and the Increased Evaporation, Central‐Northern Tibet: Insights From the Oxygen Isotope Record

Abstract

It is not clear how the Asian monsoon evolved after leaving the spatial range of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the Late Eocene and before the modern‐like Asian monsoon formed at ∼26 Ma. In this study, the results of a well‐dated, robust, and continuous paleoenvironmental carbonate oxygen isotope record from the Tuotuohe section in the Tuotuohe Basin on the central–northern Tibetan Plateau indicate that the carbonate oxygen isotope showed positive bias at 30.5 Ma. Evidence concerning the temperature, precipitation, paleolatitude, paleoelevation, salt mines and global temperature changes at this time suggest that the positive oxygen isotope shift was mainly due to a combination of the intrusion of the Indian monsoon into the basin and increased evaporation, both of which were ultimately induced by the tectonic uplift of the Tuotuohe Basin before 30.5 Ma and the retreat of the Paratethys Sea after the Eocene.