Late Cretaceous to early Eocene deformation in the northern Tibetan Plateau: Detrital apatite fission track evidence from northern Qaidam basin

Jian, Xing; Guan, Peng; Zhang, Wei; Liang, Hanghai; Feng, Fan; Fu, Lei

doi:10.1016/j.gr.2018.04.007

Cited by 80 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Importantly, this scenario suggests and predicts that more than half of the total Cenozoic shortening strain across the Qilian Shan occurred by the early Miocene. Eocene cooling ages across the central Qilian Shan (Qi et al, 2016;Jian et al, 2018;Du et al, 2018;Li et al, 2019) suggest local exhumation distributed across the region at this time. The Cenozoic Lulehe Formation of northern Qaidam Basin was sourced from the southern Qilian Shan and records the first clastic sedimentation derived from deformation-related uplift.…”

Section: Integrated Shortening Across the Qilian Shanmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Over the past two decades, significant advancements have been made to unravel deformation timing and rates via sedimentological and lowtemperature thermochronological analyses. Regionally, it is apparent that Cenozoic deformation started by 55-40 Ma and accelerated at 20-15 Ma (e.g., Bovet et al, 2009;Yuan et al, 2013;Duvall et al, 2013;Craddock et al, 2014;Zhuang et al, 2018;Jian et al, 2018). Thrusting initiated locally at 50-45 Ma in the southern Qilian Shan and North Qaidam thrust belts, and deformation migrated southward to the Qimen Tagh and northward to the northern Qilian Shan thrust belts by 25-20 Ma ( Fig.…”

Section: Cenozoic Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thrusting initiated locally at 50-45 Ma in the southern Qilian Shan and North Qaidam thrust belts, and deformation migrated southward to the Qimen Tagh and northward to the northern Qilian Shan thrust belts by 25-20 Ma ( Fig. 3; Mock et al, 1999;Jolivet et al, 2001;Dupont-Nivet et al, 2004;Horton et al, 2004;Yin et al, 2008aYin et al, , 2008bClark et al, 2010;Duvall et al, 2011;Baotian et al, 2013;Qi et al, 2016;Zheng et al, 2017;Ji et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2017;Jian et al, 2018).…”

Section: Cenozoic Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Underthrusting and duplexing beneath the northern Tibetan Plateau and the evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Zuza

Wang

et al. 2018

Lithosphere

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The Cenozoic Qilian Shan thrust belt is the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, which developed in part due to progressive India-Asia convergence during Himalayan-Tibetan orogeny. Available geologic observations suggest that this thrust belt started deforming shortly after initial India-Asia collision at 60-55 Ma, and thus its kinematic development is intrinsically related to the construction and evolution of the Tibetan Plateau. Here, we present new field observations from a geologic traverse across the Qilian Shan to elucidate the style of deformation across the active thrust belt. In particular, we infer protracted out-of-sequence deformation here that is consistent with this thrust system remaining a stationary northern boundary to the Tibetan Plateau since the early Cenozoic. We present a lithosphere-scale model for this region that highlights the following: (1) coupled distributed crustal shortening and underthrusting of the North China craton beneath Tibet, which explains the spatial and temporal distribution of observed crustal shortening and thickness, (2) this underthrusting exploited the south-dipping early Paleozoic Qilian suture paleo-subduction mélange channel, and (3) development of a lower-crustal duplex at the lithospheric underthrusting ramp. This last inference can explain the relatively high elevation, low relief, and thickened crust of the central Qilian Shan, as well as the comparative aseismicity of the region, which experiences fewer earthquakes due to less upper-crustal faulting. Both the northern and southern margins of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen appear to have developed similarly, with continental underthrusting and crustal-scale imbrication and duplexing, despite vastly different climatic and plate-velocity boundary conditions, which suggests that the orogen-scale architecture of the thrust belt is controlled by neither of these forcing mechanisms. Instead, strength anisotropies of the crust probably control the kinematics and style of deformation, including the development of northern Tibet, where thrust systems are concentrated along pre-Cenozoic suture zones.

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Section: Integrated Shortening Across the Qilian Shanmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Cenozoic Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cenozoic Geologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Underthrusting and duplexing beneath the northern Tibetan Plateau and the evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Zuza

Wang

et al. 2018

Lithosphere

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“…This combination has been abundantly applied in the southern Tibetan Plateau (e.g., Burbank et al, ; Finnegan et al, ; Thiede & Ehlers, ; Yang et al, ; Yu et al, ; Zeitler et al, ; Zhang et al, ) but limited in the endorheic Northwest China due to the modern arid environment. The lack of studies combining provenance, low‐temperature thermochronology, and morphological analyses leads to a widespread debate on the Cenozoic growth of the northern Tibetan Plateau (Figure ; e.g., Allen et al, ; Jolivet et al, , ; Tapponnier et al, ; Wang et al, , ; Dai et al, ; Wang et al, ; Yin, Dang, Wang, et al, , Yin, Dang, Zhang, et al, ; Liu et al, ; Liu et al, ; Clark et al, ; Zheng et al, , ; Clark, ; Lin et al, , ; Zhuang et al, , ; Jian et al, , ; Dai et al, ; Yuan et al, ; Yu, Fu, et al, , Yu, Huang, et al, ; Cheng et al, ; Zuza et al, ; Wei et al, ; Zhang et al, ; Li, Wu, & Yu, ; Li, Yan, et al, ; McRivette et al, ). For example, in the central segment of the northern Qaidam basin, researchers came to different conclusions using similar methods (e.g., Bush et al, ; Ji et al, ; Lu & Xiong, ; Wang et al, ; Zhuang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Tectonic Evolution of Bayin River Watershed, Northeastern Qaidam Basin, Northern Tibetan Plateau: Implications for the Role of River Morphology in Source Analysis and Low‐Temperature Thermochronology

Guo

Guan

et al. 2019

JGR Earth Surface

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The Bayin River, the largest river in the northeastern Qaidam basin, plays an important role in the source-to-sink system and landscape evolution at the basin-mountain boundary between the Qilian Mountains and the Qaidam basin in the northern Tibetan Plateau. In this study, we conduct field observation, topographic analysis, zircon U-Pb dating, and apatite (U-Th)/He dating to constrain the landscape and tectonic evolution of the Bayin River watershed. Bedrock zircon U-Pb dating indicates the age group of 420-450 Ma for far-source sediments and the age group of >1,700 Ma for near-source sediments in the Bayin River watershed. Detrital zircon U-Pb dating results from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata in the Bayin River watershed reveal that the most important source transition occurred during the Cretaceous. The Zongwulong Mountains gradually uplifted throughout the Cenozoic, along with decreasing far source and increasing near source based on detrital zircon U-Pb dating. Rapid uplift occurred across the Qilian Mountains during the late Cenozoic, leading to high normalized steepness indices, young apatite (U-Th)/He ages, and deep incised valleys at the basin-mountain transition zone. The knickpoints caused by the latest headward erosion just reach an elevation of~3,800 m on the river longitudinal profiles, indicating that the latest uplift magnitude is~300-400 m relative to the basin surface of the Qaidam basin. Elevation distribution and apatite (U-Th)/He ages reveal that river incision leads to high relief in the Zongwulong Mountains and influences its tectonic evolution. . Landscape and tectonic evolution of Bayin River watershed, northeastern Qaidam basin, northern Tibetan Plateau: Implications for the role of river morphology in source analysis and low-temperature thermochronology.

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“…These models are very creative and highly provocative, represent distinct driving mechanisms and kinematic descriptions of surface deformation, and thus have attracted considerable attention for decades. To test these hypotheses, a great number of geological and geophysical data and various methods have been used, primarily including paleoaltimetry, thermochronology, basin analysis and magnetostratigraphy, global positioning system (GPS) data and subsurface geophysical data analyses [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Although none of these models uniquely account for all of the geological and geophysical data and observations, more and more studies are aware of the presence of continuous medium and the important role of the rheology in the surface deformation of the Tibetan Plateau [8,9,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turbulent lithosphere deformation in the Tibetan Plateau

et al. 2019

Self Cite

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In this work, we show that the Tibetan Plateau deformation demonstrates a turbulence-like statistics, e.g., spatial invariance cross continuous scales. A dual-power-law behavior is evident to show the existence of two possible conversation laws for the enstrophy-like cascade on the range 500 r 2, 000 km and kinetic-energy-like cascade on the range 50 r 500 km. The measured second-order structure-function scaling exponents ζ(2) are similar with the counterpart of the Fourier scaling exponents observed in the atmosphere, where in the latter case the earth rotation is relevant. The turbulent statistics observed here for nearly zero Reynolds number flow is favor to be interpreted by the geostrophic turbulence theory. Moreover, the intermittency correction is recognized with an intensity to be close to the one of the hydrodynamic turbulence of high Reynolds number turbulent flows, implying a universal scaling feature of very different turbulent flows. Our results not only shed new light on the debate regarding the mechanism of the Tibetan Plateau deformation, but also lead to new challenge for the geodynamic modelling using Newton or non-Newtonian model that the observed turbulence-like features have to be taken into account. *

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Late Cretaceous to early Eocene deformation in the northern Tibetan Plateau: Detrital apatite fission track evidence from northern Qaidam basin

Cited by 80 publications

References 75 publications

Underthrusting and duplexing beneath the northern Tibetan Plateau and the evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Underthrusting and duplexing beneath the northern Tibetan Plateau and the evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Landscape and Tectonic Evolution of Bayin River Watershed, Northeastern Qaidam Basin, Northern Tibetan Plateau: Implications for the Role of River Morphology in Source Analysis and Low‐Temperature Thermochronology

Turbulent lithosphere deformation in the Tibetan Plateau

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