Late Oligocene–early Miocene birth of the Taklimakan Desert

Abstract

As the world’s second largest sand sea and one of the most important dust sources to the global aerosol system, the formation of the Taklimakan Desert marks a major environmental event in central Asia during the Cenozoic. Determining when and how the desert formed holds the key to better understanding the tectonic–climatic linkage in this critical region. However, the age of the Taklimakan remains controversial, with the dominant view being from ∼3.4 Ma to ∼7 Ma based on magnetostratigraphy of sedimentary sequences within and along the margins of the desert. In this study, we applied radioisotopic methods to precisely date a volcanic tuff preserved in the stratigraphy. We constrained the initial desertification to be late Oligocene to early Miocene, between ∼26.7 Ma and 22.6 Ma. We suggest that the Taklimakan Desert was formed as a response to a combination of widespread regional aridification and increased erosion in the surrounding mountain fronts, both of which are closely linked to the tectonic uplift of the Tibetan–Pamir Plateau and Tian Shan, which had reached a climatically sensitive threshold at this time.

Evolution and variability of the Asian monsoon and its potential linkage with uplift of the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau

“…However, our recent reevaluation of the age of the conglomerate beds (the Xiyu Formation) at Aertashi section in southwestern Tarim revealed a deposition onset age of ca. 15 Ma (Zheng et al 2015). Earlier estimates of the age of the Xiyu Formation and its equivalent conglomerate beds are based solely on magneto-stratigraphy, and so it is necessary to reevaluate their age.…”

Long-term Pleistocene aridification and possible linkage to high-latitude forcing: New evidence from grain size and magnetic susceptibility proxies from loess-paleosol record in northeastern China

“…In addition, their formation and development during the Cenozoic provide the key to the improved understanding of changes in Asian monsoon circulation and the climatic implications of the uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan plateau (Guo et al, 2002b). Most of the previous research has focused on the investigation of the intercalated eolian dune sands/loess preserved within the Cenozoic stratigraphy in northwest China (Sun et al, 2009;Zheng et al, 2015), and the wind-blown dust deposits (the Red-clay and loess- (Lu et al, 2004); the two peaks with the highest proportion of very coarse silt and very fine sand are the L9 and L15 marker beds. paleosol sequence) on the CLP (e.g.…”

“…For example, the Taklimakan Desert was recently dated back to the Late Oligocene-early Miocene based on loess deposits preserved in the Cenozoic strata along the margin of the Tarim Basin (Zheng et al, 2015), although this result is still in debate (Sun et al, 2015). In addition, work on the Red Earth formation in the western CLP has revealed that desertification of the Asian interior was initiated at least by the late Oligocene (Guo et al, 2002b(Guo et al, , 2008Qiang et al, 2011); and work on the loess-paleosol sequence in the northern part of CLP has documented the stepwise expansion of the Mu Us Desert in the past 3.5 Ma (Ding et al, 2005).…”

Magma-derived CO 2 emissions in the Tengchong volcanic field, SE Tibet: Implications for deep carbon cycle at intra-continent subduction zone

“…The India-Asia continent collision at 55-50 Ma (e.g., Najman et al, 2010;Bouilhol et al, 2013;Zhu et al, 2015;Ding et al, 2016), accompanied by subsequent underthrusting of the Indian continental lithosphere beneath the Asian continent (e.g., DeCelles et al, 2011;Capitanio and Replumaz, 2013;Wang et al, 2014;Shi et al, 2015), led to formation of the Tibetan Plateau with an average elevation about 5000 m above sea level (Fielding et al, 1994), which has been widely invoked as critical geological event responsible for global cooling, central Asian aridification and East Asian monsoon intensification in the Cenozoic (e.g., Guo et al, 2002;Dupont-Nivet et al, 2007;Clift et al, 2008;Wu et al, 2012;Zheng et al, 2015). Nevertheless, significant debates still exist on possible links between global climate change and the India-Asia continent collision (Kerrick and Caldeira, 1999;Willenbring et al, 2013), because silicate weathering in response to plateau uplift sequesters carbon (Raymo and Ruddiman, 1992;Dosseto et al, 2015), whereas syn-collisional volcanism (e.g.…”