Pre-Miocene birth of the Yangtze River

Abstract

The development of fluvial systems in East Asia is closely linked to the evolving topography following India-Eurasia collision. Despite this, the age of the Yangtze River system has been strongly debated, with estimates ranging from 40 to 45 Ma, to a more recent initiation around 2 Ma. Here, we present 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages from basalts interbedded with fluvial sediments from the lower reaches of the Yangtze together with detrital zircon U-Pb ages from sand grains within these sediments. We show that a river containing sediments indistinguishable from the modern river was established before ∼23 Ma. We argue that the connection through the Three Gorges must postdate 36.5 Ma because of evaporite and lacustrine sedimentation in the Jianghan Basin before that time. We propose that the present Yangtze River system formed in response to regional extension throughout eastern China, synchronous with the start of strike-slip tectonism and surface uplift in eastern Tibet and fed by strengthened rains caused by the newly intensified summer monsoon.Asian monsoon | drainage capture | provenance | Subei Basin | Yangtze gravel

Topographic architecture and drainage reorganization in Southeast China: Zircon U-Pb chronology and Hf isotope evidence from Taiwan

“…The evidence of Nd isotope and the detrital zircon grains from the Hanoi Basin, Central Myanmar and lower Yangtze suggest that the establishment of the modern drainage systems in East Tibet prior to 23 Ma (Clift et al, 2006;Zheng et al, 2013;Robinson et al, 2014), even though some workers consider that the Yangtze River is younger than 5 Ma (Li et al, 2001;Yang and Youn, 2007;Jia et al, 2010). However, the evolutionary features of river systems in southeast China, such as the Minjiang River ( Fig.…”

“…The interaction among tectonics, landforms and drainage systems in East Asia has been the focus of several recent studies (Clark et al, 2004(Clark et al, , 2005Clift et al, 2006;Yan et al, 2011;Zheng et al, 2013;Robinson et al, 2014). The uplift of Tibet Plateau and the opening of marginal sea are among the major tectonic events in East Tibet area.…”

Cyprininae phylogeny revealed independent origins of the Tibetan Plateau endemic polyploid cyprinids and their diversifications related to the Neogene uplift of the plateau

“…In total, our date estimation placed the diversification of polyploid cyprinids (including characteristically Tibetan cyprinids) on geologic time range corresponding well with the major phase of uplift of the Tibetan Plateau since the early Miocene (Guo et al, 2002;Harrison et al, 1992;Molnar, 2005;Shi et al, 1999;Zheng et al, 2013;Zheng et al, 2000).…”

Provenance of Upper Miocene to Quaternary sediments in the Yinggehai-Song Hong Basin, South China Sea: Evidence from detrital zircon U–Pb ages

“…24 Ma) based on mass balance between depths of erosion Yan et al (2011a) proposed that an expanded drainage must have predated the Oligocene based on detrital zircon U-Pb dating and a bedrock thermochronological study. Zheng et al (2013) argued that the timing of the capture took place before 23 Ma based on the geochronology data. The use of the sedimentary record to constrain the time of drainage capture has been demonstrated in many areas.…”

“…The paleo-Red River system is considered to have been disrupted by a series of drainage capture events which may correspond to the regional surface uplift of eastern Asia (Clark et al, 2004;Clift et al, 2006a;Zheng et al, 2013). The paleo-Red River was originally proposed to have more dendritic drainage that drained into the South China Sea, which included the headwaters of the modern Mekong, Salween, Changjiang and Tsangpo (Clark et al, 2004).…”