Tectonic Topography Changes in Cenozoic East Asia: A Landscape Erosion‐Sediment Archive in the South China Sea

Abstract

The mode and tempo of Cenozoic fluvial input into the South China Sea by Asian rivers were strongly controlled by tectonically induced topographic changes and landscape development that resulted in repeated river captures and reversals. New Nd isotope and U‐Pb detrital zircon data from clastic sedimentary sequences in the northern South China Sea display secular variations reflecting significant changes in the compositions of fluvial sediment as well as changes in source rocks. The oldest, Eocene‐Oligocene (before ∼25 Ma) clastic rocks of the South China Sea contain sediments with ɛNd values of −5 to −7.5 and detrital zircons of Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Permo‐Triassic, all derived from southern Cathaysia. The Oligocene‐Middle Miocene (∼25–11 Ma) sediments in the South China Sea strata display ɛNd values of −12 to −14 and Archean, Proterozoic, and Paleozoic detrital zircons, suggesting northern Cathaysia and/or the Yangtze Blocks as their provenance. The headward expansion of the Pearl River and reversal of the Middle Yangtze River correlates with the opening of the South China Sea and growth of the eastern Tibetan Plateau at ∼25 Ma. Further uplift of the eastern Tibetan Plateau and the Wuyi‐Nanling Mountains in SE China around 11 Ma reshaped the landscape and caused another phase of erosion—pattern adjustment and drainage—divide migration in East Asia, leading to the establishment of the modern fluvial systems of the Pearl, Minjiang, and Lower Yangtze Rivers.

Historical museum collections clarify the evolutionary history of cryptic species radiation in the world's largest amphibians

“…Indeed, our estimated Pliocene–Pleistocene divergence times for allopatric Chinese giant salamander clades are consistent with extensive topographic modification of southern China associated with rapid uplift of the Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau from ~3.6 Mya onwards (Li et al, ; Li, Zhou, Zhao, & Zhang, ), and our mean estimated divergence time between the Yangtze/Sichuan and Huangshan clades (2.6 Mya) closely matches the orogenesis of Huangshan ~2.5 Mya (Huang, Diffendal, & Yang, ). Conversely, the modern fluvial systems of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers were already established by ~23 and ~11 Mya, respectively (Yan, Yao, et al, ; Zheng et al, ). The close genetic similarity between giant salamanders across China's central mountain region (Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi), which includes both the northern Yangtze and Yellow River drainages (Figures and b), provides further evidence for evolutionary differentiation associated with montane ecoregions rather than river drainages.…”

Cenozoic tectonic evolution of South China: A brief review, and new insights from the Huangshadong‐Shiba area, south‐east China

“…This matching relationship contradicts the tectonic setting of the Pacific Plate in the region (Honza & Fujioka, 2004). Thus, a tectonic explanation requires linkage to the collision between the Philippine Arc and East Asia (Yan et al, 2009(Yan et al, , 2018 or attributed the uplift to the NNE directional subduction of Australian Plate (Ge et al, 2010).…”

Comparative Analysis of Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of Three Gerres Fishes (Perciformes: Gerreidae) and Primary Exploration of Their Evolution History

“…Besides, G. filamentosus differentiation from other species was around 62.23 Mya, and G. decacanthus and G. oyena were differentiated around 50.18 Mya. Cenozoic-Paleogene, approximately occurred at 2.4-65 Mya, a period with significantly shrank of transgressive range in the continent and appeared of marine sediments in the marginal areas of China [65]. Geographical isolation caused by geological movements might provide sufficient environmental conditions for divergence of fish, while high aquatic biological productivity caused by marine sedimentation could offer food sources for growth.…”