Was the Pamir salient built along a Late Paleozoic embayment on the southern Asian margin?

Sedimentary Provenance Changes Constrain the Eocene Initial Uplift of the Central Pamir, NW Tibetan Plateau

“…The Pamir Plateau is an important part of the Western Himalayan Syntaxis in the NW Tibetan Plateau (Figure 1A). Numerous studies have focused on understanding the tectonic activities of this region (Cowgill, 2009;Sobel et al, 2013;Wei et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2014;Kufner et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2017;Rutte et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2018;Li et al, 2020), the Paratethys Ocean retreat (Bosboom et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2014;Carrapa et al, 2015;Sun et al, 2016a;Bosboom et al, 2017;Kaya et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2020) and coincident aridification across Central Asia (Zhang et al, 2007a;Zhang et al, 2007b;Huber and Goldner, 2012;Caves et al, 2014;Licht et al, 2014). The Pamir Plateau and the SW Tian Shan Mountains formed a geographic barrier that blocks the transport of moisture by the westerlies, leading to stepwise aridification across Central Asia and formation of the Taklimakan Desert (Sun and Liu, 2006;Zheng et al, 2015a).…”

Relationship between tectonism and desertification inferred from provenance and lithofacies changes in the Cenozoic terrestrial sequence of the southwestern Tarim Basin

“…Although studying the tectonic evolution of the Pamir is important for both understanding the continental collision process and examining its relationship with climatic change in the surrounding areas, when and how the tectonic events of the Pamir occurred during the Cenozoic continues to be debated (e.g., Sobel and Dumitru 1997;Blayney et al 2016;Cowgill 2010;Cao et al 2014;Chen et al 2018;Wei et al 2018). Two hypotheses have been proposed for the timing and nature of the tectonic event of the Pamir (e.g., Sobel and Dumitru 1997;Blayney et al 2016;Cowgill 2010;Cao et al 2014;Chen et al 2018;Wei et al 2018); one is that the Pamir salient was in line with the Kunlun Mountains before Oligocene times and started to move northward bỹ 300 km since~25 Ma (Cowgill 2010;Sobel et al 2013;Blayney et al 2016) and the other is that there existed an antecedent of the Pamir before the Cenozoic and its displacement relative to the Tarim Basin during the Cenozoic was only tens of kilometers (Chen et al 2018;Wei et al 2018;Li et al 2020). Although the uplift history of the Pamir is controversial, previous studies have shown that there were several intervals during the Cenozoic when tectonic movements in the eastern part of the Pamir were active (e.g., Sobel et al 2013).…”

Cenozoic Tectono‐Geomorphologic Evolution of the Pamir‐Tian Shan Convergence Zone: Evidence From Detrital Zircon U‐Pb Provenance Analyses

“…Recently, a Late Paleozoic inherited embayment has been suggested to have existed along the southern margin of Asia before the Mesozoic accretion of the Central and Southern Pamir terranes (Li, Robinson, Gadoev, et al, 2020). This inference is based on the limited arc-parallel extension within the Northern Pamir and lack of truncation of terranes along two end-points of the Pamir salient (Li, Robinson, Gadoev, et al, 2020). In this case, although the uplift and northward translation of the Pamir is still loosely constrained, the Pamir probably showed an arcuate shape in a period significantly earlier than the previously suggested latest Oligocene-Miocene (e.g., Sobel et al, 2011Sobel et al, , 2013 and was uplifted in the Eocene.…”

“…The first scenario, the relatively low topography of the western Northern Pamir, is supported by recent work in the southeast Tajik basin by Li, Dupont-Nivet, et al (2020), who concluded that the western Northern Pamir was originally a part of the Tajik block and has gradually been uplifted since ∼12 Ma. However, large portions of Northern Pamir derived Paleozoic and Neoproterozoic detrital zircon grains in latest Cretaceous-Miocene sediments in the northwestern and western foreland basins of the Pamir (Peshtova, West Algurkan and Peshtova and West Algurkan sections Dashtijumb sections) shows that positive topography was still preserved in the western Northern Pamir since the latest Cretaceous (<76 Ma) (Figure 8) (Chapman et al, 2019;Li, Robinson, Gadoev, et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2019). In addition, deposition of thick (Bershaw et al, 2012;Chapman et al, 2019;Chen et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2018;this study).…”

“…The early stage of mountain growth was also recorded by alluvial conglomerate and lithic sandstone units in the foreland basins of the Pamir that according to Chen et al (2018) suggest a Paleogene orocline in the Pamir and <80-110 km Cenozoic northward translation of the Pamir. Recently, a Late Paleozoic inherited embayment has been suggested to have existed along the southern margin of Asia before the Mesozoic accretion of the Central and Southern Pamir terranes (Li, Robinson, Gadoev, et al, 2020). This inference is based on the limited arc-parallel extension within the Northern Pamir and lack of truncation of terranes along two end-points of the Pamir salient (Li, Robinson, Gadoev, et al, 2020).…”