According to a news released by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on December 10th: Researcher Fang Xiaomin (Guest Professor of the Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, Lanzhou University) and the Cenozoic Environmental Team, together with Academician Wang Chengshan of China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Professor Song Chunhui from the School of Earth Sciences, Lanzhou University, and Professor Nie Junsheng from the Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, and other domestic and foreign researchers obtained the first high-precision chronology of the Cenozoic strata in the central and southern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which has reformed the understanding of the uplift history of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
On December 9th, the internationally renowned academic journal "Science Advances" published the results of this research. During the review process, the reviewers of "Science Advances" highly praised the article, believing that this research will play a key role in linking past and past studies to the Cenozoic stratigraphic dating in the central and southern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and related future research. At the same time, in order to deeply understand the formation process and mechanism of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its relationship with the climate environment and biological evolution, provide new chronological constraints, and promote other studies like the re-examination of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau uplift mechanism model, the formation of the geomorphology, and the interaction between the deep and surface layers of the Earth, etc.
Fig. 1. Lunpola Basin in the south-central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Fig. 2. Stratigraphic section based on U-PB age constraint of tuff and paleomagnetic age limit
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the ancient height and topography of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the corresponding deep driving process
Through dating and combining the new paleo-height history and tectonic evolution of the basin, the researchers confirmed that the Lunpola Basin has two distinct stages of formation, evolution, and deformation history: In the early stage, it deformed and subsided slowly from about 42 to 25 million years ago and deformed and uplifted rapidly in the late stage about 25 to 20 million years ago.
Based on this, the research team proposed a new understanding of the uplift of the central and southern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-about 25 to 20 million years ago, the crust of the mountains on both sides of the Lunpola Basin was squeezed into the bottom of the basin, lifting the basin like a jack, and uplifted to Height now.
The history of changes in the height of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau can best describe the changes in the plateau’s topography and its impact on the climate, environment, and organisms. "Different height change history implies different uplift processes and driving mechanisms, resulting in completely different changes in the climate environment and ecological effects." Researcher Fang Xiaomin said.
Fig. 4. In 2000, the scientific research team visited Lunpola Basin for the first time.
Over twenty years of dedicated research, remarkable progress has been made. Science permits of no sloppiness. Almost rigorous earnest, not afraid of tedious persistence, and perseverance to the bottom demonstrate the scientific attitude of scientists for excellence incisively and vividly.
The article links: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/50/eaba7298
