Did incision of the Three Gorges begin in the Eocene?

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Like the other large river systems that drain the India-Asia collision, the Yangtze River was 17 assembled through a series of Cenozoic capture events. These events are important for 18 orogenic erosion and sediment delivery, but their timing remains largely unknown. Here we 19 identify enhanced cooling in the Three Gorges region in central China, a key capture site 20 during basin development, beginning at 40-45 Ma. This event is not visible in regional 21 thermochronological data but is near-contemporaneous with the onset of widespread 22 denudation in the Sichuan Basin, just upstream of the Three Gorges. While we cannot rule out 23 alternative explanations, the simplest mechanism that links these events is progressive capture 24

Diverse exhumation of the Mesozoic tectonic belt within the Yangtze Plate, China, determined by apatite fission-track thermochronology

“…The final cooling and inferred exhumation in the Huangling Dome since ~35 Ma possibly started earlier than in the southeastern MTB since ~15 Ma and in the northwestern MTB since ~25 Ma, but in the northeastern MTB since ~25 Ma than in the southeastern MTB since ~15 Ma. This is basically concordant to the final accelerated exhumation in the Huangling Dome and the onset of incision in the Three Gorges after 40 Ma (Hu et al, 2006;Richardson et al, 2010). This is also not contrary to the final cooling and inferred exhumation after ~30 Ma in the northeastern Sichuan Basin constraint from low-temperature thermochronology profiles (Tian et al, 2011), but possibly reveals the final cooling and inferred exhumation propagation from the edge of the northeastern Sichuan Basin to the MTB.…”

“…It has been successfully applied to study the spatial and temporal pattern of the exhumation since the Mesozoic in Alps, Appalachia, Andes, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Qingling-Dabie-Sulu etc. (e.g., Gleadow and Fitzgerald, 1987;Johnson, 1997;Gallagher et al, 1998;Willet et al, 2003;Hu et al, 2006;Richardson et al, 2008Richardson et al, , 2010Wang et al, 2009). Thus, in this study, we compile new and mostly published AFT data to better constrain the age and rate of the cooling of the Mesozoic tectonic belt (MTB) within the Yangtze Plate, provide firmer constraints on the exhumation history.…”

“…The uplift and denudation of the MTB since the Late Mesozoic (at least the Late Cretaceous) have been generally recognized (Hu et al, 2006;Richardson et al, 2008Richardson et al, , 2010Shen et al, 2009;Mei, 2010;Tian et al, 2011). However, the age and rate of the exhumation, especially the variation in the different sections of the MTB are still poorly constrained.…”

Architecture of basin-mountain systems and their influences on gas distribution: A case study from the Sichuan basin, South China

“…5a). Thus, the difference in the elevation between the Qiyue Mountains and the East Sichuan Basin is about 400-600 m, with the topography and a gradual basin-mountain boundary being similar probably due to a series of Cenozoic capture events of the Yangtze River (Richardson et al, 2010). Furthermore, the difference in elevation between the Qiyue Mountains and the East Sichuan Basin decreases from NE to SW (Fig.…”

Spatial variation in Meso-Cenozoic exhumation history of the Longmen Shan thrust belt (eastern Tibetan Plateau) and the adjacent western Sichuan basin: Constraints from fission track thermochronology

“…Tapponnier et al, 1982;Clark and Royden, 2000). Many low-temperature thermochronological studies have been carried out in the Longmen Shan and adjacent regions (Liu et al, 1996;Arne et al, 1997;Xu and Kamp, 2000;Kirby et al, 2002;Clark et al, 2005b;Enkelmann et al, 2006;Richardson et al, 2008;Godard et al, 2009a;Ouimet et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2010) to investigate the extensive regional denudation in response to either eastward brittle extrusion of Tibetan crust (Tapponnier et al, 1982(Tapponnier et al, , 2001, or outward ductile flow of the lower crust from the central Tibetan Plateau (Royden et al, 1997;Clark and Royden, 2000;Clark et al, 2005a), or lowering of the erosion base level due to drainage reorganization of the Yangtze River system (Richardson et al, 2008(Richardson et al, , 2010. The ongoing debate as to which of these mechanisms are most significant makes it necessary to carried out additional investigation of tectonic uplift and denudation process in this region applying low-temperature thermochronological methods, which may provide critical insight into the geodynamic evolution of the eastern Tibetan Plateau.…”