Topographic growth of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau during the middle‐late Miocene: Insights from integrated provenance analysis in the NE Qaidam Basin

Abstract

The development history of high topography in the northeastern (NE) Tibetan Plateau is essential to test various plateau growth models and understand plateau construction. We present integrated provenance data from the NE Qaidam Basin, south of the Qilian Shan. Results show an increase in carbonate lithics, an increase in Al 2 O 3 /SiO 2 ratios, a negative shift in ε Nd values and an appearance of large amounts of Precambrian zircon grains in the period of ca. 13-8 Ma, arguing that the sediment source of the NE Qaidam Basin may have shifted from the East Kunlun Shan to the Qilian Shan during this time interval. We infer that significant topographic growth of the southern Qilian Shan occurred during the middle-late Miocene. Along with widespread middle to late Miocene deformation records across the Qilian Shan and abruptly shifts on provenance, sedimentary facies and climate indexes in its surrounding basins, present high topography of the NE Tibetan Plateau may have been established since the middle-late Miocene.

Mesozoic–Cenozoic Uplift/Exhumation History of the Qilian Shan, NE Tibetan Plateau: Constraints From Low-Temperature Thermochronology

“…Without these weak zones, the NE Tibetan Plateau deformation may not have so easily reactivated and resulted in quasi-synchronous deformation in the early stage of the collision, which was accompanied by region-specific amplitudes (Zuza et al, 2016;Jian et al, 2018;Zuza et al, 2018;Cheng et al, 2021). The late Miocene deformation of the plateau seriously influenced the climatic and paleogeographic pattern evolution (Li et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2017).…”