Internal drainage has sustained low‐relief Tibetan landscapes since the early Miocene

Zhongpeng Han, Hugh D. Sinclair, Yalin Li, Chengshan Wang, Zui Tao, Xinyu Qian, Zijie Ning, Jiawei Zhang, Yixiong Wen, Jie Lin, Baosen Zhang, Ming Xu, Jingen Dai, Aorigele Zhou, Huimin Liang, Shuo Cao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The timing of formation of the low‐gradient, internally drained landscape of the Tibetan Plateau is fundamental to understanding the evolution of the plateau as a whole. Well‐dated sedimentary records of internal drainage of rivers into lakes are used to reveal the timing of this evolution. Here, we redate the youngest continental sedimentary successions of central Tibet in the Lunpola Basin and propose a new age range of ca. 35 to 9 Ma, significantly younger than previously thought. We demonstrate long‐standing internal drainage in central Tibet since the late Eocene and stable sedimentary environments, source regions, and low topographic relief since at least the early Miocene. We suggest that sediment aggradation of internal drainage and reduction of hillslope gradients by erosion dominate the formation of low‐relief landscapes and that the late Cenozoic drainage basins in central Tibet developed in response to flow in the lower crust and/or mantle lithosphere.
Original languageEnglish
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Early online date15 Jul 2019
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 15 Jul 2019

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