CaltechAUTHORS
Published October 3, 2013 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The growth of northeastern Tibet and its relevance to large-scale continental geodynamics: A review of recent studies

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon China Earthquake Administration
  • 2. ROR icon Pennsylvania State University
  • 3. ROR icon United States Geological Survey
  • 4. ROR icon University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  • 5. ROR icon University of Washington
  • 6. ROR icon University of Rochester
  • 7. ROR icon University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 8. ROR icon ETH Zurich
  • 9. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 10. ROR icon Oregon State University

Abstract

Recent studies of the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau have called attention to two emerging views of how the Tibetan Plateau has grown. First, deformation in northern Tibet began essentially at the time of collision with India, not 10–20 Myr later as might be expected if the locus of activity migrated northward as India penetrated the rest of Eurasia. Thus, the north-south dimensions of the Tibetan Plateau were set mainly by differences in lithospheric strength, with strong lithosphere beneath India and the Tarim and Qaidam basins steadily encroaching on one another as the region between them, the present-day Tibetan Plateau, deformed, and its north-south dimension became narrower. Second, abundant evidence calls for acceleration of deformation, including the formation of new faults, in northeastern Tibet since ~15 Ma and a less precisely dated change in orientation of crustal shortening since ~20 Ma. This reorientation of crustal shortening and roughly concurrent outward growth of high terrain, which swings from NNE-SSW in northern Tibet to more NE-SW and even ENE-WSW in the easternmost part of northeastern Tibet, are likely to be, in part, a consequence of crustal thickening within the high Tibetan Plateau reaching a limit, and the locus of continued shortening then migrating to the northeastern and eastern flanks. These changes in rates and orientation also could result from removal of some or all mantle lithosphere and increased gravitational potential energy per unit area and from a weakening of crustal material so that it could flow in response to pressure gradients set by evolving differences in elevation.

Additional Information

© 2013 American Geophysical Union. Received 28 March 2013; revised 12 August 2013; accepted 12 September 2013; published 3 October 2013. We thank B. C. Burchfiel and P. G. DeCelles for constructive criticism of the manuscript. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of the United States under grants EAR 0507730, 0506575, and 0549748; by the Public Service Funds for Earthquake Studies (201008003); by the State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics (LED2008A01); by the National Science Foundation of China under grants 40234040, 40872132, 40372086, and 41030317; and by the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant PBNE2-106764.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
43127
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20131220-155301622

Funding

NSF
EAR 0507730
NSF
EAR 0506575
NSF
EAR 0549748
Public Service Funds for Earthquake Studies
201008003
State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics
LED2008A01
National Science Foundation of China
40234040
National Science Foundation of China
40872132
National Science Foundation of China
40372086
National Science Foundation of China
41030317
Swiss National Science Foundation
PBNE2-106764

Dates

Created
2013-12-23
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-10
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)