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Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau

Models of how high elevations formed across Tibet predict: (a) the continuous thickening of a “viscous sheet”; (b) time-dependent, oblique stepwise growth; and (c) synchronous deformation across Tibet that accompanied collision. Our new observations may shed light on this issue. Here, we use (40)Ar/...

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Autores principales: Wang, Fei, Shi, Wenbei, Zhang, Weibin, Wu, Lin, Yang, Liekun, Wang, Yinzhi, Zhu, Rixiang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5259709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28117351
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep41164
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author Wang, Fei
Shi, Wenbei
Zhang, Weibin
Wu, Lin
Yang, Liekun
Wang, Yinzhi
Zhu, Rixiang
author_facet Wang, Fei
Shi, Wenbei
Zhang, Weibin
Wu, Lin
Yang, Liekun
Wang, Yinzhi
Zhu, Rixiang
author_sort Wang, Fei
collection PubMed
description Models of how high elevations formed across Tibet predict: (a) the continuous thickening of a “viscous sheet”; (b) time-dependent, oblique stepwise growth; and (c) synchronous deformation across Tibet that accompanied collision. Our new observations may shed light on this issue. Here, we use (40)Ar/(39)Ar and (U-Th)/He thermochronology from massifs in the hanging walls of thrust structures along the Kunlun Belt, the first-order orogenic range at the northern Tibetan margin, to elucidate the exhumation history. The results show that these massifs, and hence the plateau margin, were subject to slow, steady exhumation during the Early Cenozoic, followed by a pulse of accelerated exhumation during 40–35 Ma. The exhumation rate increases westward (from ~0.22 to 0.34 and 0.5 mm/yr). The two-fold increase in exhumation in the western part (0.5 mm/yr) compared to the eastern part suggests westward increases in exhumation and compressional stress along the Kunlun Belt. We relate these observations to the mechanisms responsible for the oblique stepwise rise of Tibet. After collision, oblique subduction beneath Kunlun caused stronger compressional deformation in the western part than in the eastern part, resulting in differential growth and lateral extrusion.
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spelling pubmed-52597092017-01-24 Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau Wang, Fei Shi, Wenbei Zhang, Weibin Wu, Lin Yang, Liekun Wang, Yinzhi Zhu, Rixiang Sci Rep Article Models of how high elevations formed across Tibet predict: (a) the continuous thickening of a “viscous sheet”; (b) time-dependent, oblique stepwise growth; and (c) synchronous deformation across Tibet that accompanied collision. Our new observations may shed light on this issue. Here, we use (40)Ar/(39)Ar and (U-Th)/He thermochronology from massifs in the hanging walls of thrust structures along the Kunlun Belt, the first-order orogenic range at the northern Tibetan margin, to elucidate the exhumation history. The results show that these massifs, and hence the plateau margin, were subject to slow, steady exhumation during the Early Cenozoic, followed by a pulse of accelerated exhumation during 40–35 Ma. The exhumation rate increases westward (from ~0.22 to 0.34 and 0.5 mm/yr). The two-fold increase in exhumation in the western part (0.5 mm/yr) compared to the eastern part suggests westward increases in exhumation and compressional stress along the Kunlun Belt. We relate these observations to the mechanisms responsible for the oblique stepwise rise of Tibet. After collision, oblique subduction beneath Kunlun caused stronger compressional deformation in the western part than in the eastern part, resulting in differential growth and lateral extrusion. Nature Publishing Group 2017-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5259709/ /pubmed/28117351 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep41164 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Fei
Shi, Wenbei
Zhang, Weibin
Wu, Lin
Yang, Liekun
Wang, Yinzhi
Zhu, Rixiang
Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau
title Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau
title_full Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau
title_fullStr Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau
title_full_unstemmed Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau
title_short Differential growth of the northern Tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the Tibetan Plateau
title_sort differential growth of the northern tibetan margin: evidence for oblique stepwise rise of the tibetan plateau
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5259709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28117351
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep41164
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