effect of aridification on carbon isotopic variation and ecologic evolution at 5 3 ma in the asian interior article history the cenozoic era is marked by dramatic climatic and ecological changes the timing of the emergence and the subsequent expansions of c4 grasses are prominent biological events on earth in china thick cenozoic deposits in the tarim and junggar basins which are located in the asian interior provide important geological archives for studying paleoenvironmental changes here we use carbon isotope compositions of organic matter to reconstruct the history of ecologic evolution during the late cenozoic in the tarim and junggar basins the results show that there is a shift to slightly higher 13 cv alues at 5 3 ma indicating a change in terrestrial ecosystems in the asian interior driven by an increased regional aridity rather than decreasing atmospheric pco2 levels the weakened water vapor transportation related to the retreat of paratethys ocean and the enhanced rain shadow effect of mountain uplift during the

c4 expansion in the central inner mongolia during the latest miocene and early pliocene abstract the emergence of c4 photosynthesis in plants as a significant component of terrestrial ecosystems is thought to be an adaptive response to changes in atmospheric co 2 concentration and or climate during neogene times and has had a profound effect on the global terrestrial biosphere although expansion of c4 grasses in the latest miocene and pliocene has been widely documented around the world the spatial and temporal variations in the c4 expansion are still not well understood and its driving mechanisms remain a contentious issue here we present the results of carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of fossil and modern mammalian tooth enamel samples from the central inner mongolia our samples represent a diverse group of herbivorous mammals including deer elephants rhinos horses and giraffes ranging in age from the late oligocene to modern the 13 c values of 91 tooth enamel samples of early late miocene age or older with the exception of two 13 ma rhino samples 7 8 and 7 6 and one 8 5 ma suspected rhino sample 7 6 were all less than 8 0 vpdb indicating that there were no c4 grasses present in their diets and thus probably few or no c4 grasses in the ecosystems of the central inner mongolia prior to 8 ma however 12 out of 26 tooth enamel samples of younger ages 7 5 ma to 3 9 ma have 13 c values higher than 8 0 up to 2 4 indicating that herbivores in the area had variable diets ranging from pure c3 to mixed c3 c4 vegetation during that time interval the presence of c4 grasses in herbivores diets up to 76 c4 suggests that c4 grasses were a significant component of the local ecosystems in the latest miocene and early pliocene consistent with the hypothesis of a global factor as the driving mechanism of the late miocene c4 expansion today c3 grasses dominate grasslands in the central inner mongolia area the retreat of c4 grasses from this area after the early pliocene may have been driven by regional climate change associated with tectonic processes in central asia as well as global climate change

orogen response to changes in climatic and tectonic forcing despite much progress many questions remain regarding the potential dynamic coupling between atmospheric and lithospheric processes in the long term evolution of mountain belts as a complement to recent efforts to discover the interrelationships among climate topography erosion and rock deformation under conditions of mass flux steady state we explore orogen response to changes in climate and tectonic influx we derive an analytical model that predicts a powerful climatic control on orogen evolution and distinct potentially diagnostic responses to climatic and tectonic perturbations due to isostatic compensation the near surface rock uplift rate during transients is tightly coupled to climate modulated erosional efficiency system response is approximately exponential with a characteristic response timescale that is inversely proportional to the climate and lithology modulated erosional efficiency and is largely insensitive to initial conditions tectonic influx and both the sign and magnitude of perturbations

aridification of central asia and uplift of the altai and hangay mountains mongolia stable isotope evidence central asia has become increasingly arid during the cenozoic though the mechanisms behind this aridification remain unresolved much attention has focused on the influence and uplift history of the tibetan plateau however the role of ranges linked to india asia convergence but well north of the plateau including the altai sayan and hangay in creating the arid climate of central asia is poorly understood today these ranges create a prominent rain shadow effectively separating the boreal forest to the north from the deserts of central asia to explore the role of these mountains in modifying climate since the late eocene we measured carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in paleosol carbonates from three basins along a 650 km long transect at the northern edge of the gobi desert in mongolia and in the lee of the altai and hangay mountains we combine these data with modern air parcel back trajectory modeling to understand regional moisture transport pathways at each basin in all basins 13c increases with the largest increase in western mongolia the first 13c increase occurs in central and southwestern mongolia in the oligocene 13c again increases from the upper miocene to the quaternary in western and southwestern mongolia we use a 1 d soil diffusion model to demonstrate that these 13c increases are linked to declines in soil respiration driven by dramatic increases in aridity using modern day empirical relations between mean annual precipitation and soil respiration we estimate that precipitation has likely more than halved over the neogene given the importance of the hangay and altai in steering moisture in mongolia we attribute these changes to differential surface uplift of the hangay and altai surface uplift in the hangay began by the early oligocene blocking siberian moisture and aridifying the northern gobi in contrast surface uplift of the altai began in the late miocene blocking moisture from reaching western mongolia thus the northern gobi became increasingly arid east to west since the late eocene likely driven by orographic development in the hangay during the oligocene and the altai in the late miocene through pliocene

the stable isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate and its relationship to climate the oxygen isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate is well correlated with the isotopic composition of local meteoric water the carbon isotopic cycle for co 2 in soils can be described in terms of the proportion of biomass using the c 4 photosynthetic pathway and the co 2 respiration rate of the soil at low soil respiration rates significant atmospheric co 2 mixing can occur in general the carbon isotopic composition of soil carbonate is related to the proportion of c 4 biomass present in soil but soils that freeze to the depth of carbonate formation often have a significant atmospheric component this suggests that freezing of the soil solution should be considered as another important mechanism for soil carbonate formation because of these relationships the isotopic composition of soil carbonate may be a paleoclimatic and paleoecologic indicator in cases in which diagenetic alteration has not occurred

active thrusting and folding along the northern tien shan and late cenozoic rotation of the tarim relative to dzungaria and kazakhstan we have studied geometries and rates of late cenozoic thrust faulting and folding along the northern piedmont of the tien shan mountain belt west of urumqi where the m 8 3 manas earthquake occurred on december 23 1906 the northern range of the tien shan rising above 5000 m overthrusts a flexural foredeep filled with up to 11 000 m of sediment of the dzungarian basement our fieldwork reveals that the active thrust reaches the surface 30 km north of the range front within a 200 km long zone of neogene quaternary anticlines fault scarps are clearest across inset terraces within narrow valleys incised through the anticlines by large rivers flowing down from the range in all the valleys the scarps offset vertically the highest terrace surface by the same amount 10 2 0 7 m inferring an early holocene age 10 2 kyr for this terrace which is continuous with the largest recent fans of the piedmont yields a rate of vertical throw of 1 0 0 3mm yr on the main active thrust at the surface a quantitative morphological analysis of the degradation of terrace edges that are offset by the thrust corroborates such a rate and yields a mass diffusivity of 5 5 2 5 m 2 kyr a rather fresh surface scarp 0 8 0 15 m high that is unlikely to result from shallow earthquakes with 6 m 7 in the last 230 years is visible at the extremities of the main fold zone we associate this scarp with the 1906 manas earthquake and infer that a structure comprising a deep basement ramp under the range gently dipping flats in the foreland and shallow ramps responsible for the formation of the active fault propagation anticlines could have been activated by that earthquake if so the return period of a 1906 type event would be 850 380 years the small size of the scarp for an earthquake of this magnitude suggests that a large fraction of the slip at depth 2 3 is taken up by incremental folding near the surface comparable earthquakes might activate flat detachments and ramp anticlines at a distance from the front of other rising quaternary ranges such as the san gabriel mountains in california or the mont blanc aar massifs in the alps we estimate the finite cenozoic shortening of the folded dzungarian sediments to be of the order of 30 km and the cenozoic shortening rate to have been 3 1 5 mm yr assuming comparable shortening along the tarim piedmont and minor additional active thrusting within the mountain belt we infer the rate of shortening across the tien shan to be at least 6 3 mm yr at the longitude of manas 85 5 e a total shortening of 125 30 km is estimated from crustal thickening assuming local airy isostatic equilibrium under the same assumption serial n s sections imply that cenozoic shortening across the belt increases westwards to 203 50 km at the longitude of kashgar 76 e as reflected by the westward increase of the width of the belt this strain gradient implies a clockwise rotation of tarim relative to dzungaria and kazakhstan of 7 2 5 around a pole located near the eastern extremity of the tien shan west of hami 96 e 43 5 n comparable to that revealed by paleomagnetism between tarim and dzungaria 8 6 8 7 a 6 mm yr rate of shortening at the longitude of manas would imply a rate of rotation of 0 45 m y and would be consistent with a shortening rate of 12 mm yr north of kashgar taking such values to be representative of late cenozoic rates would place the onset of reactivation of the tien shan by the india asia collision in the early to middle miocene 16 22 9 m y in accord with the existence of particularly thick late neogene and quaternary deposits such reactivation would thus have started much later than the collision roughly at the time of the great mid miocene changes in tectonic regimes denudation and sedimentation rates observed in southeast asia the himalayas and the bay of bengal and of the correlative rapid change in seawater sr isotopic ratio 20 to 15 ma like these other changes the rise of the tien shan might be a distant consequence of the end of indochina s escape

sensitivity of lacustrine stromatolites to cenozoic tectonic and climatic forcing in the southern junggar basin nw china new insights from mineralogical stable and clumped isotope compositions abstract lacustrine stromatolites serve as high resolution and sensitive archives of palaeoenvironmental settings and palaeoclimatic conditions an exceptionally well developed stromatolite bed was discovered within nearshore shallow lacustrine sediments of the lower miocene taxihe formation on the southern margin of the junggar basin north of the tian shan range we investigated the morphology mineralogy clumped and traditional stable isotope geochemistry of the stromatolites by using a multi method approach with the application of x ray diffraction analysis advanced mineral identification and characterization amicscan a clumped isotope palaeothermometer and modelling the overall positive excursions and covariance of 18o varying from 10 61 to 5 82 v pdb and 13c ranging between 1 27 and 2 08 v pdb values are interpreted as the result of deposition in a closed basin system under local progressive evaporation conditions during an episode of aridification clumped isotope proxy records display a significant decrease in water 18o values and a decline of lake water temperature from 38 to 32 c suggesting a shift towards more arid and relatively cooler conditions during the course of stromatolite accretion this interpretation agrees with lake volume and water level decreases inferred from isotope modelling results the late cenozoic aridification of the southern margin of the junggar basin is thus interpreted from a new and unique perspective to have prevailed since the early miocene driven by renewed uplift of the northern tian shan range the investigated stromatolite records reflect a snapshot of the local palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental evolution and our work provides references for potential studies of future discoveries of lacustrine microbialites in northwestern china

some thermal and mechanical consequences of rapid uplift an example from the southern alps new zealand abstract the thermal evolution of continental crust during active collision is modeled through numerical solutions of the two dimensional heat conduction equation for a rapidly moving medium the boundary conditions used in the modeling are derived from geological and geophysical observations from the active collision zone in the south island of new zealand the problem domain over which the solutions are obtained consists of a 40 km horizontal by 25 km vertical spatial plane with a vertical discontinuity at 10 km from the western boundary to the east of this discontinuity vertical uplift rates of up to 10 mm a occur over a timespan of up to 4 ma temperature distributions are calculated at 10 ka intervals over the 4 ma duration a two dimensional high temperature region is established upon initiation of uplift of the eastern block due to the advective component carrying heat upwards more rapidly than it can be dissipated laterally from the problem domain temperatures within the upper 5 km are greater than 400 c after 2 25 ma with geothermal gradients of up to 200 c km attained within the upper 3 km at times greater than 2 5 ma the vertical temperature distribution changes little while the anomalously high temperatures spread laterally into the stationary crust using rheological equations to describe the brittle behaviour of a water saturated upper crust and the ductile behaviour of a quartz dominated lower crust together with the thermal distribution of the conduction models the mechanical evolution of a collision zone is investigated in addition to high crustal temperatures and associated high heat flow rapid uplift produces a weakening of the crust by raising of the depth of transition from brittle to ductile behaviour within the zone of most rapid uplift the brittle ductile transition rises from 13 km to less than 5 km after 1 5 ma of uplift further uplift reduces the brittle layer to 3 km thickness and causes lateral spreading of the low strength zone the reductions in crustal strength caused by the thermal weakening produce a high strain zone within the region of maximum uplift which is incapable of sustaining large differential stresses this causes horizontal and vertical stress transfer and results in shallow seismicity increases in the adjacent crust as well as in intermediate depth seismicity within the high strength upper mantle because the thermal and mechanical anomalies discussed are a function of rapid uplift all regions of active continental collision may be expected to exhibit similar behaviour some mechanical and thermal characteristics of the himalayan collision zone are briefly examined in light of the numerical modeling

climatic forcing of carbon oxygen isotopic covariance in temperate region marl lakes carbon and oxygen stable isotopic compositions of lacustrine carbonate from a southeastern michigan marl lake display linear covariance over a range of 4 0 peedee belemnite pdb in oxygen and 3 9 pdb in carbon mechanisms of delta 13 c delta 18 o coupling conventionally attributed to lake closure in arid region basins are inapplicable to hydrologically open lake systems thus an alternative explanation of isotopic covariance in temperate region dimictic marl lakes is required we propose that isotopic covariance is a direct record of change in regional climate in short residence time temperate region lake basins summer meteoric precipitation is enriched in 18o relative to winter values and summer organic productivity enriches epilimnic dissolved inorganic carbon in 13c thus climate change toward longer summers and or shorter winters could result in greater proportions of warm month meteoric precipitation longer durations of warm month productivity and net long term enrichment in carbonate 18o and 13c isotopic covariance observed in the michigan marl lake cores is interpreted to reflect postglacial warming from 10 to 3 ka followed by cooler mean annual temperature a shift toward greater proportions of seasonal summer precipitation a shortening of the winter season or some combination of these three factors

causes of recent himalayan uplift deduced from deposited patterns in the ganges basin the hypothesis1 that late cenozoic uplift of many of the world s mountain ranges was a response to climate change rather than to tectonic processes is based on the premise that enhanced erosion in an altered climate led to a reduction in both the total mass of a mountain range and its mean elevation this reduction was coeval with increased regional relief and with passive isostatic uplift of the remaining summits the hypothesis is difficult to evaluate because both climate and tectonic forces affect uplift in many active ranges in the absence of sufficient denudational and uplift data from the mountains themselves depositional patterns in adjacent basins may sometimes be used to distinguish between uplift arising from erosional or from tectonic processes in foreland basins uplift of the proximal basin and a reduction or absence of asymmetric subsidence are predicted responses to erosionally driven uplift2 here i show that patterns of sediment accumulation and the position of major rivers in the neogene gangetic foreland basin seem to have changed markedly in plio pleistocene times these changes lend support to the hypothesis that the importance of erosional unloading has increased in the himalayas during the past 4 myr

the neogene xiyu formation a diachronous prograding gravel wedge at front of the tianshan climatic and tectonic implications the tarim and junggar basins in central asia are capped by a thick pile of conglomerates called the xiyu formation that are commonly linked to a change in climate and or accelerated uplift near the plio pleistocene boundary in order to better understand their origin and significance we carried out a combined structural and magnetostratigraphic study in the quilitage syncline southern tianshan where the base of the xiyu conglomerates is observed at both sides of the syncline a balanced cross section shows that even at a local scale the base of the xiyu conglomerates cannot be regarded as a single continuous stratigraphic layer on the southern flank of the quilitage syncline we collected 172 samples collected for magnetostratigraphic dating identify 17 polarity chrons that date the new section from 5 2 to 1 7 ma and constrain the base of the xiyu conglomerate here at 1 7 ma this is 4 2 ma younger than the age of the xiyu previously found on the northern limb of the same syncline together with other magnetostratigraphic studies carried out around the tianshan our study unambiguously demonstrates that the onset of deposition of the xiyu conglomerates is diachronous and that the conglomerates are systematically younger toward the basin consequently the xiyu formation should not be considered as a chronostratigraphic marker related to any particular tectonic or climatic event but is instead a prograding gravel wedge that has prograded over the underthrusting forelands a synthesis of chronologic and structural results yields progradation rates over the last 10 ma on the order of 2 0 mm yr and 3 9 mm yr south and north of the tianshan mountains respectively these rates are comparable to the shortening rate across the tianshan range suggesting that underthrusting is the main factor governing the progradation rate of the xiyu formation

hydrogeochemical processes in an arid region of europe almeria se spain abstract in the lower andarax river basin 3 aquifer units have been defined namely the carbonate aquifer the deep aquifer and the detrital aquifer which between them contain a wide variety of water types identification of hydrogeochemical processes has been performed by studying a series of ionic ratios comprising the principal constituents together with b and li cl vs so4 cl vs mg cl vs li b vs li among the processes detected the circulation of groundwaters with high concentrations of so4 was found to have significant effects moreover in the coastal region naturally occurring processes related to the flushing of saline waters from sediments of marine origin occur in conjunction with others clearly of human origin that are related to saltwater intrusion a further factor is the entry from overlying deposits of waters with a high saline content this salinity is related to the flushing of sediments of marine origin the use of b and li together enables waters in which salinity is related to seawater to be distinguished from others in which salinity is related to evaporitic layers or to thermal areas the concentration of li is directly related to water temperature while that of b is greater in the most saline sectors of gypsiferous and or seawater origin

late cenozoic uplift of mountain ranges and global climate change chicken or egg the high altitudes of most mountain ranges have commonly been ascribed to late cenozoic uplift without reference to when crustal thickening and other tectonic processes occurred deep incision and recent denudation of these mountain ranges abundant late cenozoic coarse sediment near them and palaeobotanical evidence for warmer climates where high mountain climates today are relatively cold have traditionally been interpreted as evidence for recent uplift an alternative cause of these phenomena is late cenozoic global climate change towards lower temperatures increased alpine glaciation a stormier climate and perturbations to humidity vegetative cover and precipitation

a high resolution stable isotopic record from the junggar basin nw china implications for the paleotopographic evolution of the tianshan mountains this study presents high resolution oxygen and carbon isotopic records of paleosol carbonates from fluvial sediments and lacustrine carbonates sampled from the jingou he and kuitun he stratigraphic sections located in the northern tianshan piedmont these sections expose remarkable outcrops of junggar foreland basin sediments that have been previously dated by high resolution magnetostratigraphy to between 23 6 and 1 ma and 10 5 and 3 1 ma a total of 216 samples of fluvio lacustrine sediments were collected from which isotopic analyses yield 18o smow values that range from 13 7 to 29 9 in the jingou he section and 16 3 to 21 0 in the kuitun he section 13c pdb values range from 12 9 to 3 0 in the jingou he section and from 7 8 to 4 0 in the kuitun he section 18o values decrease between 25 and 23 ma and then remain relatively steady with the exception of one period that contains samples with higher oxygen isotope values at 16 ma during the periods when there are samples that overlap in time from the kuitun he and jingou he sections we observe a difference of 1 7 between values from the two locales the 13c values also decrease between 25 and 23 ma and then remain relatively steady until 10 ma with again one short period of higher values at 16 ma then between 10 and 3 1 ma carbon isotope values progressively increase we interpret that 18o and 13c isotopic values during lacustrine periods 25 23 ma and 16 ma as largely controlled by evaporation and opening closing of the lake to external inputs we interpret the 18o values of paleosol carbonate in the junggar basin to be influenced by the hypsometry of the high tianshan range while the 13c values may record the uplift history of the depositional area in the foreland basin itself as well as the isotopic composition of plants consequently we conclude that the jingou he and kuitun he drainage basins in the central tianshan have remained at relatively unchanged elevations for the past 20 ma we also suggest that the elevation of the southern part of the foreland basin increased between 10 and 3 1 ma probably as a result of tectonic deformation in the piedmont and sedimentary filling of the sedimentary basin the carbon isotope record remains relatively stable through time and isotopic values suggest that there was little or no expansion of c4 plants in this region in the late miocene

empirical relationships between elevation and the stable isotope composition of precipitation and surface waters considerations for studies of paleoelevation change a compilation of 68 studies from throughout many of the world s mountain belts reveals an empirically consistent and linear relationship between change in elevation and change in the isotopic composition of precipitation along altitudinal transects the isotopic composition of precipitation decreases linearly with increasing elevation in most regions of the world except in the himalayas and at elevations 5000 m there are no significant differences in isotopic lapse rates from most regions of the world 0 28 permil 100 m except at the extreme latitudes where isotopic lapse rates are higher given information on past changes in the isotopic composition of precipitation preserved in pedogenic or authigenic minerals this global isotopic lapse rate can be used to place numerical constraints on the topo graphic development of some ancient mountain belts or plateaus there are many complicating factors that can confound interpretation of paleoel evation change based on stable isotopes and many of these are unique to specific mountain belts or time periods relevant to all stable isotope based paleoelevation change studies is the temperature dependent isotope fractionation between a pedo genic or authigenic mineral and the water from which it forms in cases where isotopic proxy minerals are sampled from localities where temperature will change simulta neously with elevation change the apparent change in the isotopic composition of precipitation may be dampened by several permil this suggests that samples taken from the rainshadow side of an emerging orographic barrier may be more likely to preserve isotopic changes resulting from mountain uplift than samples taken from atop a rising mountain range or plateau

light stable isotope systematics of large scale hydrologic regimes in california and nevada surface waters shallow groundwaters and precipitation samples were collected along three traverses which begin at the california coast and are oriented in an east west manner roughly parallel to the atmospheric flow path of meteoric water the hydrogen isotope compositions from short term precipitation records varied as much as 40 at one location and were not representative of the average annual isotopic composition of precipitation the hydrogen isotope ratios of surface waters and shallow groundwaters distinguish segments with isotopic variations that correlate with measured vertical fluxes of meteoric water one coastal segment appears to closely approximate an open system in which precipitation dominates over evapotranspiration most segments are described by rather regular variations in d 3 45 per 100 km which represent different degrees of closure of the hydrologic system caused by variable partitioning of precipitation between runoff and evapotranspiration all partially closed systems imply terrestrial recycling of water a simple model estimates this amount to be about 20 across northern and central california three segments representing the great basin show virtually no geographic variation and appear to represent isotopically closed systems

late oligocene to early miocene humidity change recorded in terrestrial sequences in the ili basin south eastern kazakhstan central asia enhanced aridification of central asia driven by the combined effects of orogenic surface uplift paratethys retreat changes in atmospheric moisture transport and global cooling is one of the most prominent cenozoic climate change events of the northern hemisphere deciphering regional long term patterns of central asian hydrology is therefore a key element in understanding the role of northern hemisphere mid latitude drying in the global hydrological system this study characterizes long term palaeoenvironmental conditions between the late oligocene and early miocene in south eastern kazakhstan based on stable isotopes elemental geochemistry and laser ablation uranium lead geochronology from alluvial fluvial and pedogenic deposits sedimentary facies and geochemical weathering indices suggest an increased surface and ground water discharge fed by orographically enhanced precipitation in the tien shan hinterland in contrast pedogenic stable isotope data and elevated rates of magnesium fixation in clay minerals mirror enhanced rates of evaporation in the vadose zone due to protracted aridification this study posits that pronounced surface uplift of the tien shan mountains during the oligocene miocene transition promoted regionally increased orographic precipitation and the development of fluvial discharge systems this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

the role of the westerlies and orography in asian hydroclimate since the late oligocene interactions between midlatitude westerlies and the pamir tian shan mountains significantly impact hydroclimate patterns in central asia today and they played an important role in driving asian aridification during the cenozoic we show that distinct westeast hydroclimate differences were established over central asia during the late oligocene ca 25 ma as recorded by stable oxygen isotopic values of soil carbonates our climate simulations show that these differences are present when relief of the pamir tian shan is higher than 75 of modern elevation 3000 m integrated with geological evidence we suggest that a significant portion of the pamir tian shan orogen had reached elevations of 3 km and acted as a moisture barrier for the westerlies since ca 25 ma

carbonate oxygen isotope paleoaltimetry evaluating the effect of diagenesis on paleoelevation estimates for the tibetan plateau carbonate oxygen isotope paleoaltimetry is based on analysis of the d 18 o value of carbonate precipitated from surface water deciphering the diagenetic history is important for establishing whether particular carbonates are accurate recorders of paleosurface waters which reflect paleoelevation this study provides examples from southern east central and northeastern tibet of approaches aimed at evaluating the diagenetic history of lacustrine micrites and pedogenic carbonates the most desirable technique for avoiding erroneous interpretations related to diagenetic overprinting is to analyze carbonates that are known to be primary such as aragonitic shell material in rocks that do not contain shell material we have compared lacustrine micrites and pedogenic carbonates to diagenetic carbonate phases to determine the effects of diagenesis on the isotopic composition of primary carbonates where the potential effects of diagenesis are subtle or ambiguous we have evaluated the fidelity of the carbonate record from systematic trends in c and o isotopes that agree with other interpretations of paleoenvironment such as high frequency covariance in c and o that corresponds with changes in the mg concentration of carbonates using these strategies we have determined that diagenesis has not affected the isotopic composition of carbonates in the late miocene pliocene thakkhola graben in southern tibet and the oligocene to pliocene linxia basin in northeastern tibet in the case of paleogene basins in east central tibet however ambiguity in data precludes the determination of diagenetic effects d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

paleosol carbonate multiple isotopologue signature of active east asian summer monsoons during the late miocene and pliocene east asian summer monsoon precipitation has a globally unique 18 o signature characterized by low 18 o values related to the precipitation amount effect we explore the history of this signature using carbonate clumped isotope thermometry and 18 o of paleosol carbonates from northern china we find that soil water 18 o throughout the late miocene and pliocene was indistinguishable from present day summer meteoric water 18 o additionally soil temperatures were similar to present day summer temperatures as were latitudinal gradients in temperature paleosol carbonate 13 c values document a pattern of northward increasing c 4 vegetation during 7 3 ma interpreted as marking a paleobiome transition from forest to steppe the present day summer monsoons give rise to a similar transition owing to latitudinal gradients in precipitation amount and seasonal duration taken together these lines of evidence point to active east asian summer monsoons during the warm climates of the late miocene and pliocene

high times on the tibetan plateau paleoelevation of the thakkhola graben nepal east west extension in the tibetan plateau is generally assumed to have resulted from gravitational collapse following thickening and uplift on the basis of this assumption several studies have dated east west extensional structures to determine when the plateau attained its current high elevation however independent estimates of elevation are needed to determine whether extension occurred before during or after the plateau achieved its current elevation because the isotopic composition of meteoric water decreases with increasing elevation significant change in local elevation throughout the thakkhola graben depositional history should be recorded by change in 18 o values of fluvial and lacustrine carbonates the 18 o values of 16 to 23 of thakkhola graben carbonates reflect meteoric water values similar to modern values and suggest that the southern tibetan plateau attained its current elevation prior to eastwest extension initiation of thakkhola graben extension is constrained between 10 and 11 ma based on magnetostratigraphy of the older tetang formation the 13 c values of soil carbonates suggest an age younger than 8 ma for the base of the thakkhola formation

the stable isotope composition of early ground water cements from sandstone in paleoecological reconstruction abstract the carbon isotope composition of soil carbonates in paleosols records the global expansion of cm4 biomass in the late miocene however soil carbonate is not present in many geological sections or if present is often difficult to distinguish from other carbonate cements here we report on the 13c values of sparry early ground water cements in sandstones from the siwalik group in pakistan that record like the soil carbonates from the same sections the dramatic late miocene expansion of c4 vegetation the early cements are confined to densely cemented nodules in the sandstones but can also be found reworked as nodules into adjacent paleo channels demonstrating their formation shortly after burial the early cements are isotopically distinct from later higher temperature calcite cements our results demonstrate that some early ground water cements can be used in a manner similar to soil carbonates to reconstruct vegetation and perhaps pco2 changes in the past

sedimentary basins and crustal thickening abstract we consider the development of sedimentary basins in a tectonic context dominated by horizontal shortening and vertical thickening of the crust well known examples are foreland basins others are ramp basins and buckle basins we have reproduced various styles of compressional basins in experiments properly scaled for gravity a multilayered model lithosphere with brittle and ductile layers floats on a model asthenosphere a computer driven piston provides shortening and thickening synchronous with erosion and sedimentation after a first stage of lithospheric buckling thrust faults appear mainly at inflection points slip on an isolated reverse fault is accompanied by flexure footwall flexure results in a foreland basin and becomes accentuated by sedimentation hangingwall flexure is less marked but may become accentuated by erosion motion on a fault leads to hangingwall collapse at the surface either footwall sedimentation or hangingwall erosion tends to prolong the active life of a reverse fault slip on any pair of closely spaced reverse faults of opposite vergence results in a ramp basin simultaneous slip produces a symmetric ramp basin whereas alternating slip results in a butterfly shaped basin with superposed foredeeps some well developed ramp basins become pushed down until bounding faults meet at the surface and the basin disappears from view at this stage the basin depth is equivalent to 15 km or more slip on any pair of widely spaced reverse faults of opposite vergence results in a pronounced central anticline between two distinct foredeeps in central asia and in western europe cenozoic crustal thickening is due to continental collision for central asia western china kyrgyzstan uzbekistan tajikistan we have compiled a regional structure contour map on the base of the tertiary as well as 4 regional sections foreland basins and ramp basins are numerous and associated with cenozoic thrusts large basins tarim junggar fergana tajik occur around and between mountain ranges but smaller basins issyk kul naryn occur within them in western europe the alps and pyrenees are surrounded by foreland basins ramp basins or intermediate styles in the andes and its foreland neogene thrusts and compressional basins are due to subduction of oceanic lithosphere in colombia they account for much of the cordillera oriental in nw argentina for the altiplano in west central argentina for the sierras pampeanas compressional basins are also common in other areas of older crustal thickening

the onset of india asia continental collision early steep subduction required by the timing of uhp metamorphism in the western himalaya ultrahigh pressure uhp rocks in the nw himalaya are some of the youngest on earth and allow testing of critical questions of uhp formation and exhumation and the timing of the india asia collision initial collision of india with asia is widely cited as being at 55f1 ma based on a paleomagnetically determined slowdown of india s plate velocity and as being at ca 51 ma based on the termination of marine carbonate deposition even relatively small changes in this collision age force large changes in tectonic reconstructions because of the rapid india asia convergence rate of 134 mm a at the time of collision new u pb shrimp dating of zircon shows that indian rocks of the tso morari complex reached uhp depths at 53 3f0 7 ma given the high rate of indian subduction this dating implies that indian continental crust arrived at the asian trench no later than 57f1 ma providing a metamorphic age for comparison with previous paleomagnetic and stratigraphic estimates india s collision with asia may be compared to modern processes in the timor region in which initiation of collision precedes both the slowing of the convergence rate and the termination of marine carbonate deposition the indian uhp rocks must have traveled rapidly along a short hence steep path into the mantle early continental subduction was at a steep angle probably vertical comparable to modern continental subduction in the hindu kush despite evidence for modern day low angle subduction of india beneath tibet oceanic slab break off likely coincided with exhumation of uhp terranes in the western himalaya and led to the initiation of low angle subduction and leucogranite generation d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

india eurasia collision chronology has implications for crustal shortening and driving mechanism of plates the motion of the indian plate is determined in an absolute frame of reference and compared with the position of the southern margin of eurasia deduced from palaeomagnetic data in tibet the 2 600 900 km of continental crust shortening observed is shown to have occurred in three different episodes subduction of continental crust intracontinental thrusting and internal deformation and lateral extrusion the detailed chronology of the collision and plate reorganizations in the indian and pacific oceans supports the hypothesis that slab pull is a dominant driving mechanism of plate tectonics

new space geodetic constraints on the distribution of deformation in central asia abstract results from repeated measurements across a 90 sites global positioning system network in central asia provide direct evidence of current high rates of tectonic deformation far north of the india eurasia suture zone the data help to quantify both the partitioning of deformation within the seismically active tien shan and northern pamirs as well as the ongoing rotation of virtually undeformed blocks such as the tarim with respect to stable eurasia the nnw to sse shortening rates derived from the computations reach values of 23 3 mm yr 1 over the ranges studied suggesting that regional deformation rates have increased considerably within the study area since the onset of cenozoic shortening 20 25 myr ago

the evolution of hydroclimate in asia over the cenozoic a stable isotope perspective abstract links between tectonics and regional climate have been extensively studied in asia however despite decades of research the relative roles of tectonics and global climate in pacing the long term evolution of climate in asia remain disputed today climate in asia is characterized by large scale monsoonal circulation over india and southern china and exceptionally arid deserts across much of central asia that to the north yield to the wetter conditions of the steppe and taiga how why and if these boundaries have changed during the cenozoic has been limited by the lack of paleoclimate proxy data that can be broadly applied over space and time we use a large compilation of pedogenic and lacustrine carbonate stable oxygen 18o and carbon 13c isotope data 7 700 samples which record large scale atmospheric circulation and primary productivity respectively to reconstruct cenozoic hydroclimate in asia and delineate the boundaries through time of monsoonal and mid latitude westerly moisture the 18o data indicate that atmospheric circulation has remained similar to today for at least 55 million years southern tibet has always received southerly likely monsoonal moisture and this southerly moisture has likely rarely extended northward of the central tibetan plateau in contrast northern tibet and central asia have received moisture dominantly via the mid latitude westerlies which have maintained a semi arid to arid climate in central asia since the early eocene thus the spatial extent of large scale atmospheric circulation appears largely unperturbed by contemporaneous changes in india asia collisional tectonics extent of the paratethys and in global climate the 13c data support this interpretation but yield additional details particularly low 13c across a wide swath of eastern china during the eocene suggests greater primary productivity due to a strengthened east asia monsoon perhaps driven by high atmospheric pco2 and globally warm temperatures consistently higher 13c in central asia indicates that central asia has remained more arid than surrounding regions such as northern india and southern china which have received abundant precipitation due to the presence of monsoonal moisture however increases in 13c across much of central asia throughout the cenozoic including particularly pronounced increases in mongolia and kazakhstan during the neogene imply that primary productivity has declined across much of asia this large scale de greening is attributable to the combined effects of cenozoic global cooling and the late cenozoic uplift of the tian shan and altai mountains which block westerly moisture the uplift of these ranges in the late miocene is supported by decreasing neogene 18o in eastern kazakhstan and sharply increasing 13c in the lee of the altai these regional data demonstrate that the tian shan and altai reached sufficient elevations to interact with the westerly jet by the late miocene establishing a substantial rain shadow and shifting the seasonality of precipitation in western central asia we conclude that paleoclimatic changes during the cenozoic in central asia are more tightly controlled by global climate and by the interaction of the mid latitude westerlies with the tian shan and altai rather than by changes in the height or extent of the tibetan plateau or paratethys

the isotopic composition of meteoric water along altitudinal transects in the tian shan of central asia abstract the tian shan in central asia are a unique mountain range in that they are in the world s most continental location seasonal precipitation in the northern tian shan is segregated into distinct elevation bands where high elevations receive precipitation primarily during summer and low elevations to the north receive precipitation primarily during the late winter and spring in this study we sampled stream water along multiple altitudinal transects to determine the effect unique seasonal patterns of precipitation have on the isotopic composition of surface water our results suggest that the northern tian shan exhibits an isotopic lapse rate for waters sampled in late spring but not for those sampled in late summer when stream water budgets are dominated by high elevation precipitation and snow melt deuterium excess results suggest that subcloud evaporation significantly affects the isotopic composition of precipitation at low elevations in spring and that sublimation of snow has a minor impact on 18o values of summer melt water because high and low elevation 18o values are similar conventional paleoaltimetry based on rayleigh distillation of an air mass is not applicable to the kyrgyz tian shan stream water proxies from the rock record are likely to reflect changes in the seasonal distribution of precipitation which occur on the same spatial scale as altitudinal changes these results highlight the need to understand modern controls on local stable isotopes of meteoric water in reconstructions of past climate or topography using geologic proxy materials

mass accumulation rates in asia during the cenozoic summary this work establishes estimates of mass accumulation rates in 18 mostly offshore sedimentary basins in asia since the beginning of the cenozoic 66 ma the estimates were derived from isopach maps cross sections and drill holes or stratigraphic columns assuming regional similarity of the strata average solid phase volumes and accumulation rates were calculated for nine epochs approximately corresponding to geological periods palaeocene 66 58 ma eocene 58 37 ma oligocene 37 30 and 30 24 ma miocene 24 17 17 11 and 11 5 ma pliocene 5 2 ma and quaternary 2 0 ma these rates shed new light on the geological history of asia since the onset of the collision of india with asia 50 ma the overall average accumulation rates curve for asian sedimentary basins since the beginning of the tertiary shows an exponential form with slow accumulation rates less than 0 5 106 km3 myr 1 until the beginning of the oligocene more than 15 myr after the onset of the collision from the oligocene onwards rates increase quickly in an exponential manner reaching their maximum values in the quaternary more than 1 5 106 km3 myr 1 from these observations we suggest that extrusion and crustal shortening are complementary processes that have been successively dominant throughout the india eurasia collision history at smaller scales one may distinguish between independent histories at the subcontinental and basin scales this permits a comparison of the relative importance of tectonic and climatic erosion processes affecting the different mountain belts of asia during the cenozoic

mesozoic and cenozoic tectonic history of the central chinese tian shan reactivated tectonic structures and active deformation 1 the present day topography of the tian shan range is considered to result from crustal shortening related to the ongoing india asia collision that started in the early tertiary in this study we report evidence for several episodes of localized tectonic activity which occurred prior to that major orogenic event apatite fission track analysis and u th he dating on apatite and zircon indicate that inherited paleozoic structures were reactivated in the late paleozoic early mesozoic during a cimmerian orogenic episode and also in the late cretaceous paleogene around 65 60 ma these reactivations could have resulted from the accretion of the kohistan dras arc or lithospheric extension in the siberia mongolia zone activity resumed in the late mesozoic prior to the major tertiary orogenic phase finally the ongoing deformation which again reactivates inherited tectonic structures tends to propagate inside the endoreic basins that were preserved in the range leading to their progressive closure this study demonstrates the importance of inherited structures in localizing the first increments of the deformation before it propagates into yet undeformed areas

climatic variation in the linxia basin ne tibetan plateau from 13 1 to 4 3 ma the stable isotope record the 13 c and 18 o values of carbonates and 13 corg values c and c n ratios of organic matter from lacustrine and fluvial sediments were measured from two stratigraphic sections in the linxia basin on the northeastern margin of the tibetan plateau diagenesis when present is early limited to small spatial scales and restricted stratigraphic intervals a strong correlation exists between dolomite content and the 18 o values of micritic carbonate suggesting that carbonates are primary precipitates from lake water and that 18 o values reflect changes in the lake environment with more positive values derived from evaporated and more saline lake water the first part of this record is characterized by strong oscillations between dry and wet conditions accompanied by changes in the lake system between hydrographically closed and open states 13 1 8 0 ma the most severe aridity occurred from 9 6 to 8 5 ma after 8 0 ma a more stable and less arid climate dominated the region and the drainage system was open 8 0 5 3 ma after 5 3 ma climate became gradually drier and or cooler 5 3 4 3 ma the organic matter preserved in the linxia basin is most likely a mixture of terrestrial c3 plant matter and lake algae a correlation between c n and 13 corg indicates that a significant percentage of the organic matter is derived from terrestrial sources the organic matter has undergone selective degradation during which the c n ratios and organic carbon percentage decreased the 13 corg values are relatively stable throughout the 13 1 to 4 3 ma interval ranging from 24 to 29 vpdb suggesting that c4

uplift driven climate change at 12 ma a long δ18o record from the ne margin of the tibetan plateau carbonates from fluvial and lacustrine sediments were sampled from multiple measured sections in the linxia basin of western china based on textural and mineralogical evidence lacustrine carbonates are primary precipitates from lake water a 29 million year record of the oxygen isotope composition of meteoric water is inferred from the n 18 o values of these carbonates this inference is based on the most negative n 18 o values in the lake carbonates which represent lake waters that have experienced the least evaporative enrichment carbonate n 18 o values a proxy for rainfall n 18 o are v310 5x throughout the interval of 29 12 ma at 12 ma there is a shift to 39x a value that remains into the pliocene this implies a major reorganization of atmospheric circulation patterns and a shift to more arid conditions at the ne margin of the tibetan plateau with the post 12 ma system similar to that of today the 12 ma event may represent the time at which the tibetan plateau achieves sufficient elevation to block the penetration of moisture from the indian ocean or south pacific into western china the period of greatest aridity is from 9 6 to 8 2 ma a time interval which agrees well with other climate records 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

forcing of late cenozoic northern hemisphere climate by plateau uplift in southern asia and the american west geologic evidence indicates that net vertical uplift occurred on a large kilometer scale and at accelerating rates during the middle and late cenozoic in plateaus of southern asia and the american west based on this evidence general circulation model sensitivity tests were run to isolate the unique effects of plateau uplift on climate the experiments simulated significant climatic changes in many places some far from the uplifted regions the basic direction of most of these simulated responses to progressive uplift is borne out by changes found in the geologic record winter cooling of north america northern europe northern asia and the arctic ocean summer drying of the north american west coast the eurasian interior and the mediterranean winter drying of the north american northern plains and the interior of asia and changes over the north atlantic ocean conducive to increased formation of deep water the modeled changes result from increased orographic diversion of westerly winds from cyclonic and anticyclonic surface flow induced by summer heating and winter cooling of the uplifted plateaus and from the intensification of vertical circulation cells in the atmosphere caused by exchanges of mass between the summer heated and winter cooled plateaus and the mid latitude oceans disagreements between the geologic record and the model simulations in alaska and the southern rockies and plains may be related mainly to the lack of narrow mountain barriers in the model orography taken together the observed regional trends comprise much of the pattern of late cenozoic climatic deterioration in the northern hemisphere that culminated in the plio pleistocene ice ages the success of the uplift sensitivity experiment in simulating the correct pattern and sign of most of the observed regional climatic trends points to uplift as an important forcing function of late cenozoic climatic change in the northern hemisphere at time scales longer than orbital variations however the modest amplitude of the uplift induced cooling simulated at high latitudes indicates a probable need for additional climatic forcing

role of the westerlies in central asia climate over the cenozoic abstract there remains substantial debate concerning the relative roles of tectonics and of global climate in pacing the evolution of aridity in central asia over the cenozoic tibetan plateau uplift variable monsoonal strength paratethys retreat and reduced moisture transport from the north atlantic have all been hypothesized to drive aridity in central asia distinguishing between these mechanisms requires knowledge of moisture transport pathways to central asia through time presently central asia receives recycled high 18 o moisture that has been transported across eurasia by the westerlies while southern tibet receives low 18 o moisture distilled by passage over the himalaya here we reconstruct the spatial distribution of oxygen isotopes in precipitation since the early eocene using a compilation of 18 o data from 2750 sedimentary carbonate samples across asia the spatial distribution of paleo precipitation 18 o remains remarkably similar through time with low 18 o values in the lee of the himalaya in southern tibet constant high 18 o values in central asia and intermediate values on the central plateau despite independent evidence for substantial changes in both topography and climate through time these results suggest that a long standing topographic feature has continuously blocked southerly moisture and subsequent progressive uplift of the tibetan plateau has had little impact on central asian climate in turn southerly monsoonal moisture has never persistently extended northward of the central plateau as a result the westerlies have remained the dominant moisture source in central asia since at least the early eocene therefore sedimentary aridity indicators in central asia such as loess deposition are controlled by the trans eurasian westerly moisture flux rather than tibetan plateau uplift

late cenozoic tectono geomorphologic evolution of the northern tian shan mountain range insight from u pb ages of detrital zircon grains from the upper oligocene quaternary sediments of the southern junggar basin abstract being one of the largest intra continental orogens of the world the tian shan orogenic belt was uplifted to its present elevation due to the far field effect of the india asia convergence in this study we performed a systematic study on the upper oligocene quaternary sedimentary rocks from the southern junggar basin including conglomerate clast counting and detrital zircon u pb dating to reconstruct the late cenozoic uplift history of the northern tian shan mountain range the new detrital zircon u pb data provide new constrains on the late cenozoic intra continental deformation of the borohoro range the yili central tian shan and north tian shan were the major sources for the junggar basin during the latest cretaceous paleogene period at that time the borohoro range was characterized by low topography and wide drainage pattern as the uplift of the north tian shan commenced at 25 23 ma the high topography of the northern borohoro range blocked the transport of sediments from the yili central tian shan to the north the north tian shan became the primary provenance area of the southern junggar basin according to sedimentary provenance analysis and geomorphologic survey we infer that the yili central tian shan started to uplift at 12 9 ma combined with previously published data our results suggest that the middle miocene uplift event most likely occurred in both the hinterland and foreland regions along the whole tian shan mountain range

denudation intensity and control in the chinese tian shan new constraints from mass balance on catchment alluvial fan systems tectonics and climate are usually seen as the main controlling factors of denudation rates which seem to rise with the tectonic activity and to decrease when the climate becomes drier however the low denudation rates observed in semi arid to arid contexts are generally measured on orogenic plateaus where the respective influence of the flat relief and the dry climate cannot really be unravelled the chinese tian shan was chosen as a case study in the northern piedmont of this mountain range a series of well preserved quaternary alluvial fans offer the opportunity to perform a mass balance study at the scale of several catchment areas and several hundreds of thousands of years based on a geometrical reconstruction of these fans the volumes of sediments exported out of 10 drainage basins during the middle late pleistocene from 300 to 12 kyr and the holocene from 12 kyr to present have been estimated from these volumes an average denudation rate of 135 m myr was determined in the tian shan range for the last 300 kyr in agreement with other mass balances performed in the same area the typical denudation intensity of the northern tian shan is thus of a few hundred meters per million years at most regardless of the space and time scales considered from a comparison with denudation rates in other mountain ranges throughout the world we suggest that a dry climate can dramatically limit the denudation intensity even in active orogenic systems with a high topographic gradient like the tian shan as a result the time required to reach equilibrium between denudation and rock uplift in these systems could be extremely long i e of more than several million years copyright 2016 john wiley sons ltd

cenozoic multiple phase tectonic evolution of the northern tibetan plateau constraints from sedimentary records from qaidam basin hexi corridor and subei basin northwest china an integrated research of sedimentology stratigraphy and provenance analysis on eleven sedimentary sections from the qaidam basin hexi corridor and subei basin representing 36 km cenozoic strata provides a detailed record of the northern tibetan plateau growth since the early eocene sections are divided into three groups based on age geological similarities and geographical locations group one includes three early eocene late miocene sections from the northern qaidam basin group two contains four sections along the altyn tagh fault atf which preserve a complete stratigraphic record from the oligocene to late miocene group three contains the four youngest sections investigated from the northeastern qaidam basin and hexi corridor which preserve a record since the middle miocene to quaternary together the sections reveal a multiple phase tectonic history of the northern tibetan plateau the punctuated history can be divided into four phases 1 the eocene lulehe formation from the northern qaidam basin is interpreted as a synorogenic conglomerate deposited by high gradient depositional systems strong unimodal paleocurrent towards the southwest coarse lithology and distinct recognizable clast types constrain the sediment source within the north qaidam and south qilian terranes indicating activity on inferred thrust faults within the north qaidam and south qilian terranes in response to the initial india eurasia collision the activity on these thrust faults continued through the late eocene 2 the early oligocene conglomerate from group two formed in response to the sinistral transpression related to motion on the atf suggesting inception of substantial slip on the atf in the early oligocene in order to accommodate the continuing indentation of india into eurasia 3 oligocene early miocene fine grained fluvio lacustrine sediments from groups one and two formed as the result of development of internal drainage systems in the qaidam basin in response to the large amplitude slip motion on the atf paleocurrents collected from the oligocene early miocene strata of group one are northwest directed pointing towards the atf consistent with the pre existing subsurface data showing the shift of depocenter from along north qaidam and south qilian terranes toward the atf 4 all eleven sections preserve a post early miocene upward coarsening sequence consistent with the extensive crustal shortening and topographic growth across the northern tibetan plateau

a new approach to stable isotope based paleoaltimetry implications for paleoaltimetry and paleohypsometry of the high himalaya since the late miocene the change in oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation is modeled using equilibrium fractionation during rayleigh distillation linked to the thermodynamics of atmospheric ascent and water vapor condensation the primary controllers of the vertical variation in isotopic composition with elevation are the low elevation temperature and relative humidity as these control the vertical distribution of condensation an empirical fit of precipitation versus model condensation based on alpine stations is derived this fit is represented in the model as the weighted mean composition of condensation within a 1000 m thick air parcel 1500 500 m above the ground surface and is used for all other regions comparison of model versus observed modern precipitation reveals a close fit particularly of more highly elevated sites comparison of modern waters in the himalayas and southern tibet with model predictions particularly as revealed by comparison of observed and predicted hypsometry provides additional support to the validity of the model finally application of this model to estimates of paleo waters in the himalayas and southern tibet reveals that this region had already achieved its present hypsometry by the late miocene about 10 ma ago fl 2001 published by elsevier science b v

isotopic reconstruction of past continental environments abstract vertebrate fossils and continental sediments provide a rich record of variations in the isotopic composition of surface environments to interpret these records a greater understanding of isotopic sources as well as fractionations associated with animal physiology soil geochemistry and diagenesis has been essential tooth enamel and fish otoliths yield subannual records of surface environments whereas soil minerals may integrate signals over many thousands of years carbon isotope variations in fossil vertebrates and soils record changes in the structure of vegetation and the isotope composition and concentration of atmospheric co2 oxygen isotope variations may be indirectly related to climate through reconstruction of the oxygen isotope composition of meteoric water or directly related to temperature through application of oxygen isotope paleothermometry to soil minerals or otoliths in africa nitrogen isotope variations show promise as a proxy for rainfall abundance though the gen

c and o isotope compositions of modern fresh water mollusc shells and river waters from the himalaya and ganga plain the aim of this paper is to unfold the relationship between the o and c isotope compositions of modern fresh water mollusc shells and water in order to refine the basis of interpretation for paleoenvironnemental reconstruction in the sub himalayan river basins large number of mollusc shells and associated host water from both running water and closed body of water were analysed including intra shell variability in a few cases the o isotopic compositions of river waters in the himalaya and ganga plain have a large range from 18 in the north of the high range up to 8 to 4 in the ganga plain 18o of rivers are also seasonally variable especially in foothills rivers whereas the seasonal contrast is smoothed out for the main himalayan rivers having large catchments o isotopic compositions of bulk shells aragonite vary between 15 and 5 average 18oara values are consistent with precipitation at equilibrium with host waters at a temperature range of 20 25 c suggesting that shell growth may be favoured during non monsoon conditions shells collected along the main himalayan rivers have 18o values uniformly distributed within 11 and 6 reflecting the minimal seasonal contrast shown by these rivers in contrast o isotopic compositions of shells from foothills rivers vary only by 4 this shows that depending on the type of river where the molluscs grow the information in term of 18o amplitude will be different for identical climatic conditions in closed or pond water bodies significant enrichment in 18o due to evaporation is observed the c isotopic compositions of river dissolved inorganic carbon dic decrease downstream from 0 to 10 reflecting input of soil derived alkalinity and plant productivity in the river 13c of shells are systematically lower than compositions calculated for equilibrium with river dic indicating that in addition to dic a significant fraction of carbon is derived from metabolic sources intra shell 13c are stable compared to the seasonal variability of dic suggesting that the pool of organic carbon changes throughout year

stable isotopic variations in modern herbivore tooth enamel plants and water on the tibetan plateau implications for paleoclimate and paleoelevation reconstructions stable isotope analyses of fossil teeth and other authigenic minerals have been used to reconstruct the paleoenvironment and paleoelevation of the tibetan plateau the accuracy of such reconstructions is limited by the lack of a comprehensive modem comparative database from the region we analyzed the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions delta c 13 and delta o 18 values of tooth enamel from modem herbivores the delta c 13 values of gasses and the delta o 18 values of water samples collected from various elevations within the tibetan plateau to examine their relationships with modem environment elevation the delta c 13 values of enamel samples from horses yaks and goats display a narrow range of variation with a mean of 10 7 1 4 parts per thousand n 301 indicating that these modem herbivores were feeding predominantly on c3 plants consistent with the current dominance of c3 vegetation in the region some of the samples have delta c 13 values between 7 3 and 10 parts per thousand although these higher delta c 13 values could suggest consumption of some c4 plants by the animals the lack of significant seasonal delta c 13 variations within individual teeth indicates that these higher enamel delta c 13 values are due to consumption of c3 plants experiencing water stress and or some cam plants rather than c4 plants our data show that the conservative cut off delta c 13 value for a pure c3 diet within the tibetan plateau should be 8 parts per thousand for modem herbivores and 7 parts per thousand or even 6 5 parts per thousand for fossils if the region was as and in the past as today in contrast to the small intra tooth delta c 13 variations within individual teeth serial enamel samples display large intra tooth delta o 18 variations reflecting seasonal variations in the delta o 18 of meteoric water the mean delta o 18 values of tooth enamel from yaks and horses show a strong correlation with water delta o 18 values confirming that the delta o 18 of tooth enamel from obligate drinker generally tracks the 6180 of meteoric water unfortunately elevation alone cannot explain most of the variance in the delta o 18 of precipitation and tooth enamel suggesting that quantitative reconstruction of the paleoelevation of the tibetan plateau using re constructed delta o 18 values of paleo meteoric water from fossil enamel or other oxygen bearing minerals is not warranted for a given environment horses have the lowest enamel delta o 18 values while goats display the highest enamel delta o 18 values among the species studied the large inter species delta o 18 variations are likely due to differences in physiology and diet drinking behavior of the animals this underscores the importance of species specific studies when interpreting delta o 18 data of fossil mammalian teeth in a stratigraphic sequence as a record of paleoclimate changes c 2008 elsevier b v all rights reserved

expansion of c4 grasses in the late miocene of northern pakistan evidence from stable isotopes in paleosols stable isotopic clay mineralogic and bulk chemical analyses were conducted on paleosols of the neogene siwalik sections in northern pakistan in order to reconstruct floodplain environments over the past 17 ma the stable carbon isotopic composition of soil carbonate mean 13c pdb 10 2 and associated organic matter mean 13c pdb 24 1 in paleosols representing 17 7 3 ma reveal that floodplain vegetation was dominated by c3 plants at 7 3 ma a shift toward more positive carbon isotopic values began signaling the gradual expansion of c4 grasses onto the floodplain from 6 ma to present carbon isotopic values for paleosol carbonate mean 13c pdb 0 6 and organic matter mean 13c pdb 14 4 are uniformly enriched in 13c indicating the presence of nearly pure c4 grassland the scarcity of kaolinite and abundance of smectite and pedogenic carbonate in most paleosols suggest that rainfall in the region remained 1 0 1 25 m yr or less for the entire 17 ma of record paleosols in the lower portion of the section lack organic a horizons but have reddish b horizons often containing secondary iron oxide nodules leaching depths of soil carbonate in these older paleosols are typically greater than those in the plio pleistocene part of the section where organic a horizons are common and b horizons are markedly more yellow the combined evidence suggests that the mature paleosols in the pre 7 3 ma part of the record are dominantly calcareous alfisols or mollisols that once underlay nearly pure c3 vegetation perhaps trees and shrubs while calcareous mollisols underlying c4 grassland dominate the upper part of the record the carbon and oxygen isotopic trends in the paleosol record in pakistan are also evident in the diet of fossil mammals and in paleosols from nepal thus demonstrating that these paleoenvironmental changes in floodplain vegetation may be continent wide local effects such as the development or intensification of the asian monsoon driven by uplift of the tibetan plateau may have led to the expansion of c4 grasses if however the expansion of c4 grasses proves globally synchronous then a larger scale cause such as a marked decrease in co2 may be the driving mechanism

rapid late miocene rise of the bolivian altiplano evidence for removal of mantle lithosphere abstract the oxygen isotopic compositions of carbonates deposited in the northern altiplano demonstrate a rapid change in late miocene time which we attribute to an increase in elevation rainfall samples over an elevation transect adjacent to the altiplano of northern bolivia display a systematic decrease in mean annual 18 o values and define a local 18 o vs altitude gradient r gonfiantini m a roche j c olivry j c fontes g m zuppi the altitude effect on the isotopic composition of tropical rains chem geol 181 2001 147 167 which we apply to paleo meteoric water values determined from carbonates age constraints from magnetostragraphy and paleoelevation estimates suggest surface uplift of 2 5 to 3 5 km occurred between 10 3 ma and 6 8 0 4 ma when the altiplano rose to its current elevation only the removal of dense eclogitic lower crust and mantle lithosphere can generate a change of this magnitude and rapidity this change coincides with an 30 decrease in the rate of convergence between the south america and nazca plates and the propagation of deformation into the eastern subandean zone which we infer to have resulted from the increase in the force per unit length applied by the elevated andean plateau to the surrounding lowlands

paleo erosion rates in central asia since 9 ma a transient increase at the onset of quaternary glaciations erosion is a fundamental player of the interactions existing between internal geodynamics and climate in particular through its influence on the carbon dioxide budget however long term 1 ma erosion rates estimated indirectly from sediment budget remain poorly constrained while some studies suggest that worldwide erosion rates increased at the plio pleistocene climatic transition 4 2 ma the validity of this observation and its significance is a matter of debate due to potential biases of the sedimentary record and to the influence of sea level fall on the global sedimentary flux to marginal basins in the present study we estimate erosion rates over the last 9 ma using in situ produced cosmogenic 10be concentrations measured in magnetostratigraphically dated continental sediments we focus on an intracontinental endorheic watershed draining the northern tianshan in central asia a key region regarding the ongoing debate while erosion rates between 0 1 and 1 mm yr 1 are derived from most of our record they reach values as high as 2 5 mm yr 1 from 2 5 to 1 7 ma then after 1 7 ma recent and modern erosion rates fell below 1 mm yr 1 this temporary increase is correlated with the onset of quaternary ice ages and suggests that global climate had a significant and transient impact on erosion

stable isotope records of cenozoic climate and topography tibetan plateau and tarim basin we seek to better understand growth of the tibetan plateau and associated climate change by presenting the first regionally extensive set of oxygen isotope data obtained from ca 40 m y of cenozoic strata from a 700 000 km2 area ranging from the northern edge of the tibetan plateau northward across the entire tarim basin our results reveal a previously unrecognized large positive isotope shift from eocene to oligocene which we suggest results from initial topographic growth of the himalayan tibetan system and attendant reorganization of climate by this growing mountain belt a negative isotopic shift recorded in miocene strata may reflect retreat of the neotethyan sea from the tarim basin as well as enhanced elevation of the himalaya tibetan plateau region and the rise of the tian shan which diverted moisture bearing westerlies and deepened aridity in the tarim basin and the northern tibetan plateau

late quaternary drainage evolution in response to fold growth in the northern chinese tian shan foreland abstract alluvial units are important in understanding the interactions of antecedent drainage evolution with fold growth along the flanks of active orogenic belts this is demonstrated by the anjihai river in the northern chinese tian shan foreland which at present flows northward cutting sequentially through the nananjihai anticline the huoerguos anticline and the anjihai anticline three episodes of alluviation designated as fans fa fb and fc are identified for the anjihai river these three alluvial terrain features comprise a series of terraces where the topographic characteristics geomorphologic structure and up warped longitudinal profiles indicate continuous uplift and lateral propagation of the halaande anticline and the anjihai anticline over the past 50 ky shortly after 3 6 ka when the oldest terrace during the period of the fan fb sedimentation was formed significant rock uplift at the overlapping zone of the anjihai anticline and the halaande anticline led to the eastward deflection of the antecedent anjihai river a series of local terraces with elevation decreasing eastward indicate the gradual eastward migration of the channel of the anjihai river during the period of the fan fc sedimentation finally the anjihai river occupied the previous course of the jingou river when the latter was deflected eastward in response to rock uplift of the anjihai anticline presently flowing across the eastern tip of the anjihai anticline

paleoenvironmental setting mechanism and consequence of massive organic carbon burial in the permian junggar basin nw china abstract the junggar basin in northwestern china is a typical walled sedimentary basin that has a prolonged basin evolution history from the paleozoic to cenozoic and is rich in petroleum resources permian strata reach thousands of meters in thickness and have been intensively studied for their record of regional tectonics and paleoenvironments they have also been exploited for oil and gas for the past several decades in this paper we summarize perspectives on tectonic evolution stratigraphic framework sedimentary environments and the paleoclimate of the permian junggar basin and the adjacent turpan basin further we discuss the mechanism and consequences of massive organic carbon burial based on a compilation of published radiometric dating datasets an updated chronostratigraphic framework was proposed for the junggar basin this framework constrains the ages of two main petroleum source intervals the fengcheng formation and the lucaogou and equivalent formations as early permian and middle permian respectively although a global warming and drying trend was present throughout the permian period the regional climate over the junggar basin was drier in early permian and more humid in the middle late permian with short term climatic fluctuations during the deposition of the two petroleum source intervals dry and temperate climate prevailed and evaporative lacustrine environment dominated organic matter enrichment was promoted by stable salinity stratification and limited dilution by inorganic sediments leading to one of the richest lacustrine source rock deposits in the world the average organic carbon burial rates were 11 2 gc m2 yr for the lucaogou formation and 3 5 gc m2 yr for the fengcheng formation lower than the average organic carbon burial rate in modern lakes however considering the large areas of global tectonic lakes in the permian period organic carbon burial in lacustrine environments could act as a significant carbon sink and impact the global carbon cycle and climate evolution

the geological significance of cosmogenic nuclides in large lowland river basins abstract measured from a bag of sand taken in large rivers the concentration of cosmogenic nuclides such as in situ produced 10be 26al and 14c can be used to constrain the mean sediment flux of the headwaters and assess the duration of sediment storage from source to sink we revisit these principles with examples from the amazon and ganga basins we identify two end member cases controlling the concentration of cosmogenic nuclides in lowland river sediment 1 if the time scale of floodplain sediment storage is short compared to the half life of the nuclide in situ cosmogenic nuclide concentrations are not significantly altered in lowland basins in this case the concentration of e g in situ produced 10be in the sediment taken in the lowland basin equals in most cases that exported from the sediment source area but the variability in nuclide concentrations between headwater streams is significantly averaged out thus to convert the measured river sediments in situ cosmogenic nuclide concentration into a catchment wide denudation rate production rates are scaled to include those of the sediment producing mountainous areas only rather than the entire catchment area nuclide production in the lowlands where no sediment is being produced is hence excluded this correction is termed floodplain correction 2 if sediment buried for periods of the order of the nuclides half life is episodically re entrained into the active river paired nuclides for example the ratio of 26al 10be through the differential decay of these isotopes constrain the the storage duration and re mixing of floodplain sediment as in situ cosmogenic nuclides measure denudation rates over longer time scales typically integrating between 103 and 105 years their combination with modern estimates of sediment fluxes from river load gauging offers a rich potential of deciphering the controls of earth surface fluxes across large basins from this combination we can assess how river systems react to external perturbations such as climate change or human interference and how such signals are transmitted through the alluvial reaches of lowland basins the most important results in both basins are that i lowland amazon and ganga nuclide concentrations indeed broadly reflect the spatial average of andean and himalayan denudation respectively ii the thus calculated sediment fluxes are within uncertainty of modern fluxes from sediment gauging indicating complete sediment delivery to the sea without net loss into the basin and iii only the amazon basin given its size contains a substantial fraction of sediment buried temporarily in the quaternary finally we provide a short introduction to the use of meteoric cosmogenic nuclide 10be and its ratio to stable 9be released by rock weathering in lowlands in the amazon basin we show that 10be concentrations in fine grained suspended loads depth integrated over the water column using al si ratios provide erosion rates whereas the 10be 9be ratio on be adsorbed to particles provides the denudation rate both are similar to denudation rates from in situ 10be we show that this system responds more sensitively to sediment storage than the in situ system and both accumulation and decay of meteoric concentrations may thus be used to determine sediment residence time

a 25 m y isotopic record of paleodiet and environmental change from fossil mammals and paleosols from the ne margin of the tibetan plateau we use the carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions of fossil tooth enamel and paleosols to reconstruct the late cenozoic history of vegetation and environmental change in the linxia basin at the northeastern margin of the tibetan plateau the d 13 c values of fossil enamel from a diverse group of herbivores and of paleosol carbonate and organic matter indicate that c4 grasses were either absent or insignificant in the linxia basin prior to 2 3 ma and only became a significant component of local ecosystems in the quaternary this is in striking contrast to what was observed in pakistan nepal africa and the americas where c4 plants expanded rapidly in the late miocene as indicated by a positive d 13 c shift in mammalian tooth enamel and paleosols the d 18 o results from the same herbivore species show several significant shifts in climate in the late cenozoic most notably a positive d 18 o shift after 7 ma indicates a shift to warmer and or drier conditions and is comparable in timing and direction to the d 18 o shift observed in paleosol carbonates in pakistan and nepal this late miocene climate change observed in the indian sub continent and in the linxia basin however seems to be a regional manifestation of a global climate change the lack of evidence for c4 plants in the linxia basin prior to 2 3 ma suggests that the east asian summer monsoon which brings precipitation into northern china during the summer and creates optimal conditions for the growth of c4 grasses was probably not strong enough to affect this part of china throughout much of the neogene this implies that the himalayantibetan plateau may not have reached the present day elevation across its vast extent to support a strong east asian monsoon system before 2 3 ma our data also suggest that regional climatic conditions played an important role in controlling the expansion of c4 plants d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

development of asian monsoon revealed by marked ecological shift during the latest miocene in northern pakistan carbon isotopes from soil carbonate1 4 and soil organic matter5 6 yield palaeoecological information because the carbon in the soil carbonate forms in isotopic equilibrium with local soil co2 refs 1 7 the isotopic composition of which is in turn determined by local plant cover siwalik group sediments in northern pakistan contain a well exposed palaeosol record spanning the past 18 myr here we report on stable carbon isotope results from associated pedogenic carbonate which indicate a dramatic ecological shift from to dominated floodplain biomass beginning 7 4 7 0 myr ago the earlier c3 floodplain biomasses were probably mainly composed of trees and shrubs whereas c4 grasslands dominated in the plio pleistocene oxygen isotopes also exhibit a shift in the latest miocene probably corresponding to a major climate change which may have induced the forest to grassland transition this dramatic ecological shift in the latest miocene may mark the inception or a marked strengthening of the asian monsoon system

paleozoic tectonic evolution of the tianshan orogen northwestern china abstract the chinese tianshan orogenic belt which extends west east for about 1500 km is one of the most important paleozoic orogenic belts in central asia it includes parts of the tarim yili central tianshan and junggar plates which are microcontinental blocks with precambrian basements and meso cenozoic depositional covers the tarim plate is separated from the yili central tianshan plate by the southern central tianshan suture early carboniferous ophiolitic melanges and blueschists are widespread in this suture and are believed to be produced by the collision between a passive continental margin on the north side of the tarim plate and an active continental margin on the south side of the yili central tianshan plate the collision occurred at the end of early carboniferous the yili central tianshan and the junggar plates are separated by the northern central tianshan suture also considered as an early carboniferous collisional zone along which the middle ordovician ophiolitic melanges blueschists and late devonian early carboniferous ophiolites are exposed in early paleozoic times the subduction of the paleo junggar ocean took place in an active margin on the north side of the yili central tianshan plate along the northern central tianshan suture at the end of early carboniferous the north side of the yili central tianshan plate collided with the north tianshan arc along this suture the paleo oceanic crust in the tianshan and adjacent region was entirely consumed at the end of early carboniferous meanwhile the tarim yili central tianshan and junggar plates were accreted to eurasia epicontinental sediments were then deposited throughout the tianshan region during the middle late carboniferous times in the early permian tianshan began to uplift with accompanying volcanic eruption and granitic intrusion the uplift was accelerated in the late permian and continental molasse was extensively deposited

modeling the shortening history of a fault tip fold using structural and geomorphic records of deformation 1 we present a methodology to derive the growth history of a fault tip fold above a basal detachment our approach is based on modeling the stratigraphic and geomorphic records of deformation as well as the finite structure of the fold constrained from seismic profiles we parameterize the spatial deformation pattern using a simple formulation of the displacement field derived from sandbox experiments assuming a stationary spatial pattern of deformation we simulate the gradual warping and uplift of stratigraphic and geomorphic markers which provides an estimate of the cumulative amounts of shortening they have recorded this approach allows modeling of isolated terraces or growth strata we apply this method to the study of two fault tip folds in the tien shan the yakeng and anjihai anticlines documenting their deformation history over the past 6 7 myr we show that the modern shortening rates can be estimated from the width of the fold topography provided that the sedimentation rate is known yielding respective rates of 2 15 and 1 12 mm yr across yakeng and anjihai consistent with the deformation recorded by fluvial and alluvial terraces this study demonstrates that the shortening rates across both folds accelerated significantly since the onset of folding it also illustrates the usefulness of a simple geometric folding model and highlights the importance of considering local interactions between tectonic deformation sedimentation and erosion

magnetostratigraphy of the yaha section tarim basin china 11 ma acceleration in erosion and uplift of the tian shan mountains we report a magnetostratigraphic and rock magnetic study of the yaha section located on the southern flank of the central tian shan mountains asia our results show a two fold increase in sedimentation rate as well as marked changes in rock magnetic characteristics ca 11 ma after 11 ma sedimentation rate remained remarkably constant until at least 5 2 ma these findings are consistent with sedimentary records from other sections surrounding the tian shan we conclude that uplift and erosion of the tian shan accelerated ca 11 ma long after the onset of the collision between india and asia and that the range rapidly evolved toward a steady state geometry via a balance between tectonic and erosion processes

stable isotopic constraints on the tectonic topographic and climatic evolution of the northern margin of the tibetan plateau abstract this study presents oxygen and carbon isotopic records from lacustrine paleosol alluvial and fluvial carbonate sampled in thirteen cenozoic sedimentary sections that span the northern margin of the tibetan plateau isotopic analyses of 1475 carbonate samples yield 18 o values that range from 13 1 to 38 9 smow and 13 c values range from 11 5 to 3 7 pdb based on these analyses we see two isotopic trends regionally we interpret a paleogene decrease in average oxygen isotope values to result from an increase in the mean elevation of the study region s drainages as they tapped waters from a growing tibetan plateau to the south of the study area we interpret a neogene increase in both carbon and oxygen isotope values to result from the initiation of local mountain building in the study area and the withdrawal of marine waters which increased basin isolation aridity and temperatures the timing of inferred initiation of uplift in this region is consistent with structural thermochronological and sedimentological evidence for a tectonic transition in the early and middle miocene from accommodation of india eurasia convergence through extrusion along the altyn tagh fault to accommodation of convergence through active shortening and mountain building in this region this study also supports tectonic models for the differential uplift of the tibetan plateau in that mountain building in this study region significantly postdates estimates for the attainment of high elevation from isotopic studies of the central tibetan plateau

chemical diagenesis of siwalik sandstone isotopic and mineralogical proxies from surai khola section nepal carbon and oxygen isotope values 13c and 18o of carbonate cement from the siwalik sandstones were measured in the surai khola section age 13 ma to 1 ma of western nepal the 18o values of the cement show three evolutionary phases from 12 ma to 6 ma the average 18o vpdb values are 13 6 1 9 n 114 with a large spread from 10 to 18 this large spread probably indicates dissolution and re precipitation of carbonate at various stages during burial from 6 to 4 ma the 18o values show a sharp increase with less scatter with maximum 18o value of 7 the average 18o value for this period is 10 7 1 6 n 25 from 4 to 2 ma 18o values remain fairly uniform with an average value of 8 8 1 2 n 17 the increase in 18o values of carbonate cement in the sandstone occurs concurrently with that of pedogenic carbonate measured earlier by quade et al 1995 quade j cater m l j ojha p t adam j harrison m t 1995 late miocene environmental change in nepal and the northern indian subcontinent stable isotopic evidence from paleosols gsa bulletin 107 12 1381 1397 indicating a major role of meteoric water in controlling the 18o value of diagenetic carbonate cement the 18o value of carbonate cement of sandstones however is lower than that of pedogenic carbonate in the 6 to 4 ma time range due to precipitation of sandstone cement at a temperature higher than that of pedogenic carbonate the 13c vpdb value of calcite cement does not show any definite trend the 13c values during 12 to 7 ma range from 3 3 to 9 9 with an average of 7 1 1 5 n 91 higher 13c values are more common in samples younger than 7 ma they vary from 2 8 to 9 2 with an average of 5 7 1 5 n 65 during 7 to 2 ma the increase in the post 7 ma period is attributable to appearance of c4 plants which have higher 13c 12c compared to c3 plants the large spread in 13c values of the cement probably indicates production of co2 at various stages of diagenesis of the organic matter at different depths mineralogical composition also shows that diagenesis increases with depth clay minerals 2 separated from sandstone include smectite illite chlorite and kaolinite relative increase in the abundance of illite and decrease in the abundance of smectite indicate illitization of smectite with increase in burial depth presence of corroded features in k feldspar suggests that dissolution of this mineral supplied potassium for illite formation

erosion as a driving mechanism of intracontinental mountain growth in nature mountains can grow and remain as localized tectonic features over long periods of time 10 m y by contrast according to current knowledge of lithospheric rheology and neglecting surface processes any intracontinental range with a width that exceeds that which can be supported by the strength of the lithosphere should collapse within a few tens of millions of years for example assuming a quartz dominated crustal rheology the relief of a range initially 3 km high and 300 400 km wide is reduced by half in about 15 m y as a result of lateral spreading of its crustal root we suggest that surface processes might actually prevent such a subsurface collapse removal of material from topographic heights and deposition in the foreland oppose spreading of the crustal root and could eventually drive a net influx of material toward the orogeny we performed a set of numerical experiments in order to validate this hypothesis a section of a lithosphere with a brittle elasto ductile rheology initially loaded by a mountain range is submitted to horizontal shortening and to surface processes if erosion is intense material is removed more rapidly than it can be supplied by crustal thickening below the range and the topography is rapidly smoothed for example a feature 3 km high and 300 400 km wide is halved in height in about 15 m y for an erosion coefficient k 10 3 m 2 yr the erosion rate is of the order of a few 0 1 mm yr this regime might be called erosional collapse if erosion is not active enough the crustal root spreads out laterally and subsurface collapse occurs in the third intermediate regime removal of the material by erosion is dynamically compensated by isostatic rebound and inward flow in the lower crust so that the range can grow in this mountain growth regime the range evolves toward a characteristic graded shape that primarily depends on the erosion law the erosion rate may be high e g 0 5 0 9 mm yr close to the rate of tectonic uplift e g 0 7 1 1 mm yr and few times higher than the rate of topographic uplift 0 15 0 2 mm yr these experiments show that surface processes can favor localized crustal shortening and participate in the development of an intracontinental mountain surface processes must therefore be taken into account in the interpretation and modeling of long term deformation of continental lithosphere conversely the mechanical response of the lithosphere must be accounted for when large scale topographic features are interpreted and modeled in terms of geomorphologic processes

orogeny and stratigraphy numerical models of the paleozoic in the eastern interior of north america a computer model is used to estimate patterns of lithospheric deformation caused by obduction and removal of loads within orogenic belts regions of lithospheric downwarp become sedimentary depocenters and regions of lithospheric upwarp suffer erosion by following the deposition and erosion of sedimentary packages through a number of model time steps it is possible to calculate a synthetic stratigraphy for a given study area this model is applied to the post early ordovician stratigraphy of the eastern interior region of north america the loading that drives lithospheric deformation is associated with the development of the appalachian and ouachita orogens and the independent development of the michigan and illinois intracratonic basins model results are shown to be consistent with presently observed stratigraphy lithology and cumulative erosion and are then used to estimate the configuration of given sediment packages at discrete intervals following their deposition these estimates are presented in the form of isopach maps stratigraphic cross sections and time stratigraphic diagrams as a function of time over the last 470 ma by tracking the burial and erosion history of sedimentary units we are able to establish a cause and effect relationship between particular tectonic events and the extent of preservation of sedimentary units in particular we suggest that the pennsylvanian permian alleghanian orogeny produced major sediment cover over much of the study area

stable isotope evidence for a paleogene high altitude setting of the sikeshu drainage basin in the northern tianshan western china abstract paleo altitude reconstructions using oxygen isotopes provide past surface elevation data that can constrain the topographic evolution of mountain belts this paper presents oxygen and carbon stable isotopic compositions of gastropod fossils carbonate cements and shelly sandstones in the anjihai and shawan formations located in the sikeshu drainage basin northern tianshan western china correlations between the stable isotopic compositions and lithofacies suggest that the sikeshu drainage basin was mainly an open hydrological depositional environment based on the oxygen isotopic compositions of the gastropod fossils and petrographic examination the 13c and 18o values have not been reset by late stage diagenesis paleo altitudes were reconstructed using the corrected paleo surface water 18opsw values recovered from gastropod fossils carbonate cements and shelly sandstones an empirical formula was developed to calculate the paleo latitudes when the anjihai and shawan formations were deposited the paleo altitude of the sikeshu drainage basin had attained an elevation exceeding 2000 m by 28 ma similar to the present day elevation in this area this conclusion contributes to our understanding of the extent of surface uplift in the cenozoic of tianshan and the climatic differences on either side of tianshan during the cenozoic

reconstructing the paleotopography of mountain belts from the isotopic composition of authigenic minerals the paleorelief of mountain belts can be estimated from the 18 o value of authigenic minerals development of relief during mountain building often creates lee side rain shadows in which precipitation is depleted in 18 o and d the magnitude of this rain shadow effect is strongly correlated to relief a compilation of 18 o data from surface waters throughout the globe shows a linear relationship between net elevation change and 18 o r 2 0 79 through the use of this relationship we investigated the timing and magnitude of elevation change in the southern alps of new zealand and the sierra nevada of california the 18 o values of kaolinites from new zealand show an 6 decrease in the early pliocene that corresponds to an 2 km elevation change in the southern alps the 18 o of smectites from the sierra nevada show little change since 16 ma suggesting that these mountains have been a long standing topographic feature

magnetostratigraphy and rock magnetism of the neogene kuitun he section northwest china implications for late cenozoic uplift of the tianshan mountains in order to better constrain the tectonic evolution of central asia under the influence of the india asia collision we carried out a magnetostratigraphic study at the kuitun he section on the northern flank of the tianshan range northwest china a total of 801 samples were collected from a 1559 m thick section which is composed mainly of fluvio lacustrine sandstone and conglomerate stepwise thermal and alternating field demagnetization isolated a linear magnetization component that decays univectorally toward the origin and likely represents a primary magnetization principally carried by magnetite from this component 29 magnetic polarity intervals were identified they correlate between 3 1 and 10 5 ma with the reference magnetic polarity time scale indicating a relatively constant sedimentation rate with an average of 0 21 0 01 mm year we also performed a suite of rock magnetic experiments designed to track time transgressive changes in the sedimentary record from the rock magnetic parameters together with the constant sedimentation rate we conclude that the tianshan mountains were actively uplifting by 10 5 ma

palaeo altimetry of the late eocene to miocene lunpola basin central tibet the elevation history of the tibetan plateau provides direct insight into the tectonic processes associated with continent continent collisions here we present oxygen isotope based estimates of the palaeo altimetry of late eocene and younger deposits of the lunpola basin in the centre of the plateau which indicate that the surface of tibet has been at an elevation of more than 4 kilometres for at least the past 35 million years we conclude that crustal but not mantle thickening models combined with plate kinematic solutions of india asia convergence are compatible with palaeo elevation estimates across the tibetan plateau

late cretaceous palaeogene topography of the chinese tian shan new insights from geomorphology and sedimentology abstract the cenozoic growth of the intra continental tian shan range initiated during the late eocene oligocene and led to a tectonic reactivation of the complex palaeozoic and mesozoic lithospheric structure due to the very low erosion rates linked to the semi arid climate that characterised the tian shan region during most of the cenozoic the topography of the range is not at equilibrium with deformation fragments of pre orogenic low relief surfaces are preserved among the late cenozoic alpine type topography using field observations and satellite image mapping of those fragments as well as sedimentology and biostratigraphic analysis we show that the pre oligocene topography of the tian shan region was indeed complex combining hundreds of metres to one and a half kilometre high reliefs with a multi phased mesozoic planation surface incised by late mesozoic paleo valleys the occurrence of several metres thick late cretaceous palaeogene calcareous paleosols in the basins surrounding the range further implies a semi arid climate very low subsidence rates and no uplift at that time late cretaceous and early miocene fossil records in the northern tian shan suggest a possible connection even if episodic between the drainage system of the south junggar foreland basin and the proto paratethys sea to the west a renewed late eocene early oligocene sedimentation probably marks the onset of the tian shan uplift we argue that in addition to the growth of the pamir and western kunlun ranges this incipient uplift was one of the driving mechanisms for the final retreat of the proto paratethys sea from the tarim basin this regression apparently did not change the climate in the studied area because semi arid conditions seem to prevail at least since the late cretaceous finally the tian shan uplift remained very limited up to the miocene as revealed by the occurrence of burdigalian lake deposits preserved in the paleo valleys inside the present day range in contrast post early miocene deformation of the northern tian shan has produced 4000 to 5000 m of differential vertical movement between the uplifted range and the subsiding proximal foreland basin

stratigraphic classification of ancient lakes balancing tectonic and climatic controls lakes and lake deposits present two fundamental paradoxes 1 modern lakes are vastly complicated but the rock records of lakes are relatively simple extensive observations reveal three distinct facies associations of common and widespread occurrence these are referred to here as fluvial lacustrine fluctuating profundal and evaporative facies associations 2 most explanations of modern and ancient lakes attribute their nature to climate but neither modern lake parameters lake size depth and salinity nor the character of ancient lake strata thickness extent lithology correlate with measured or inferred climatic humidity we propose that it is the relative balance of rates of potential accommodation mostly tectonic with sediment water fill mostly a function of climate that controls lake occurrence distribution and character lake basins may be termed overfilled balanced fill or underfilled depending on the balance between these rates we conclude that climate and tectonics exert coequal influence on lake deposits at both mesoscales 1 m to hundreds of meters and macroscales hundreds to thousands of meters

neogene uplift of the tian shan mountains observed in the magnetic record of the jingou river section northwest china the tian shan mountains constitute central asia s longest and highest mountain range understanding their cenozoic uplift history thus bears on mountain building processes in general and on how deformation has occurred under the influence of the india asia collision in particular in order to help decipher the uplift history of the tian shan we collected 970 samples for magnetostratigraphic analysis along a 4571 m thick section at the jingou river xinjiang province china stepwise alternating field and thermal demagnetization isolate a linear magnetization component that is interpreted as primary from this component a magnetostratigraphic column composed of 67 polarity chrons are correlated with the reference geomagnetic polarity timescale between 1 ma and 23 6 ma with some uncertainty below 21 ma this correlation places precise temporal control on the neogene stratigraphy of the southern junggar basin and provides evidence for two significant stepwise increases in sediment accumulation rate at 16 15 ma and 11 10 ma rock magnetic parameters also undergo important changes at 16 15 ma and 11 10 ma that correlate with changes in sedimentary depositional environments together with previous work we conclude that growth history of the modern tian shan mountains includes two pulses of uplift and erosion at 16 15 ma and 11 10 ma middle to upper tertiary rocks around the tian shan record very young 5 ma counterclockwise paleomagnetic rotations on the order of 15 to 20 which are interpreted as because of strain partitioning with a component of sinistral shear that localized rotations in the piedmont

miocene to present kinematics of fault bend folding across the huerguosi anticline northern tianshan china derived from structural seismic and magnetostratigraphic data we combine surface structural measurements subsurface seismic imaging and magnetostratigraphic dating to retrieve through geometric modeling the detailed history of fold growth and sedimentation across the huerguosi anticline on the northern tianshan piedmont taking advantage of a beautifully exposed section of growth strata the model assumes a fault bend folding mechanism consistent with subsurface fold geometry the shortening history is obtained by least squares fi tting of the measured dip angles of the growth strata the shortening rate across the anticline is shown to have been remarkably constant it increased only slightly from 0 84 0 04 mm yr between 10 and 4 ma to 1 14 0 02 mm yr over the past 4 m y this approach also allows correcting syntectonic sedimentation rates for the effect of the fold growth and shows that the sedimentation rates in the piggyback basin increased abruptly from 0 4 to 0 7 mm yr ca 4 ma

late cenozoic magnetochronology and paleoenvironmental changes in the northern foreland basin of the tian shan mountains 1 the folded neogene deposits in the northern foreland basin of the tian shan mountains provide important information about tectonic history and environmental changes of northwestern china on the basis of lithostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic evidence we develop a new chronology for the previous studied kuitun he section our palynological study on the late miocene pliocene sediment of the dushanzi section yields new information about vegetation and climate change during the period of 8 7 2 58 ma the results indicate that steppe taxa artemisia and chenopodiaceae were generally dominant in the studied areas between 8 7 and 2 58 ma implying that a dry climate has occurred in the inland basins of northwestern china at least since 8 7 ma ago although the general climate pattern indicated by our palynological results displays to some extent of drought a warm and humid phase occurred at 5 8 3 9 ma ago this climatic optimum is comparable with the other records from the chinese loess plateau central japan the sub himalayan zone and the marine eustatic sea level rise implying this seems to be at least a regional climatic optimum

astronomical forcing of middle permian terrestrial climate recorded in a large paleolake in northwestern china abstract geological records of milankovitch cycles provide a temporal framework for reconstructing earth climate evolution and mapping out the history of the ancient solar system understanding the fundamental celestial mechanics driving astronomical rhythms during the permian period from stratigraphic record is challenging because of the inherent limitations of astronomical solutions the chaotic nature of solar system motion and the paucity of cyclostratigraphic studies of geological records the junggar and adjacent basins of northwestern china constituted a large tectonic lake in the middle permian which deposited one of the thickest and richest petroleum source rock intervals in the world constructing an accurate timescale for the permian junggar basin is critical to understand the processes that controlled organic carbon burial as well as paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental background conditions in this study detailed spectral analyses of natural gamma ray ngr data were performed on the lacustrine muddy dominated lucaogou formation from five exploitation wells the results reveal significant meter scale sedimentary cycles of 37 8 m 10 7 10 m 3 85 3 2 m and 2 0 1 58 m reflecting oscillations in lithologies variations in changing clay content within the mudstone sandstone and dolomite these cycle wavelength ratios match well with those of the milankovitch cycles predicted for middle permian period the depositional duration of the lucaogou formation was estimated at 3 myr correlation of the 1 2 myr obliquity modulation cycles among the ngr logs sedimentation rates and lake levels of the junggar basin as well as with the middle permian global sea level suggests that long term astronomical grand cycles tightly forced climatic and sedimentary processes throughout the lucaogou formation according to two independent approaches we reconstruct middle permian astronomical parameters earth precession constant k and fundamental frequencies terms gi i 1 2 3 4 5 and calculate astronomical periods eccentricity obliquity and precession these results document astronomical forcing of paleozoic lake systems constrain earth moon orbital evolution and refine the fundamental astronomical frequencies of the solar system during the middle permian

paleozoic accretion and cenozoic redeformation of the chinese tien shan range central asia the tien shan range in central asia contains two late paleozoic sutures the older southern suture marks the collision of a passive margin at the north of the tarim block and an active continental margin subduction under the latter was to the north the younger northern suture separates a northern carboniferous island arc from an active continental margin developed over a south dipping subduction zone the subduction direction under the island arc is unknown mesozoic elastics were deposited over the doubly sutured orogen rate and energy of sedimentation waned until deposition of oligocene conglomerates above a regional unconformity interpreted as marking the onset of deformation induced by the india asia collision molasse deposition accelerated in pliocene and quaternary time and deposition continues today as active thrusts generate relief paleozoic structures control the gross divergence of cenozoic thrusts across the orogen

relatively recent construction of the tien shan inferred from gps measurements of present day crustal deformation rates the tien shan a high seismically active intracontinental mountain belt 1 000 2 000 km north of the himalaya has grown as a result of india s collision with asia1 the crustal shortening 200 50 km refs 2 3 and thickening that gave rise to the tien shan accommodates only a small fraction of india s total penetration into asia 2 000 3 000km and the temporal relationship of deformation in this belt to the india asia collision remains unclear here we report geodetic measurements of the tien shan using the global positioning system gps that indicate that the current crustal shortening rate is nearly half of india s convergence rate with eurasia in this area4 we infer a total shortening rate for the tien shan of 20 mm yr 1 which is approximately twice that inferred previously from the extrapolation of slip rates in the holocene3 and earthquake induced displacements during this century5 suggesting that the rate of mountain building in this region has accelerated several fold since the onset of collision 50 55 myr ago6 7 if as we argue the current shortening rate can be extrapolated to geological timescales then our results suggest that most of the tien shan has been constructed during the past 10 myr perhaps in response to an increased horizontal force following an abrupt rise of the tibetan plateau8 9

the paleoaltimetry of tibet an isotopic perspective stable isotopes provide a valuable perspective on the timing of elevation change of the tibetan plateau we begin our paper by looking in depth at isotopic patterns in modern tibet we show that the 18 o value of surface waters decreases systematically up the himalayan front in central nepal by about 2 8 km in agreement with the patterns documented and modeled by previous research on the tibetan plateau itself there is no apparent correlation between elevation and the 18 o value of flowing surface waters both surface waters and soil carbonates display a northward increase in 18 o values of about 1 5 north of the himalayan crest even though elevation increases modestly the isotopic increase with latitude reduces the isotope elevation gradient for water in the northernmost plateau to 1 to 2 km carbonates in both soils and lakes form at higher temperatures than assumed by previous studies on the plateau temperature estimates from clumped isotope 47 analyses of modern soil carbonates significantly exceed mean annual air t and modeled maximum summer soil temperatures by 15 8 2 8 and 9 7 2 5 c respectively similarly elevated temperatures best account for the 18 o values observed in modern soil and lake carbonates we recalculated paleoelevations from previous studies on the plateau using both higher formation temperatures and latitude corrected isotopic values with one notable exception our revised model produces paleoelevation estimates very close to previous estimates the exception is the reconstruction from late eocene age deposits at xoh xil for which we calculate elevations that are higher and much closer to the current elevation than previously reconstructed therefore there is no evidence for northward progression through time of tibetan elevation change instead the available but admittedly very scanty evidence suggests that much of tibet attained its modern elevation by the mid eocene a truly robust test of the various geodynamic models of uplift await expansion and replication of isotopic records all across tibet especially in the center and north and for 15 ma

oxygen isotope evidence for high altitude snow in the laramide rocky mountains of north america during the late cretaceous and paleogene the 18 o values of river waters in late cretaceous and paleogene basins of alberta montana wyoming and colorado are calculated from the isotopic composition of unaltered aragonite mollusk fossils the isotopic composition of these river waters has significant implications for the uplift and climate history of the mountains surrounding the basins our data show that the 18 o values of river water varied dramatically ranging from 23 to 5 relative to vienna standard mean ocean water with an uncertainty of 2 close stratigraphic association of river deposits with very different isotopic values indicates two different water sources rainfall in the warm low elevation basins and snowfall in surrounding mountains the 18 o difference between basinal and highland precipitation suggests that local relief was similar to today9s on the order of 2 5 3 km seasonal variation in shell 18 o values also indicates that there are times when large snow fields in the maastrichtian and paleocene mountains of montana and wyoming survived summer melting and were multiannual features

geochronological geochemical and sr nd hf isotopic studies of the baiyanghe a type granite porphyry in the western junggar implications for its petrogenesis and tectonic setting abstract zircon u pb dates sr nd hf isotopic compositions and major element and trace element geochemistry were determined for the baiyanghe granite porphyry in the western junggar nw china the porphyry has a zircon u pb age of 313 4 2 3 ma is high in sio 2 76 34 78 30 wt and k 2 o na 2 o 8 04 8 85 wt relatively low in mgo 0 01 0 03 wt and cao 0 29 0 39 wt and shows characteristics typical of a type granites because its y nb ratio 0 33 0 51 is lower than 1 2 it can be classified into a 1 group moreover due to its positive values of end t 4 06 5 29 and ehf t 8 18 11 07 and high concentrations of incompatible elements including rb th u and nb the baiyanghe granite porphyry is suggested to have been derived from an oceanic island basalt like mantle source their extremely high initial 87 sr 86 sr ratios 0 7143 0 7469 and high la sm n values 5 13 8 44 could be caused by the involvement of marine sediments the low ba sr and eu concentrations and high values of di 97 3 98 0 of the granite porphyry suggest that its magma had undergone a high degree of fractional crystallization characterized by the features of within plate granites a back arc basin tectonic setting is favored for the petrogenesis of the baiyanghe granite porphyry such a setting indicates that the subduction of the irtysh zaysan oceanic lithosphere beneath the zharma saur arc was still active during the late carboniferous and the collision between the siberia and kazakhstan blocks probably occurred between ca 316 ma and 307 ma

strengthened east asian summer monsoons during a period of high latitude warmth isotopic evidence from mio pliocene fossil mammals and soil carbonates from northern china the east asian monsoons have fluctuated in concert with high latitude warmth during the past several hundred thousand years with humid summer monsoon dominant climates characterizing warm intervals including interglacials and interstadials and arid winter monsoon dominant climates characterizing cool intervals including glacials and stadials of the states comprising the mid pleistocene to recent climatic regime interglacials are most similar in terms of high latitude ice volumes and temperatures to those extant during the late miocene and early pliocene thus an important question is whether mio pliocene climates in northern china were analogous to a hypothetical prolonged interglacial state with increased summer monsoon precipitation and expansion of forest and steppe environments at the expense of desert environments we utilize new and previously published carbon isotopic data from fossil teeth and soil carbonates to place constraints on paleovegetation distributions and to help infer the behavior of the monsoon system between 7 and 4 ma we find that plants using the c 4 photosynthetic pathway which today are largely grasses found in regions with warm season precipitation were present in northern china by late miocene time demonstrating that the c 4 expansion in china was not significantly delayed compared to the global c4 event during the late miocene early pliocene interval soil carbonate and tooth enamel 13 c data indicate 1 that nearly pure c 3 plant ecosystems existed in the southern chinese loess plateau clp and therefore ecosystems there were dominated by woody dicot herbaceous dicot or cool season grass vegetation or a combination of these and 2 that the clp was characterized by a pattern of northward increasing c 4 vegetation and aridity utilizing a broadened conceptual model for interpreting 13 c data and citing independent faunal floral and lithostratgraphic data we suggest that these patterns reflect northward expansion of forest and steppe ecosystems and relatively humid monsoon climates during the late miocene and early pliocene an important implication of this interpretation is that the forcing mechanism illuminated by the temporal correlation during the pleistocene between warm high latitudes and strong east asian summer monsoons is a robust feature of the eurasian tectonic climatic system that predates the plio pleistocene climatic reorganization