Tectonic control of Yarlung Tsangpo Gorge revealed by a buried canyon in Southern Tibet
- The Himalayan mountains are dissected by some of the deepest and most impressive gorges on Earth. Constraining the interplay between river incision and rock uplift is important for understanding tectonic deformation in this region. We report here the discovery of a deeply incised canyon of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, at the eastern end of the Himalaya, which is now buried under more than 500 meters of sediments. By reconstructing the former valley bottom and dating sediments at the base of the valley fill, we show that steepening of the Tsangpo Gorge started at about 2 million to 2.5 million years ago as a consequence of an increase in rock uplift rates. The high erosion rates within the gorge are therefore a direct consequence of rapid rock uplift.
Author details: | Ping Wang, Dirk Scherler, Jing Liu-Zeng, Jürgen MeyORCiDGND, Jean-Philippe Avouac, Yunda Zhang, Dingguo Shi |
---|---|
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1259041 |
ISSN: | 0036-8075 |
ISSN: | 1095-9203 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25414309 |
Title of parent work (English): | Science |
Publisher: | American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science |
Place of publishing: | Washington |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2014 |
Publication year: | 2014 |
Release date: | 2017/03/27 |
Volume: | 346 |
Issue: | 6212 |
Number of pages: | 4 |
First page: | 978 |
Last Page: | 981 |
Funding institution: | National Natural Science Foundation of China [41372211, 41172179]; State Key Laboratory for Earthquake Dynamics [LED2013A07]; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Geowissenschaften |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften |