TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zhang, Peng
A1  - Najman, Yani
A1  - Mei, Lianfu
A1  - Millar, Ian
A1  - Sobel, Edward
A1  - Carter, Andrew
A1  - Barfod, Dan
A1  - Dhuime, Bruno
A1  - Garzanti, Eduardo
A1  - Govin, Gwladys
A1  - Vezzoli, Giovanni
A1  - Hu, Xiaolin
T1  - Palaeodrainage evolution of the large rivers of East Asia, and Himalayan-Tibet tectonics
JF  - Earth science reviews
N2  - A number of sedimentary provenance studies have been undertaken in order to determine whether the palaeo-Red River was once a river of continental proportions into which the upper reaches of the Yangtze, Salween, Mekong, Irrawaddy, and Yarlung drained. We have assessed the evidence that the Yarlung originally flowed into the palaeo-Red river, and then sequentially into the Irrawaddy and Brahmaputra, connecting to the latter first via the Lohit and then the Siang. For this river system, we have integrated our new data from the Paleogene-Recent Irrawaddy drainage basin (detrital zircon U-Pb with Hf and fission track, rutile U-Pb, mica Ar-Ar, bulk rock Sr-Nd, and petrography) with previously published data, to produce a palaeodrainage model that is consistent with all datasets. In our model, the Yarlung never flowed into the Irrawaddy drainage: during the Paleogene, the Yarlung suture zone was an internally drained basin, and from Neogene times onwards the Yarlung drained into the Brahmaputra in the Bengal Basin. The Central Myanmar Basin, through which the Irrawaddy River flows today, received predominantly locally-derived detritus until the Middle Eocene, the Irrawaddy initiated as a through-going river draining the Mogok Metamorphic Belt and Bomi-Chayu granites to the north sometime in the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene, and the river was dominated by a stable MMB-dominated drainage throughout the Neogene to present day. Existing evidence does not support any connection between the Yarlung and the Red River in the past, but there is a paucity of suitable palaeo-Red River deposits with which to make a robust comparison. We argue that this limitation also precludes a robust assessment of a palaeo-connection between the Yangtze/ Salween/Mekong and the Red River; it is difficult to unequivocally interpret the recorded provenance changes as the result of specific drainage reorganisations. We highlight the palaeo-Red River deposits of the Hanoi Basin as a potential location for future research focus in view of the near-complete Cenozoic record of palaeo-Red River deposits at this location. A majority of previous studies consider that if a major continental-scale drainage ever existed at all, it fragmented early in the Cenozoic. Such a viewpoint would agree with the growing body of evidence from palaeoaltitude studies that large parts of SE Tibet were uplifted by this period. This then leads towards the intriguing question as to the mechanisms which caused the major period of river incision in the Miocene in this region.
KW  - Eastern Tibet
KW  - Palaeodrainage
KW  - Red River
KW  - Irrawaddy River
KW  - Yarlung Tsangpo
KW  - Central Myanmar Basin
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.02.003
SN  - 0012-8252
SN  - 1872-6828
VL  - 192
SP  - 601
EP  - 630
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -