Active faulting, mountain growth, and erosion at the margins of the Tibetan Plateau constrained by in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides

摘要: Abstract The India–Asia collision zone is a key area for understanding continental plateau formation and mountain building. Two fundamental questions in this context are how the northeastward motion of India partitioned between strike–slip thrust faults building counteracted by erosion. Cosmogenic nuclides allow us to address these questions, because they provide age constraints on tectonically offset landforms erosion rates. After considerable debate whether or not major move at high rates up 20–30 mm/yr absorb most deformation, it now appears that three largest (Altyn Tagh, Haiyuan, Kunlun) have millennial slip no more than 8–13 mm/yr, consistent with elastic strain accumulation determined geodetic methods. Furthermore, significant portion lateral transferred within zone. Both observations indicate eastward tectonic escape material along less important often assumed. With respect erosion, cosmogenic nuclide studies show northeastern eastern margins Tibet (Qilian Shan, Longmen Shan) vertical ~ 0.3 ~ 2 mm/yr while catchment-wide vary from ~ 0.02 ~ 1.0 mm/yr, high-relief areas eroding significantly faster interior growing mountains foreland. deeply incised regions apparently reached an erosional steady-state, which rock uplift balanced River terraces active fronts document repeated changes sediment deposition fluvial incision. During Quaternary, incision terrace occurred predominantly glacial–interglacial transitions but also during interglacial periods. Hence, flights fault-bounded record interplay sustained temporally variable climate.