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  • Review Article
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Timing and mechanisms of Tibetan Plateau uplift

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 3, pages 652–667 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The timing of the initial India–Asia collision and the mechanisms that led to the eventual formation of the high (>5 km) Tibetan Plateau remain enigmatic. In this Review, we describe the spatio-temporal distribution and geodynamic mechanisms of surface uplift in the Tibetan Plateau, based on geologic and palaeo-altimetric constraints. Localized mountain building was initiated during a Cretaceous microcontinent collision event in central Tibet and ocean–continent convergence in southern Tibet. Geological data indicate that India began colliding with Asian-affinity rocks 65–60 million years ago (Ma). High-elevation (>4 km) east–west mountain belts were established in southern and central Tibet by ~55 Ma and ~45 Ma, respectively. These mountain belts were separated by ≤2 km elevation basins centred on the microcontinent suture in central Tibet, until the basins were uplifted further between ~38 and 29 Ma. Basin uplift to ≥4 km elevation was delayed along the India–Asia suture zone until ~20 Ma, along with that in northern Tibet. Delamination and break-off of the subducted Indian and Asian lithosphere were the dominant mechanisms of surface uplift, with spatial variations controlled by inherited lithospheric heterogeneities. Future research should explore why surface uplift along suture zones — the loci of the initial collision — was substantially delayed compared with the time of initial collision.

Key points

  • The Tibetan Plateau did not get uplifted as a large entity or grow systematically outward from the India–Asia suture (IAS), because lithospheric heterogeneities in Asia imparted by pre-Cenozoic tectonic events created relatively weak and strong zones that deformed differently during collision.

  • Cretaceous tectonic events built embryonic mountains belts and weakened the lithosphere in southern and central Tibet.

  • Continental Asian detritus appeared in Indian continental margin sedimentary rocks by 65–60 million years ago (Ma). The most conservative interpretation based on available geologic constraints is that these sediments mark the initiation of India–Asia collision.

  • The quest to further quantify the history of surface elevation change across Tibet spurred the field of quantitative palaeo-altimetry, such as measurement of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in palaeo-water proxies, carbonate clumped isotope thermometry and fossil leaf physiognomy.

  • Quantitative palaeo-altimetry suggests that high (≥4 km) elevations were obtained in southern Tibet by ~55 Ma and in central Tibet by ~45 Ma, whereas an intervening valley remained at <2 km elevation until between ~38 and 29 Ma. The IAS zone and Himalaya Mountains were rapidly uplifted from <3 km to near-modern elevations at ~20 Ma.

  • Subcrustal processes such as subduction, delamination and break-off of Indian and Asian continental lithosphere were important tectonic events during the formation of the Tibetan Plateau.

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Fig. 1: Digital elevation map and cross-section of the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau.
Fig. 2: Proposed geodynamic mechanisms of continental collisional deformation and plateau formation.
Fig. 3: Competing hypotheses for the history of India–Asia suturing.
Fig. 4: History of surface elevation change across Tibet.
Fig. 5: Lithosphere-scale tectonic processes and corresponding changes in surface elevation and climate.
Fig. 6: Modern geometries of subducting Indian and Asian lithosphere.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (Grant No. 2019QZKK0708), the National Natural Science Foundation of China BSCTPES project (Grant No. 41988101), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA20070301) and the National Science Foundation of the United States (OISE-1545859 and EAR-2048656). The authors thank L. Bai, L. Zhang, H. Zhang and F. Ping for assistance with figure preparation.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Lin Ding, Fulong Cai, Zhongyu Xiong, Houqi Wang & Chao Wang

  2. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Paul Kapp & Carmala N. Garzione

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Glossary

Tibetan Plateau

The vast high-elevation plateau extending north of the Himalayan Mountains.

Terranes

Fault-bounded crustal fragments, or composites of crustal fragments, with a distinctive geological history.

Suture zones

Locations at the surface where a former oceanic basin subducted and disappeared between two terranes.

Initial continental collision

The time of final disappearance of oceanic lithosphere at the surface between two converging continents, equivalent to the time when a continent enters the trench.

Eastern Tibet

Referred to here as any part of the physiographic Tibetan Plateau that extends east of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis (EHS).

Delamination

Peeling away (downward) of dense mantle lithosphere from the overlying crust.

Rayleigh distillation

The heavy isotopes of precipitation are successively removed from the vapour as it condenses with rising elevation.

Thermal lapse rate

The change in surface temperature with elevation; can be divided into dry adiabatic, saturated adiabatic, environmental and terrestrial lapse rates.

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Ding, L., Kapp, P., Cai, F. et al. Timing and mechanisms of Tibetan Plateau uplift. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 652–667 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00318-4

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