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Active Uplift of Southern Tibet Revealed Active Uplift of Southern Tibet Revealed

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Active Uplift of Southern Tibet Revealed Active Uplift of Southern Tibet Revealed 10–13 Oct. GSA Connects 2021 VOL. 31, NO. 8 | AUGUST 2021 Active Uplift of Southern Tibet Revealed Active Uplift of Southern Tibet Revealed Michael Taylor*, Dept. of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA; Adam Forte, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA; Andrew Laskowski, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA; Lin Ding, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China ABSTRACT of the Yarlung River are superimposed upon at depth at geodetic and millennial time North of the Himalayas is the Tibetan the internally drained portion of the Tibetan scales (18–22 cm/yr) (Ader et al., 2012; Lavé plateau—the largest physiographic feature plateau, which by area is the plateau’s larg- and Avouac, 2000). However, disagreement on Earth related to intercontinental colli- est surficial feature, forming a long wave- exists on whether the downdip geometry of sion. Here, we study the rugged Gangdese length depression encompassing ~600,000 the MHT is planar, involves crustal ramps Range along the southern drainage divide km2 (Fielding et al., 1994) (Fig. 4). Given beneath the high-relief topographic steps of the Tibetan plateau using a synthesis of such vastness, the question of how the (e.g., Whipple et al., 2016; Ghoshal et al., geologic, thermochronologic, and interseis- internally drained Tibetan plateau formed is 2020), or if surface breaking splay faults mic geodetic observations that reveal that a matter of pressing interest, although accommodate a significant portion of India- southern Tibet’s Gangdese Range is under- research to-date has been unable to deter- Asia convergence (e.g., Murphy et al., 2013). going active surface uplift at present-day mine a conclusive cause (Sobel et al., 2003; Seismic imaging is consistent with a low- rates rivaling the Himalaya. Uplift has Horton et al., 2002; Kapp and DeCelles, angle (10–20°) north-dipping décollement likely been sustained since the early 2019). In the following, we present prelimi- for the MHT, with its northward extent Miocene, and we hypothesize that surface nary results of ongoing work along the occurring below the main Himalayan peaks uplift of the Gangdese Mountains led to the southern drainage divide of the Tibetan pla- at ~50 km depth (Makovsky and Klemperer, development of Tibet’s internally drained teau, which coincides with the Gangdese 1999). North of the main Himalayan peaks plateau, as well as potentially reversed the Range. Compilations of low-temperature are the northern Himalayan gneiss domes, course of the paleo Yarlung River, in tan- thermochronology, global positioning sys- which are exposed between the South dem with exhumation of the Himalayan tem (GPS), and terrain analysis reveal that Tibetan fault system in the south and the gneiss domes. We suggest the data are con- the Gangdese Range has experienced recent Indus-Yarlung suture (IYS) zone to the sistent with active thrust duplexing, bal- surface uplift and is likely active today. This north (Figs. 2 and 3). The gneiss domes are anced by upper crustal extension, effec- critical new observation sheds light on the cored by variably deformed orthogneiss and tively extending the active décollement style of active shortening across the India- locally are intruded by leucogranites, between the underthrusting Indian plate Asia collision zone, with implications for emplaced between 37 and 34 Ma (e.g., Lee and the Eurasian upper plate more than 200 large-scale drainage reorganizations for et al., 2000; Larson et al., 2010). The gneiss km north of the High Himalayas. the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau. We domes are juxtaposed against Tethyan sedi- begin with the neotectonic setting for the mentary rocks in the hanging wall, with INTRODUCTION Himalayan-Tibetan orogen, followed by a rapid cooling regionally initiating by 12 ± 4 The Himalayan-Tibetan orogen hosts the discussion of potentially active structures, Ma (Lee et al., 2004) (Figs. 2 and 3). tallest and largest area of high topography, which suggest the Gangdese as a potential The remainder of active convergence is and thickest crust, on Earth, representing a candidate to explain recent fluvial reorgani- accommodated throughout the Tibetan pla- dramatic expression of crustal shortening zations across southern Tibet. teau by north-striking normal faults and (Fielding et al., 1994) (Figs. 1–4). A topo- generally northeast- and northwest-striking graphic swath profile between longitudes THE INDIA-ASIA COLLISION ZONE strike-slip structures (e.g., Taylor and Yin, 85–90°E (Figs. 1–4) illustrates from south AND THE GANGDESE RANGE 2009). The geometry and kinematics of to north the flat Indo-Gangetic plain, the The India-Asia collision zone presently active structures accommodating east-west foothills of the sub-Himalaya, the extreme absorbs ~4 cm/yr of geodetic convergence extension across southern Tibet and fault relief of the High Himalayas, the broad east- as India moves in the N20E direction rela- scarps are consistent with recent seismo- west topographic trough of the Yarlung tive to stable Eurasia (Zhang et al., 2004). genic activity (Taylor and Yin, 2009). Since River valley, and the high crest of the Most agree that the Main Himalayan Thrust the onset of extension may date when the Gangdese Range with its gentle north-facing (MHT) and its updip imbricate fault splays Tibetan plateau attained its maximum ele- slope. Regionally, geomorphic features north accommodate the majority of convergence vation, this timing has been determined GSA Today, v. 31, https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG487A.1. *Corresponding author: [email protected] 4 GSA Today | August 2021 82°E 84°E 86°E 88°E 90°E 92°E 94°E 96°E 98°E Internal Drainage Three Rivers N ° 32 Indus Sutlej N ° S1 Yarlung 30 N ° 28 T.chron System Apatite (U-Th)/He Apatite FT Elevation (km) Zircon (U-Th)/He 1 2 3 4 5 6 GPS Station Zircon FT 100 km West East 400 200 0 200 400 Distance from Center Along Small Circles (km) Figure 1. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 90-m color shaded elevation map. Thermochronology data (Laskowski et al., 2018; Thiede and Ehlers, 2013) in Figure 4 are shown with thermochronometer type. Color scale bar indicates east-west position from swath profile in Figure 4. Open symbols—location in the hanging wall of a normal fault; white circles—GPS stations from Liang et al. (2013); dashed outlines—areas sampled for Figure 4; solid lines mark topog- raphy and precipitation in Figure 4A. Thick dotted lines mark centerline for distance measured along small circles in Figure 4A. Individual colored swaths sample dominant rivers in Figure 4B. Thick black lines are rivers and catchment areas for Sutlej, Indus, Yarlung, and Three Rivers, and zone of Internal Drainage. Red box shows location of Figure 2. Red symbol shows location of Figure S1 [see text footnote 1]. primarily by understanding the exhumation –directed extension are discussed by the initiation age for one Gangdese Rift is ca. history of the footwalls of north-striking Blisniuk et al. (2001), Kali et al. (2010), 16 Ma using zircon U-Th/He data (Burke et normal faults. One example is the northern Langille et al. (2010), Yin and Taylor (2011), al., 2021). The Gangdese Rifts become more Lunggar Rift that locally has up to 25 km of Sundell et al. (2013), and Styron et al. (2015). northwest striking in the western Lhasa ter- top-to-the-east displacement and initiated Here we focus on the Gangdese Range of rane, and rift-bounding faults are more linear in the middle Miocene with uniformly low southern Tibet that locally has nine active in map pattern with the westernmost rifts, slip rates (<1 mm/yr) (Sundell et al., 2013). NNW-striking normal faults we refer to as suggesting an increase in oblique (i.e., dex- In the late Miocene, slip rates of rift bound- the Gangdese Rifts, located north of the tral strike-slip) motion (see Fig. S1 in the ing faults increased up to 5 mm/yr begin- IYS zone and west of Tangra Yum Co (Figs. Supplementary Material1). The Gangdese ning in the southern Lunggar Rift, and 1 and 3). A potential mechanism for their Rifts cut several regional structures, includ- accelerated northward, perhaps in response formation is discussed in Yin (2000). ing the north-directed Great Counter Thrust to the northward underthrusting of India (GCT) and the south-directed Gangdese (Sundell et al., 2013; Styron et al., 2015). GEOLOGY OF THE GANGDESE Thrust (GT) (Yin et al., 1994) (Figs. 1 and 2). Rift-bounding normal faults in the Yadong RANGE Crosscutting relationships—including the Gulu section of the Nyainqentanglha initi- Locally, elevations for the Gangdese Range timing of Kailas Formation deposition ated at ca. 8 Ma based on results using exceed 7500 m, forming the southern bound- between 26 and 23 Ma (Leary et al., 2016), 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology (Harrison et ary of the internally drained region of the the timing of slip across north-striking nor- al., 1992). In southernmost Tibet near Tibetan plateau (Figs. 1 and 5). The Gangdese mal faults that cut the GCT (Sundell et al., Xigaze, a north-trending dike was dated at Rifts are active structures and are shorter in 2013), and the age of a crosscutting pluton 18 Ma and is thought to represent the time length than the seven more well-studied lon- near the town of Lazi at ca. 10 Ma (Laskowski when east-directed extension initiated (Yin ger rifts cutting the entire Lhasa terrane (e.g., et al., 2018)—are consistent with the GCT et al., 1994), but whether diking represents a Tangra Yum Co Rift)—along-strike lengths being active between 23 and 16 Ma. regional extensional event is debated.
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