1. Quantifying the rise of the Himalaya orogen and implications for the South Asian monsoon.
- Author
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Lin Ding, Spicer, R. A., Jian Yang, Qiang Xu, Fulong Cai, Shun Li, Qingzhou Lai, Houqi Wang, Spicer, T. E. V., Yahui Yue, Shukla, A., Srivastava, G., Khan, M. Ali, Bera, S., and Mehrotra, R.
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OROGENIC belts , *MONSOONS , *FOSSIL leaves , *ALTIMETRY , *PALEOBOTANY - Abstract
We reconstruct the rise of a segment of the southern flank of the Himalaya-Tibet orogen, to the south of the Lhasa terrane, using a paleoaltimeter based on paleoenthalpy encoded in fossil leaves from two new assemblages in southern Tibet (Liuqu and Qiabulin) and four previously known floras from the Himalaya foreland basin. U-Pb dating of zircons constrains the Liuqu flora to the latest Paleocene (ca. 56 Ma) and the Qiabulin flora to the earliest Miocene (21-19 Ma). The proto-Himalaya grew slowly against a high (~4 km) proto-Tibetan Plateau from ~1 km in the late Paleocene to ~2.3 km at the beginning of the Miocene, and achieved at least ~5.5 km by ca. 15 Ma. Contrasting precipitation patterns between the Himalaya-Tibet edifice and the Himalaya foreland basin for the past ~56 m.y. show progressive drying across southern Tibet, seemingly linked to the uplift of the Himalaya orogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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