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ABSTRACT: When and how the Tibetan Plateau formed and maintained its thick crust and high elevation on Earth is continuing debated. Specifically, the coupling relationship between crustal thickening and corresponding paleoelevation changing has not been well studied. The dominant factors in crustal thickness changing are crustal shortening, magmatic input and surface erosion rates. Crustal thickness change and corresponding paleoelevation variation with time were further linked by an isostatic equation in this study. Since 120 Ma crustal shortening, magmatic input and surface erosion rates data from the central Tibetan Plateau are took as input parameters. By using a one-dimensional isostasy model, the authors captured the first-order relationship between crustal thickening and historical elevation responses over the central Tibetan Plateau, including the Qiangtang and Lhasa terranes. Based on the modeling results, the authors primarily concluded that the Qiangtang terrane crust gradually thickened to ca. 63 km at ca. 40 Ma, mainly due to tectonic shortening and minor magmatic input combined with a slow erosion rate. However, the Lhasa terrane crust thickened by a combination of tectonic shortening, extensive magmatic input and probably Indian plate underthrusting, which thickened the Lhasa crust over 75 km since 25 Ma. Moreover, a long-standing elevation >4000 m was strongly coupled with a thickened crust since about 35 Ma in the central Tibetan Plateau.©2021 China Geology Editorial Office.

ABSTRACT: The timing of the initial Indo-Asian collision is a subject of debate for a long time. Besides, the magmatic trace of the collisional process is also unclear. In the present study, the authors report Early Eocene leucocratic sill/dike swarms in the northern edge of the Nymo intrusive complex of the Gangdese belt, southern Tibet. The Nymo intrusive complex was emplaced at ca. 50 –47 Ma and surrounded by the metamorphosed Jurassic-aged Bima Formation volcano-sedimentary sequence along its northern side. At outcrops, the leucocratic sills/dikes intruded along or truncated the deformed foliations of the host Bima Formation, which has been subject to high-temperature amphibolite-facies metamorphism at ca. 50 –47 Ma. Detailed cathodoluminescence image analyses reveal that the zircon grains of the leucocratic sills/dikes have core-mantle textures. The cores yield the Jurassic ages comparable to the protolith ages of the Bima Formation. In contrast, the mantles of zircon grains yield weighted mean ages of ca. 49–47 Ma, representing the crystallization timing of these leucocratic sills/dikes. The coeval ages for the Nymo intrusive complex, the high-temperature metamorphism, and the leucocratic sills/dikes indicate that a close relationship exists among them. The authors tentatively suggest that these leucocratic sills/dikes were generated from partial melting of the Jurassic-aged Bima Formation volcanic rocks, triggered by the high heat from the magma chamber of the Nymo intrusive complex. This Early Eocene tectono-thermal event of coeval magmatism, metamorphism and partial melting was most likely formed during the Indo-Asian collisional setting.©2021 China Geology Editorial Office.