An Early Miocene Lowland on the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

The northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NE TP) has long been thought to be the last part of the Plateau to be raised, but this assumption has been challenged by recent analyses of fossil leaf energy, which have pointed to the possibility that the present surface altitude of similar to 3,000 m above sea level (asl) in the Qaidam Basin (QB) was attained during the Oligocene. Here, for the first time, we present a record of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) from a well-dated Cenozoic section in the QB. This record appears to demonstrate that the mean annual average paleotemperature of the QB was 28.4 +/- 2.9 degrees C at similar to 18.0 Ma. This would suggest that the paleoelevation of the QB was only similar to 1,488 m asl at that time and that a similar to 1,500 m uplift was attained afterwards, in agreement with the massive shortening of the QB and the rapid drying of inland Asia since the late Miocene.

Automated summary

Recent analyses suggest that the ancient elevation of the Qaidam Basin was around 1488 meters above sea level, with a later uplift of about 1500 meters, in line with the massive tectonic changes and drying of inland Asia since the late Miocene.