Huge Landslides along the Jinsha River in Southeastern Tibetan Plateau and Their Association with the Recent Activity of Jinsha River Fault Zone

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zufeng Chang ◽  
Hao Chang ◽  
Zebin Mao ◽  
Ruojin Guo
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Fault Zone ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Jinsha River ◽  
Water Storage Capacity ◽  
Barrier Lake

<p>     The Jinsha river fault zone in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau is an old suture structure after the shutting of the proto-Tethys and a large scale ultra-lithosphere fault zone consisted of  5 to 6 fault branches with a width of 50km, have a long  geological evolution history. Since late Quatery, this fault zone is mainly dominated by dextral strike slip with partial thrusting component, absorbing  partial energy of the extrusion movement of  Tibetan Plateau. Along the fault zone, lower terraces of Jinsha river at Muronglou, Buzhong, Langzhong, Guxue, etc. were displaced, indicating the fault zone is active in late Quaternary, with an average rate of 3.5～4.3mm/ /yr. horizontally and 0.9-1.1mm/yr. vertically respectively in Holocene. Influenced by the intense fault activity of Jinsha river fault zone, this region is characterized by fractured rocks, strongly weathered surfaces.</p><p>      The Jinsha river, the upstream of the Yangtze river, parallel to Jinshajiang fault zone, flows from north to south, forming deep river valley and huge terrain elevation difference. Numerous huge landslides have developed along the river, for example, there are 23 giant avalanches in the 38 km long reach from Narong to Rongxue, with general volumes of 10~70 million m<sup>3</sup> and even up to several hundreds million m<sup>3</sup>. Moreover, the landslides produce many loose clastic fragments which detonate many debris flows and river blocking. The latest disaster event is the Baige barrier lake in 2018 caused by landslide, with a water storage capacity of 524 million m<sup>3</sup>, causing tens of billions of yuan of economic losses. These landslides are distributed along the fault and its two sides, suggesting that these huge avalanches are closely related to the intense activity of the fault zone and special topography.</p><p>Keywords: Huge landslide, Jinsha River, Jinsha River Fault Zone, late Quatery activity</p>

Dynamic and Thermodynamic Relations of Distinctive Stratus Clouds on the Lee Side of the Tibetan Plateau in the Cold Season

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (21) ◽  
pp. 8378-8391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Zhang ◽  
Rucong Yu ◽  
Jian Li ◽  
Weihua Yuan ◽  
Minghua Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Water Vapor Transport ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Moist Air ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Stratus Clouds

Abstract Given the large discrepancies that exist in climate models for shortwave cloud forcing over eastern China (EC), the dynamic (vertical motion and horizontal circulation) and thermodynamic (stability) relations of stratus clouds and the associated cloud radiative forcing in the cold season are examined. Unlike the stratus clouds over the southeastern Pacific Ocean (as a representative of marine boundary stratus), where thermodynamic forcing plays a primary role, the stratus clouds over EC are affected by both dynamic and thermodynamic factors. The Tibetan Plateau (TP)-forced low-level large-scale lifting and high stability over EC favor the accumulation of abundant saturated moist air, which contributes to the formation of stratus clouds. The TP slows down the westerly overflow through a frictional effect, resulting in midlevel divergence, and forces the low-level surrounding flows, resulting in convergence. Both midlevel divergence and low-level convergence sustain a rising motion and vertical water vapor transport over EC. The surface cold air is advected from the Siberian high by the surrounding northerly flow, causing low-level cooling. The cooling effect is enhanced by the blocking of the YunGui Plateau. The southwesterly wind carrying warm, moist air from the east Bay of Bengal is uplifted by the HengDuan Mountains via topographical forcing; the midtropospheric westerly flow further advects the warm air downstream of the TP, moistening and warming the middle troposphere on the lee side of the TP. The low-level cooling and midlevel warming together increase the stability. The favorable dynamic and thermodynamic large-scale environment allows for the formation of stratus clouds over EC during the cold season.

scholarly journals The Role of Shallow Convection over the Tibetan Plateau

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (15) ◽  
pp. 5791-5803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunying Li ◽  
Minghua Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Diabatic Heating ◽  
Middle Atmosphere ◽  
Atmospheric Environment ◽  
Monsoon Circulation ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Shallow Convection ◽  
Sensitivity Experiment ◽  
Stratiform Clouds

Cumulus (Cu) from shallow convection is one of the dominant cloud types over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in the summer according to CloudSat– CALIPSO observations. Its thermodynamic effects on the atmospheric environment and impacts on the large-scale atmospheric circulation are studied in this paper using the Community Atmospheric Model, version 5.3 (CAM5.3). It is found that the model can reasonably simulate the unique distribution of diabatic heating and Cu over the TP. Shallow convection provides the dominant diabatic heating and drying to the lower and middle atmosphere over the TP. A sensitivity experiment indicates that without Cu over the TP, large-scale condensation and stratiform clouds would increase dramatically, which induces enhanced low-level wind and moisture convergence toward the TP, resulting in significantly enhanced monsoon circulation with remote impact on the areas far beyond the TP. Cu therefore acts as a safety valve to modulate the atmospheric environment that prevents the formation of superclusters of stratiform clouds and precipitation over the TP.

scholarly journals Spatio-Temporal Variations of Water Vapor Budget over the Tibetan Plateau in Summer and Its Relationship with the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 828
Author(s):  
Deli Meng ◽  
Qing Dong ◽  
Fanping Kong ◽  
Zi Yin ◽  
Yanyan Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Southern Boundary ◽  
Pacific Warm Pool ◽  
Water Vapor Budget

The water vapor budget (WVB) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is closely related to the large-scale atmospheric moisture transportation of the surrounding mainland and oceans, especially for the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP). However, the procession linkage between the WVBs over the TP and its inner basins and IPWP has not been sufficiently elucidated. In this study, the relationship between the summer WVB over the TP and the IPWP was quantitatively investigated using reanalysis datasets and satellite-observed sea surface temperature (SST). The results show that: (1) the mean total summer vapor budget (WVBt) over the TP in the period of 1979–2018 was 72.5 × 106 kg s−1. Additionally, for the 13 basins within the TP, the summer WVB has decreased from southeast to northwest; the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin had the highest WVB (33.7%), followed by the Upper Yangtze River Basin, Ganges River Basin and Qiangtang Plateau. (2) For the past several decades, the WVBt over the TP has experienced an increasing trend (3.81 × 106 kg s−1 decade−1), although the southern boundary budget (WVBs) contributed the most and is most closely related with the WVBt, while the eastern boundary budget (WVBe) experienced a decreasing trend (4.21 × 106 kg s−1 decade−1) which was almost equal to the interdecadal variations of the WVBt. (3) For the IPWP, we defined a new warm pool index of surface latent heat flux (WPI-slhf), and found that an increasing WPI-slhf would cause an anticyclone anomaly in the equatorial western Indian Ocean (near 70° E), resulting in the increased advent of water vapor to the TP. (4) On the interdecadal scale, the correlation coefficients of the variation of the summer WVBt over the TP with the WPI-slhf and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) signal were 0.86 and 0.85, respectively (significant at the 0.05% level). Therefore, the warming and the increasing slhf of the IPWP would significantly contribute to the increasing WVB of the TP in recent decades.

Changes in cloud amount over the Tibetan Plateau and impacts of large-scale circulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 249 ◽  
pp. 105332
Author(s):  
Qianrong Ma ◽  
Qinglong You ◽  
Yujun Ma ◽  
Yu Cao ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cloud Amount ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale Circulation

scholarly journals Effects of Liquid Phase Cloud Microphysical Processes in Mixed Phase Cumulus Clouds over the Tibetan Plateau

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqi Xu ◽  
Chunsong Lu ◽  
Yangang Liu ◽  
Wenhua Gao ◽  
Yuan Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Phase ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Precipitation Event ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Phase Precipitation ◽  
Physical Reason ◽  
Surface Precipitation ◽  
Skill Scores ◽  
Microphysical Processes

Abstract. Overprediction of precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau is often found in numerical simulations, which is thought to be related to coarse grid sizes or inaccurate large-scale forcing. In addition to confirming the important role of model grid sizes, this study shows that liquid-phase precipitation parameterization is another key culprit, and underlying physical mechanisms are revealed. A typical summer plateau precipitation event is simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model by introducing different parameterizations of liquid-phase microphysical processes into the commonly used Morrison scheme, including autoconversion, accretion, and entrainment-mixing mechanisms. All simulations can reproduce the general spatial distribution and temporal variation of precipitation. The precipitation in the high-resolution domain is less overpredicted than in the low-resolution domain. The accretion process plays more important roles than other liquid-phase processes in simulating precipitation. Employing the accretion parameterization considering raindrop size makes the total surface precipitation closest to the observation which is supported by the Heidke skill scores. The physical reason is that this accretion parameterization can suppress fake accretion and liquid-phase precipitation when cloud droplets are too small to initiate precipitation.

scholarly journals Potentially dangerous glacial lakes across the Tibetan Plateau revealed using a large-scale automated assessment approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 435-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Keith Allen ◽  
Guoqing Zhang ◽  
Weicai Wang ◽  
Tandong Yao ◽  
Tobias Bolch
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Glacial Lakes ◽  
Automated Assessment ◽  
Assessment Approach
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