Himalayan-Tibetan Erosion is not the Cause of Neogene Global Cooling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Clift ◽  
Tara Jonell
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Nw Himalaya ◽  
Scientific Drilling ◽  
Global Cooling ◽  
Consumption Rates ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Uplift And Erosion ◽  
The Himalaya

<p>Does uplift and erosion of the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau drive Cenozoic global cooling? We test this classic hypothesis put forward by Raymo and Ruddiman (1992) that suggests enhanced erosion in the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau drove long-term Cenozoic global cooling through the chemical weathering of siliciclastic sediment. Here we examine three Asian marginal drainage systems (the Indus, Mekong and Pearl) where marine scientific drilling has yielded detailed seismic surveys and geochemical datasets that critically permit sediment mass flux and therefore chemical weathering flux budgets to be made. By compiling suitable bedrock endmember compositions for the fresh bedrock sources, it is possible to calculate the chemical weathering flux and relative CO<sub>2</sub> consumption rates for each drainage system into the early Miocene. We correct for evolving provenance of sediment delivered to the offshore and test the sensitivity of our calculations to selected bedrock endmembers, in light of the abundant mafic bedrock exposed Indus and Mekong systems. Appropriate Upper Continental Crust endmembers were further validated using data compiled from the GEOROC database. Regardless of which endmembers were used, calculations demonstrate that the total rate of CO<sub>2</sub> consumption decreased by 50% between ~16 and 5.3 Ma, especially within NW Himalaya as onshore erosion slowed and provenance shifted away from mafic arc units in the suture zone. This direct test of the uplift-erosion-weathering hypothesis establishes that chemical weathering fluxes did not increase during the Neogene and cannot be responsible for the drawdown of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> during that time period. Either additional mechanisms have been driving global cooling since 16 Ma or CO<sub>2</sub> consumption via chemical weathering is taking place in other areas outside the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau.</p>

Middle to late Eocene chemical weathering history in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and its response to global cooling

2021 ◽  
Vol 562 ◽  
pp. 110136
Author(s):  
Shuang Lü ◽  
Chengcheng Ye ◽  
Xiaomin Fang ◽  
Erwin Appel ◽  
Fengqing Han ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
Southeastern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Global Cooling

scholarly journals Major ion chemistry of the Yarlung Tsangpo–Brahmaputra river: Chemical weathering, erosion, and CO2 consumption in the southern Tibetan plateau and eastern syntaxis of the Himalaya

2007 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 2907-2935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Hren ◽  
C. Page Chamberlain ◽  
George E. Hilley ◽  
Peter M. Blisniuk ◽  
Bodo Bookhagen
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Ion Chemistry ◽  
Major Ion Chemistry ◽  
Brahmaputra River ◽  
Major Ion ◽  
Co2 Consumption ◽  
Southern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Yarlung Tsangpo ◽  
The Himalaya

A mechanism to explain the timing of glaciations related to orogenic episodes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj Joshi ◽  
Benjamin Mills
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Silicate Weathering ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
Future Evolution ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Global Cooling ◽  
The Future ◽  
Long Timescales

<p>Over very long timescales, mountain building or orogenesis is associated with increased weathering, the drawdown of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>, and global cooling. Considering the Phanerozoic glaciation in particular, a multimillion‐year delay appears to exist between peaks in low‐latitude mountain uplift and the maximum extent of glaciation, implying a complex causal relationship between them. We show, using a combination of physical climate/circulation modelling and geochemical modelling approaches, that global silicate weathering can be modulated by orogeny in three distinct phases. High, young mountain ranges experience preferential precipitation and the highest erosion. As mountain ranges denude, precipitation decreases, but runoff temperature rises, sharply increasing chemical weathering potential and CO<sub>2</sub> drawdown. In the final phase, erosion and weathering are throttled by flatter topography. We hypothesise that orogeny acts as a capacitor in the climate system, granting the potential for intense transient CO<sub>2</sub> drawdown when mountain ranges are denuded. Intriguingly, depending on the future evolution of the Tibetan Plateau, the mechanism suggests such a scenario potentially happening 10–50 × 10<sup>6</sup> years in the future.</p>

Paleolake salinity evolution in the Qaidam Basin (NE Tibetan Plateau) between ~42 and 29 Ma: Links to global cooling and Paratethys sea incursions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengcheng Ye ◽  
Yibo Yang ◽  
Xiaomin Fang ◽  
Weilin Zhang ◽  
Chunhui Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Qaidam Basin ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Climate Change ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Early Oligocene ◽  
Global Cooling

<p>Global cooling, the early uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, and the retreat of the Paratethys are three main factors that regulate long-term climate change in the Asian interior during the Cenozoic. However, the debated elevation history of the Tibetan Plateau and the overlapping climate effects of the Tibetan Plateau uplift and Paratethys retreat makes it difficult to assess the driving mechanism on regional climate change in a particular period. Some recent progress suggests that precisely dated Paratethys transgression/regression cycles appear to have fluctuated over broad regions with low relief in the northern Tibetan Plateau in the middle Eocene–early Oligocene, when the global climate was characterized by generally continuous cooling followed by the rapid Eocene–Oligocene climate transition (EOT). Therefore, a middle Eocene–early Oligocene record from the Asian interior with unambiguous paleoclimatic implications offers an opportunity to distinguish between the climatic effects of the Paratethys retreat and those of global cooling.</p><p>Here, we present a complete paleolake salinity record from middle Eocene to early Miocene (~42-29 Ma) in the Qaidam Basin using detailed clay boron content and clay mineralogical investigations. Two independent paleosalimeters, equivalent boron and Couch’s salinity, collectively present a three-staged salinity evolution, from an oligohaline–mesohaline environment in the middle Eocene (42-~34 Ma) to a mesosaline environment in late Eocene-early Oligocene (~34-~29 Ma). This clay boron-derived salinity evolution is further supported by the published chloride-based and ostracod-based paleosalinity estimates in the Qaidam Basin. Our quantitative paleolake reconstruction between ~42 and 29 Ma in the Qaidam Basin resembles the hydroclimate change in the neighboring Xining Basin, of which both present good agreement with changes of marine benthic oxygen isotope compositions. We thus speculated that the secular trend of clay boron-derived paleolake salinity in ~42-29 Ma is primarily controlled by global cooling, which regulates regional climate change by influencing the evaporation capacity in the moisture source of Qaidam Basin. Superimposed on this trend, the Paratethys transgression/regression cycles served as an important factor regulating wet/dry fluctuations in the Asian interior between ~42 and ~34 Ma.</p>

scholarly journals Straight to Low-Sinuosity Drainage Systems in a Variscan-Type Orogen—Constraints from Tectonics, Lithology and Climate

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 933
Author(s):  
Harald G. Dill ◽  
Andrei Buzatu ◽  
Sorin-Ionut Balaban
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Acute Angle ◽  
Drainage Systems ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Bedrock Lithology ◽  
The Impact

A holistic-modular approach has been taken to study the evolution of three straight to low-sinuosity drainage systems (=SSS) in an uplifted basement block of the Central European Variscides. The development of the SSS is described by means of a quadripartite model. (1) The geological framework of the SSS: Forming the lithological and structural features in the bedrock as a result of different temperature, pressure and dynamic-metamorphic processes. (2) Prestage of SSS: Forming the paleo-landscape with a stable fluvial regime as a starting point for the SSS. (3) Proto-SSS: Transition into the metastable fluvial regime of the SSS. (4) Modern SSS: Operation of the metastable fluvial regime Tectonics plays a dual role. Late Paleozoic fold tectonic creates the basis for the studied SSS and has a guiding effect on the development of morphotectonic units during the Neogene and Quaternary. Late Cenozoic fault tectonics triggered the SSS to incise into the Paleozoic basement. The change in the bedrock lithology has an impact on the fluvial and colluvial sediments as well as their landforms. The latter reflects a conspicuous modification: straight drainage system ⇒ higher sinuosity and paired terraces ⇒ hillwash plains. Climate change has an indirect effect controlling via the bedrock the intensity of mechanical and chemical weathering. The impact on the development of the SSS can be assessed as follows: Tectonics >> climate ≅ bedrock lithology. The three parameters cause a facies zonation: (1) wide-and-shallow valley (Miocene), (2) wide-angle V-shaped valley (Plio-Pleistocene), (3) acute-angle V-shaped valley (Pleistocene), (4) V-shaped to U-shaped valleys (Pleistocene-Holocene). Numerical data relevant for the hydrographic studies of the SSS are determined in each reference area: (1) Quantification of fluvial and colluvial deposits along the drainage system, (2) slope angles, (3) degree of sinuosity as a function of river facies, (4) grain size distribution, (5) grain morphological categorization, (6) grain orientation (“situmetry”), (7) channel density, (8) channel/floodplain ratios. Thermodynamic computations (Eh, pH, concentration of solubles) are made to constrain the paleoclimatic regime during formation of the SSS. The current model of the SSS is restricted in its application to the basement of the Variscan-Type orogens, to an intermediate crustal maturity state.

The Making of the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibetan Plateau

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Searle
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
Indian Plate ◽  
North West ◽  
Geological Interpretation ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
The Road ◽  
The North ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Himalaya

My quest to figure out how the great mountain ranges of Asia, the Himalaya, Karakoram, and Tibetan Plateau were formed has thus far lasted over thirty years from my first glimpse of those wonderful snowy mountains of the Kulu Himalaya in India, peering out of that swaying Indian bus on the road to Manali. It has taken me on a journey from the Hindu Kush and Pamir Ranges along the North-West Frontier of Pakistan with Afghanistan through the Karakoram and along the Himalaya across India, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan and, of course, the great high plateau of Tibet. During the latter decade I have extended these studies eastwards throughout South East Asia and followed the Indian plate boundary all the way east to the Andaman Islands, Sumatra, and Java in Indonesia. There were, of course, numerous geologists who had ventured into the great ranges over the previous hundred years or more and whose findings are scattered throughout the archives of the Survey of India. These were largely descriptive and provided invaluable ground-truth for the surge in models that were proposed to explain the Himalaya and Tibet. When I first started working in the Himalaya there were very few field constraints and only a handful of pioneering geologists had actually made any geological maps. The notable few included Rashid Khan Tahirkheli in Kohistan, D. N. Wadia in parts of the Indian Himalaya, Ardito Desio in the Karakoram, Augusto Gansser in India and Bhutan, Pierre Bordet in Makalu, Michel Colchen, Patrick LeFort, and Arnaud Pêcher in central Nepal. Maps are the starting point for any geological interpretation and mapping should always remain the most important building block for geology. I was extremely lucky that about the time I started working in the Himalaya enormous advances in almost all aspects of geology were happening at a rapid pace. It was the perfect time to start a large project trying to work out all the various geological processes that were in play in forming the great mountain ranges of Asia. Satellite technology suddenly opened up a whole new picture of the Earth from the early Landsat images to the new Google Earth images.

scholarly journals Miocene climate change on the Chinese Loess Plateau: Possible links to the growth of the northern Tibetan Plateau and global cooling

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 2097-2108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youbin Sun ◽  
Long Ma ◽  
Jan Bloemendal ◽  
Steven Clemens ◽  
Xiaoke Qiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Loess Plateau ◽  
Chinese Loess Plateau ◽  
Chinese Loess ◽  
Northern Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Global Cooling ◽  
The Chinese Loess Plateau

Study of diffuse source pollution management for land use and drainage system planning

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Yamada ◽  
T. Funaki ◽  
S. Honda ◽  
M. Sugihara
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Pollutant Removal ◽  
Storm Events ◽  
Road Surfaces ◽  
Using Data

This study aims to clarify the mass balance of pollutants during both dry periods and storm events and to discuss the effects of some strategies such as pollutant removal, land use planning and new drainage systems by simulation. Three subjects are discussed in this paper. First, the amount of pollutants entering Lake Biwa from an urban area have been roughly estimated by using data collected by the local government. Second, many additional samples were collected from road surfaces, house roofs and parking lots to consider the role of land use in pollutant runoff. Third, some ongoing BMP projects in an urban area are introduced. As a result, some ideas on how to solve the problem of diffuse pollution in urban areas have been obtained.

scholarly journals Differences in Cloud Vertical Structures between the Tibetan Plateau and Eastern China Plains during Rainy Season as Measured by CloudSat/CALIPSO

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingjian Yi
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Probability Density ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Cloud Development ◽  
Elevated Surface ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds ◽  
Cloud Thickness

Cloud vertical structures over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and Eastern China Plains (ECP) were analyzed by using data in rainy seasons from 2006 to 2009, in order to clarify the cloud development over adjacent regions but with distinct topographies. Results indicate that the largest occurrences of cloud top height over the TP are at 7-8 km above mean sea level, which is about 4 km lower than that over the ECP. Mixed-phase clouds dominated more than 30% over the TP, while it is lower than 10% over the ECP. The infrequent mixed-phase clouds over the ECP are attributed to the unique dynamic and moisture situations over the downstream areas of the TP. Ice clouds have similar occurrences over the two regions. The prominent distinctions are manifested by the probability density of cloud thickness. The probability density of cloud thickness around 4–8 km is about 2% higher over the TP than the ECP. However, there is almost no ice cloud thicker than 10 km over the TP, while it is about 1% over the ECP. Compared with those over the ECP, every cloud layer within multilayered clouds is generally higher and thinner over the TP, which is closely related to the elevated surface and the resulting thinner troposphere. The significant differences in cloud vertical structures between the TP and the ECP present in this study emphasize that topographical characteristics and the resulting moisture and circulation conditions have strong impacts on the cloud vertical structures.

Tibetan plateau aridification linked to global cooling at the Eocene–Oligocene transition

Nature ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 445 (7128) ◽  
pp. 635-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Dupont-Nivet ◽  
Wout Krijgsman ◽  
Cor G. Langereis ◽  
Hemmo A. Abels ◽  
Shuang Dai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Global Cooling
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