Michael Taylor*
Dept. of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA
Adam Forte
Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA
Andrew Laskowski
Dept. of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA
Lin Ding
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Abstract
North of the Himalayas is the Tibetan plateau—the largest physiographic feature on Earth related
to intercontinental collision. Here, we study the rugged Gangdese Range along the southern
drainage divide of the Tibetan plateau using a synthesis of geologic, thermochronologic, and
interseismic geodetic observations that reveal that southern Tibet’s Gangdese Range is
undergoing active surface uplift at present-day rates rivaling the Himalaya. Uplift has likely
been sustained since the early Miocene, and we hypothesize that surface uplift of the Gangdese
Mountains led to the development of Tibet’s internally drained plateau, as well as potentially
reversed the course of the paleo Yarlung River, in tandem with exhumation of the Himalayan
gneiss domes. We suggest the data are consistent with active thrust duplexing, balanced by upper
crustal extension, effectively extending the active décollement between the underthrusting
Indian plate and the Eurasian upper plate more than 200 km north of the High Himalayas.
Manuscript received 3 Dec. 2020. Revised manuscript received 15 May 2021.
Manuscript accepted 15 May 2021. Posted 21 June 2021.
© The Geological Society of America, 2021. CC-BY-NC.
https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG487A.1