Collaborative Research: The Growth of the Tibetan Plateau - A Seismic Investigation of the Qilian Shan and Surrounding Tectonic Blocks

青藏高原的崛起深刻地改变了地球的大气环流和气候。因此，它一直是了解构造与气候变化之间的联系以及大陆碰撞过程的最佳地点。对于青藏高原的崛起，有几种相互竞争的假说：高原海拔迅速而广泛的上升，高原通过下地壳连续的粘性流动而扩张，或者高原通过连贯的壳幔块体之间的顺序和局部剪切而扩张。这些令人关注的情景的核心是这样一个问题：随着时间的推移，高原是向上生长还是向外生长。解决这个问题的最佳地点是青藏高原东北部，那里的高原正处于萌芽阶段，地壳和浅地幔的特征和动态过程是理解可能影响整个青藏高原的机制的关键。这个由美国和中国机构合作的项目获得了青藏高原东北部的地震数据。这项研究包括对该地区的地壳和地幔结构成像的详细研究，针对地震观测检验目前的假设，以及开发将地震观测和其他地质约束相结合的新模型。这项研究还包括分析地区性地震活动的重点研究，这有助于减轻大陆板块内部地震最活跃地区之一的地震灾害。

The rise of the Tibetan plateau has profoundly changed the Earth's atmosphericcirculation and climate. For this reason, it has been the prime site to understand the linkbetween tectonics and climate change as well as the processes of continental collision.There are several competing hypotheses for the rise of the Tibetan plateau: a rapid andbroad increase in the elevation of the plateau, an expansion of the plateau bycontinuous viscous flow of lower crust, or an expansion of the plateau by sequential andlocalized shear between coherent crust and mantle blocks. At the center of thecompeting scenarios is the question whether the plateau has grown upward en masseor outward over time. The best place to address this question is the northeast Tibetanplateau, where the plateau is at a nascent stage with features and dynamic processesin the crust and shallow mantle that are keys to the understanding of the mechanismsthat may have operated for the entire Tibetan plateau.This collaborative project between U.S. and Chinese institutions acquires seismic datafrom the northeast Tibetan plateau. The research includes detailed studies to image thecrust and mantle structures in the region, to test the current hypotheses against seismicobservations, and to develop new models that integrate seismic observations and othergeological constraints. The research also includes focused studies to analyze regionalearthquake activity, which helps to mitigate earthquake hazards in one of theseismically most active areas in the interior of a continental plate.