Late Neogene environmental evolution of the Tibetan Plateau recorded in long-term lacustrine archives

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Knowledge about the long-term history of the Asian monsoon climate is a prerequisite for better understanding regional- and global-scale climate change during the late Neogene and its link to the tectonic evolution and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. Here we propose to continue our running multidisciplinary study on lacustrine deposits in Tibet; we focus on the Qaidam basin (NE plateau), which contains a unique record of aridification in central Asia. A 1400 m deep drill-core (SG-1: 940 m recovered in 2008, 1400 m to be reached in April 2010) and a surface profile provide a continuous sedimentary archive spanning the last ~8 Myr. For the future, we anticipate considerable synergy to result from a second drilling campaign (SG- 2) into an anticline structure nearby SG-1 that is planned by the same group within a launched BMBF program (1400 m: ~8-15 Ma). Integrating the results from the Qaidam basin with other data available from different areas of the Tibetan Plateau (Zada: ~9-1 Ma, Cuo’e: last ~2.8 Ma, Heqing and Zoîge: both last ~1 Ma) will allow us to conduct a comprehensive analysis of palaeoclimate proxies and related tectonic activities. The project is carried out in close cooperation by German and Chinese partners based on equal scientific work share, and bilateral financial support by the DFG, BMBF (German side), CAS, NSFC, and MST (Chinese side).