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New age determination of the Cenozoic Lunpola basin, central Tibet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2011

HUAIYU HE ,
JIMIN SUN ,
QIULI LI  and
RIXIANG ZHU
HUAIYU HE*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of the Earth's Deep Interior, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
JIMIN SUN
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
QIULI LI
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
RIXIANG ZHU
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
*
†Author for correspondence: huaiyuhe@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
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Abstract

Knowing when the Tibetan Plateau reached its present elevation is important for understanding the uplift history of Tibet. Recently, Rowley & Currie (2006) suggested that central Tibet exceeded 4000 m from 35 Ma to the Pliocene using the oxygen-isotope composition of calcareous minerals in Lunpola basin sediments. However, they adopted a poor age assignment for the Dingqing Formation in the Lunpola basin based on previous microfossil studies. In this study, we present SIMS U–Pb zircon dates from a bentonite layer intercalated within the middle to lower Dingqing Formation. Twenty-six measurements yield a highly reliable U–Pb age of 23.5 ± 0.2 Ma (2σ, MSWD = 1.1), suggesting that the deposition age of the Dingqing Formation is late Oligocene to early Miocene, much older than the Miocene–Pliocene age used by Rowley & Currie (2006). This age robustly constrains the age of Cenozoic sedimentary strata in central Tibet, and hence provides an important basis for estimating the palaeoelevation in the high Tibet during the geological past.

Keywords

SIMS U–Pb zircon geochronologyLunpola basinbentonitecentral Tibet
Type
Rapid Communication
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 149 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 141 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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