Isotope paleoaltimetry reveals elevations of 3.2 to 4.7 kilometers in the pre-collisional Gangdese arc, indicating a segmented mountain belt before the India-Eurasia collision.
Key Points
To reconstruct the pre-collisional paleoelevation and topographic architecture of the Gangdese arc in southern Tibet.
Applied triple oxygen isotope (Δ′17O) paleoaltimetry to hydrothermal quartz samples from the Gangdese arc in southern Tibet.
Reconstructed Late Cretaceous to Paleogene meteoric water compositions dated between circa 77 Ma and 59 Ma.
Demonstrated that surface paleoelevations reached approximately 3.2 to 4.7 km between ca. 77 Ma and 59 Ma, prior to the India−Eurasia collision.
Revealed that the pre-collisional Gangdese formed a segmented mountain belt with coexisting elevated and lower sectors along strike rather than a laterally uniform arc or simple east-west gradient.