When was the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau known as the "roof of the world" formed?

When will the Central Valley disappear?

What is its power mechanism?

What kind of historical process has it gone through?

  The latest research by the collision uplift and impact team led by Academician Ding Lin from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Chinese Academy of Sciences) gives the answer.

They quantitatively restored the uplift and extinction process of the central valley of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 38 million to 29 million years ago through comprehensive research on tectonic geological evolution, deep lithosphere dynamics, paleotemperature, paleovegetation analysis, and paleoclimate simulation. , revealing that the uplift of the Central Valley is the beginning of the huge impact of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on the episphere environment.

  This important scientific research paper on solving the mystery of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau forming the roof of the world was published online by the international academic journal Science Advances on February 10, Beijing time.

  Dr. Xiong Zhongyu, the first author of the paper and the Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the research results show that about 50 million to 38 million years ago, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau presented a landform feature of "two mountains and a basin". The Gangdise Mountains were about 4,500 meters above sea level, The Central Divide Mountains are about 4,000 meters above sea level, and between them is the Central Valley, which is about 1,700 meters above sea level.

  About 38 million to 29 million years ago, the Central Valley represented by the Lunpola Basin rapidly uplifted into a plateau over 4,000 meters above sea level, marking the formation of the main part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

(The video of Zhou Jing produced by reporter Sun Zifa comes from the Institute of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Responsible editor: [Ji Xiang]