EGU21-2606
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2606
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Elevation of the Gangdese Mountains and Their Simulated Impacts on Asian Climate during the Late Cretaceous

Jian Zhang1,2, Yonggang Liu3, Xiaomin Fang1,4,5, Tao Zhang1,6, Chenguang Zhu7,8, and Chengshan Wang7
Jian Zhang et al.
  • 1Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Continental Collision and Plateau Uplift, China (zhangjian@itpcas.ac.cn)
  • 2GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
  • 3Department of Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
  • 4CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
  • 5University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  • 6School of Earth Sciences & Key Laboratory of Western China's Mineral Resources of Gansu Province, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
  • 7State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences Beijing, Beijing, China
  • 8School of Environmental Studies,China University of Geosciences, Wuhan,China

The Tibetan Plateau has a significant impact on the Asian climate due to its high topography. However, its uplift history, especially the uplift of the Gangdese Mountains in its early stage, is under intense debate. Most quantitative reconstructions are done for the Cenozoic only, impeding our understanding of the geodynamic and paleoenvironmental evolution during the Cretaceous. How high would the Gangdese Mountains be then, and what effects would they have on Asian climate? In order to explore these two questions, here we model the impacts of the Gangdese Mountains on the Asian climate during the Late Cretaceous by employing the Community Earth System Model version 1.2.2. It is found that the extent of dry land in East Asia is sensitive to the altitude of the Gangdese Mountains; it expands eastwards and southwards with the rise of the mountain range, which is due to the fact that the Gangdese Mountains can significantly reduce the precipitation over the low- to mid-latitude Asia. We then attempt to constrain their paleoaltitude using the available climate indicators in the sediments. The aridity index is further calculated for this region, and its comparison with the climate records suggests that Gangdese Mountains should be higher than 1 km but lower than 3 km during the Late Cretaceous, most likely ~2 km.

How to cite: Zhang, J., Liu, Y., Fang, X., Zhang, T., Zhu, C., and Wang, C.: Elevation of the Gangdese Mountains and Their Simulated Impacts on Asian Climate during the Late Cretaceous, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-2606, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-2606, 2021.

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