title: Tectonic control of Yarlung Tsangpo Gorge revealed by a buried canyon in Southern Tibet.
abstract: The Himalayan mountains are dissected by some of the deepest and most impressive gorges on Earth. Constraining the interplay between river incision and rock uplift is important for understanding tectonic deformation in this region. We report here the discovery of a deeply incised canyon of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, at the eastern end of the Himalaya, which is now buried under more than 500 meters of sediments. By reconstructing the former valley bottom and dating sediments at the base of the valley fill, we show that steepening of the Tsangpo Gorge started at about 2 million to 2.5 million years ago as a consequence of an increase in rock uplift rates. The high erosion rates within the gorge are therefore a direct consequence of rapid rock uplift.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. scherler@caltech.edu.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scherler
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu-Zeng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mey
authors.affiliation: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Avouac
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Engineering Corporation, Chengdu 610072, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yunda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Engineering Corporation, Chengdu 610072, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Dingguo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shi