Comment on “Magnetostratigraphic study of the Kuche Depression, Tarim Basin, and Cenozoic uplift of the Tian Shan Range, Western China” Baochun Huang, John D.A. Piper, Shoutao Peng, Tao Liu, Zhong Li, Qingchen Wang, Rixiang Zhu [Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 2006, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.09.020

Abstract

The recent publication of “Magnetostratigraphic study of the Kuche Depression, Tarim Basin, and Cenozoic uplift of the Tian Shan Range,Western China” by B.C. Huang, J.D.A. Piper, S.T. Peng, T. Liu, Z. Li, Q.C. Wang, R.X. Zhu [Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 2006, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.09.020] discusses the Cenozoic uplift history of the Tianshan Mountains by studying the magnetostratigraphy of Paleogene to Neogene continental sediments from two sections located in the Kuche basin at the northern edge of the Tarim basin. To support their conclusion they reinterpreted a magnetostratigraphic study of the Yaha section, which lies ~ 10 km south of their sections, we previously published [J. Charreau, S. Gilder, Y. Chen, S. Dominguez, J.-P. Avouac, S. Sen, M. Jolivet, Y. Li and W. Wang, Magnetostratigraphy of the Yaha section, Tarim Basin (China): 11 Ma acceleration in erosion and uplift of the Tianshan Mountains, Geology 34(3), 2006, 181­184.]. Here, (1) we argue that the interpretations of the sedimentation rate changes they proposed for the Kuche sections are partially invalid, (2) we disagree with their reinterpretation of the age of the Yaha section, and (3) we think that the way they interpret their AMS data is incorrect.