Revising palaeoelevation estimates for the Tibetan Plateau by integrating latitude, paleogeographic and paleotemperature data

Abstract

Quantifying the palaeoelevation of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is important for investigations of deep earth dynamics, surface uplift, and climate evolution. In particular, high precision palaeogeographic data can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the processes and mechanisms of TP uplift and can help refine palaeoclimate simulations. As a whole, there are complex physical and chemical interactions between the six concentric layers of the Earth. In this study, we used published palaeogeographic and palaeotemperature data to revise the evolution of the TP elevation for six time intervals of the Cenozoic according to the time nodes of key changes in each layer. We then revised the palaeoelevations using palaeotemperature data and linear and polynomial regression models. Our revised palaeoelevation results solve the problems of the low resolution of palaeotemperature data and the low accuracy of palaeogeographic data, and they enable us to fine tune the palaeoelevation data for the studied intervals. Our findings contribute to reconstructions of the palaeogeomorphology and palaeoelevation of the TP and provide supporting data for future studies of the TP system on long timescales.