Structural control on the topography of the Laji–Jishi and Riyue Shan belts in the NE margin of the Tibetan plateau: Facilitation of the headward propagation of the Yellow River system

Abstract

The Yellow River system, the largest river system in northern China, generally flows northeasterly through a series of linear mountain belts in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau, the youngest of which are the Laji–Jishi Shan and Riyue Shan ranges, formed during late Cenozoic time due to NE–SW oblique shortening. As the product of the interaction between the tectonic process and the climate, the incision of the Yellow River system is a crucial parameter in models of the scale and timing of the crustal uplift and erosion in northeastern Tibetan plateau. Thus, whether the along-strike topographic feature of the Laji-Jishi Shan that is cut through by the Yellow River system and related streams is controlled by structural deformation or by erosion needs to be constrained. Our mapping shows that the variation in deformation along this mountain belt formed two structural saddles with relative low elevation in late Cenozoic time, through which the Yellow and Yaoshui Rivers cut into the plateau and drained a series of the Tertiary basins. The Yaoshui River is the tributary of the Huangshui River which itself flows into the Yellow River in the Lanzhou area. One saddle is present along the Yaoshui River valley, formed by NW–SE extension along the Riyue Shan Pass (RSP) normal fault, along which the Miocene and Mesozoic rocks were subsided against Proterozoic metamorphic rocks. These deformed rocks in the hanging wall are truncated by a sub-horizontal erosion surface at an elevation of 3200 m, on which terrace deposits are locally present, presumably middle Pleistocene in age. This terrace is incised by the Yaoshui River to an elevation of 3000 m, which yields 300 m of incision. Another saddle is along the Yellow River valley (the Xunhua-Linxia gouge) between the southern tip of the Laji Shan and the northern tip of the Jishi Shan, generated by en echelon folding. This structural saddle is underlain by the lower Cretaceous and Pliocene clastic rocks, which are truncated on the top by a rugged erosion surface at an average elevation of 3000 m. The Yellow River incised into this surface to an elevation of 1900 m, which yields 1100 m of incision. These two saddles, featured by topographic and structural low, were formed in the middle or late Miocene, and facilitated the headward propagation of the Yellow and Yaoshui Rivers, which initiated in early and middle Pleistocene time, respectively.