Research Article| April 01, 2014 Pleistocene drainage reorganization driven by the isostatic response to deep incision into the northeastern Tibetan Plateau Huiping Zhang; Huiping Zhang * 1State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China *E-mail: E-mail: huiping@ies.ac.cn. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Peizhen Zhang; Peizhen Zhang 1State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Jean-Daniel Champagnac; Jean-Daniel Champagnac 2Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), Geological Institute, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Peter Molnar; Peter Molnar 3Department of Geological Sciences and Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Robert S. Anderson; Robert S. Anderson 4Department of Geological Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Eric Kirby; Eric Kirby 5College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar William H. Craddock; William H. Craddock 6Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA †Current address: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 20192, USA. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Shaofeng Liu Shaofeng Liu 7State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (2014) 42 (4): 303–306. https://doi.org/10.1130/G35115.1 Article history received: 14 Sep 2013 rev-recd: 06 Jan 2014 accepted: 10 Jan 2014 first online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Huiping Zhang, Peizhen Zhang, Jean-Daniel Champagnac, Peter Molnar, Robert S. Anderson, Eric Kirby, William H. Craddock, Shaofeng Liu; Pleistocene drainage reorganization driven by the isostatic response to deep incision into the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Geology 2014;; 42 (4): 303–306. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G35115.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract Pleistocene drainage basin integration led to progressive excavation of Tertiary–Quaternary sedimentary basins along the Yellow River in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Cosmogenic burial dating of ancestral river deposits and basin fill from two key watershed divides confirms a fluvial connection between basins at 0.5–1.2 Ma, prior to excavation by the Yellow River. Preservation of the relict depositional surface that represents the maximum height of basin fill allows reconstruction of the volume of eroded material across a broad region. We quantify the isostatic response to this erosional unloading using a two-dimensional flexural model. Calculated maximum vertical displacements for different effective elastic thicknesses vary from ∼160 m to ∼260 m near the Pleistocene spillway from the Qinghai paleo-lake. We suggest that the isostatic response to fluvial excavation along the Yellow River defeated local tributaries, isolated Lake Qinghai, and led to the development of an internally drained basin in the past 0.5–1.2 m.y. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.