As the largest orogenic plateau on Earth, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was caused by a complex crustal deformation process during the continuous collision and compression process between the Indian and Eurasian continents starting at least 60-50 Ma ago. The formation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau records the collision of the two continents and the deformation process and mechanism within the continents. Therefore, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is considered as a natural ideal laboratory for the study of continent-continent collision and dynamics. At present, the continuous collision between Eurasia and Indian continents is still ongoing, resulting in the fact that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is still continuing to expand outward. The western section of the Qilian Mountains on the northeast margin of The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, as the northeast boundary of the Plateau, was uplifted and became part of the present Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during the Middle Miocene, according to the latest chronology results. Therefore, as one of the youngest parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the western Qilian Mountains is one of the key areas to test various proposed models of the formation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Click here for original story, The revelation of the crustal geometry of the western Qilian Mountains, NE Tibetan Plateau
Source: Phys.org