Large rivers and orogens: the evolution of the Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy system and the eastern Himalayan syntaxis

Robinson, Ruth A.J., Brezina, Cynthia A., Parrish, Randall R., Horstwood, Matt S.A., Oo, Nay Win, Bird, Michael I., Thein, Myint, Walters, Abigail S., Oliver, Grahame J.H., and Zaw, Khin (2014) Large rivers and orogens: the evolution of the Yarlung Tsangpo-Irrawaddy system and the eastern Himalayan syntaxis. Gondwana Research, 25 (1). pp. 112-121.

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Abstract

The eastern Himalayan syntaxis has experienced some of the highest rates of deformation and erosion in the orogen during the Late Cenozoic, and the Yarlung Tsangpo, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, and Mekong rivers are the key erosional systems in that region. The Yarlung Tsangpo drains southern Tibet and the deep Siang River gorge through the eastern Himalayan syntaxis before joining the Brahmaputra in northeastern India. It has been proposed that the Yarlung Tsangpo drained into other large rivers of southern Asia, such as the Irrawaddy, Salween and Red River. We have used uranium/lead dating and hafnium measurements of detrital zircons from Cenozoic sedimentary deposits in Central Myanmar to demonstrate that the Yarlung Tsangpo formerly drained into the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar through the eastern syntaxis, and that this ancient river system was established by (at least) the Middle–Late Eocene. The Yarlung Tsangpo–Irrawaddy river disconnected in the Early Miocene driven by increased deformation in the eastern syntaxis and headward erosion by tributaries of the Brahmaputra. Our results highlight the significance of the sedimentary record of large orogen-parallel rivers and provide key chronological constraints on landscape evolution during the Early Miocene phase of the Himalayan orogeny.

Item ID: 34091
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1342-937X
Keywords: Myanmar (Burma), detrital, zircon, Irrawaddy, Yarlung Tsangpo
Additional Information:

Open access under a Creative Common license.

Funders: Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Projects and Grants: NERC NIGL IP/943/1106
Date Deposited: 16 Jul 2014 09:15
FoR Codes: 04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0402 Geochemistry > 040203 Isotope Geochemistry @ 50%
04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0403 Geology > 040310 Sedimentology @ 50%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970105 Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences @ 100%
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