TY - JOUR

T1 - New evidence from heavy minerals and detrital zircons in Quaternary fluvial sediments for the evolution of the upper Yangtze River, South China

AU - Huang, Hengxu

AU - Xiang, Fang

AU - Zhang, Deyan

AU - Guo, Yuming

AU - Yang, Qi

AU - Ding, Li

N1 - Funding Information: This study was supported by the Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 41972101, 41572093, 41072083).

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - In the Three Gorges and adjacent areas, there are three planation surfaces and five terraces along the Yangtze River that record the evolution history of the river system. Here, we used diagnostic heavy minerals, U-Pb geochronology, and trace elements of detrital zircons from one planation surface, two terraces, and a modern point bar to reconstruct the evolution history of the upper Yangtze River, specifically the Chuan River in the Sichuan Basin. The sediments in the lowest planation surface had different felsic source rocks derived from east of the Three Gorges, which indicated that before the disintegration of the lowest planation surface (0.75 Ma), there were two paleorivers: the westward-flowing paleo-Chuan River and eastward-flowing paleo-Yangtze River separated by the Huangling Dome. At 0.75-0.73 Ma, the dominant detrital zircons from the Sichuan Basin in the sediments of terrace T5 (the highest terrace) confirmed that the paleo-Yangtze River cut through the Three Gorges and captured the paleo-Chuan River, and the Daliang Mountains became the new drainage divide. Finally, the appearance of materials from the upper Jinsha River in terrace T2 indicated that the paleo-Yangtze River progressively captured the paleo-Jinsha River, and the modern upper Yangtze River formed before 0.05 Ma. These river capture events of the upper Yangtze River confirmed the Quaternary uplift of the SE Tibetan Plateau.

AB - In the Three Gorges and adjacent areas, there are three planation surfaces and five terraces along the Yangtze River that record the evolution history of the river system. Here, we used diagnostic heavy minerals, U-Pb geochronology, and trace elements of detrital zircons from one planation surface, two terraces, and a modern point bar to reconstruct the evolution history of the upper Yangtze River, specifically the Chuan River in the Sichuan Basin. The sediments in the lowest planation surface had different felsic source rocks derived from east of the Three Gorges, which indicated that before the disintegration of the lowest planation surface (0.75 Ma), there were two paleorivers: the westward-flowing paleo-Chuan River and eastward-flowing paleo-Yangtze River separated by the Huangling Dome. At 0.75-0.73 Ma, the dominant detrital zircons from the Sichuan Basin in the sediments of terrace T5 (the highest terrace) confirmed that the paleo-Yangtze River cut through the Three Gorges and captured the paleo-Chuan River, and the Daliang Mountains became the new drainage divide. Finally, the appearance of materials from the upper Jinsha River in terrace T2 indicated that the paleo-Yangtze River progressively captured the paleo-Jinsha River, and the modern upper Yangtze River formed before 0.05 Ma. These river capture events of the upper Yangtze River confirmed the Quaternary uplift of the SE Tibetan Plateau.

KW - Heavy minerals

KW - Neotectonics

KW - Paleo-Chuan River

KW - Provenance analyses

KW - Quaternary drainage evolution

KW - SE Tibetan Plateau

KW - Three Gorges formation

KW - Upper Yangtze River

KW - Zircon trace element

KW - Zircon U-Pb chronology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160950481&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/qua.2022.58

DO - 10.1017/qua.2022.58

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85160950481

VL - 113

SP - 162

EP - 181

JO - Quaternary Research (United States)

JF - Quaternary Research (United States)

SN - 0033-5894

ER -