Evolution of drainage systems and its developing trend in connection with tectonic uplift of Eastern Kunlun Mt.

Abstract

The Eastern Kunlun Mt. had been subjected to uplift together with the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau before the Early Pleistocene, and yet the Mt, did not protrude out of the Plateau surface. During that period lakes spread all over the studied region, with the drainage systems being all short rivers flowing into the lakes. At the end of the Early Pleistocene, intensive tectonic uplift led to the rising of the Eastern Kunlun Mt. and made the Mt. protrude onto the Plateau surface. As a result, a fault depression valley formed extending nearly from west to east along the fault belt of the Southern Kunlun Mt. Lakes in this region died out, surface runoffs joined into the valley of the Southern Kunlun Mt. resulting in a large river streaming nearly from west to east. Around 150 kaBP, because of the strong differential movement, rivers, such as the Jialu River and the Golmud River, retrogressively eroded seriously, cutting through the Burhan Budai Mt. Then they pirated the large river and divided it into four portions. Owing to the uplift of the Eastern Kunlun Mt., strongly retrogressive erosion of the upper reaches of the Jialu River has made the watershed of the Buqingshan Mt. migrate 6–10 km southward since Holocene. At present, it remains a stronger trend of retrogressive erosion developing upward to the basin of the Yellow River Source and it seems that the Jialu River is scrambling for the streamhead of the Yellow River.