Zhang et al. (2025) Intensified aridification of the Tarim Basin since the beginning of the Pliocene: Implications for the interaction between tectonics and climate

Identification

• Journal: Global and Planetary Change
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-15
• Authors: Zhiliang Zhang, Lijuan Zhang, Jimin Sun
• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.105124

Research Groups

• Xinjiang Pamir Intracontinental Subduction National Observation and Research Station, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China
• State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric and Environmental Coevolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
• University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Short Summary

This study investigates the timing and forcing mechanisms of aridification in the Tarim Basin since the Pliocene using environmental magnetism, revealing that extreme aridification began around 5.3 Ma due to the interplay between regional tectonics and climate, amplified by dust feedback.

Objective

• To elucidate the timing and forcing mechanism of aridification in Central Asia.
• To understand the interplay between regional tectonics and climate during the upward and outward propagation of the Tian Shan in the context of global cooling.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Tarim Basin, southern Tian Shan foreland, northern Tarim Basin, Central Asia, mid-latitude arid region of the Northern Hemisphere.
• Temporal Scale: Late Cenozoic, beginning of the Pliocene (~5.3 Ma), since the latest Miocene.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: None explicitly used in this study; future modeling studies are suggested.
• Data sources: Multiple environmental magnetism parameters derived from late Cenozoic terrigenous deposits; published high-resolution chronology; published results of deformation around the Tian Shan.

Main Results

• Extreme aridification of the Tarim Basin was initiated at approximately 5.3 Ma, evidenced by abrupt decreases in both relative and absolute concentrations of hematite.
• Regional tectonics, specifically the collision between the Pamir and Tian Shan and their tectonic uplift, obstructed water vapor transported by westerlies from the Paratethys Ocean to the Tarim Basin.
• The emergence of deserts in Central Asia, particularly the Taklimakan Desert, contributed to aridification by reducing regional precipitation and increasing dust emission and fluxes through a dust feedback mechanism.
• The interaction between tectonics and climate controlled the building and outward propagation of the Tian Shan since the latest Miocene.
• Tectonics primarily dominated deformation within the Tian Shan, while climate contributed by modulating the critical taper through regulating erosional and depositional processes.

Contributions

• Provides new insights into the timing and forcing mechanisms of aridification in Central Asia.
• Identifies a tectonic-climate-dust feedback mechanism that offers a universal framework for understanding aridification dynamics in other mid-latitude continental interiors with similar mountain-basin coupling and westerlies-dominated systems.
• Sheds light on the interaction between tectonics and climate in shaping the topography of active mountains in arid areas.

Funding

Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Zhang2025Intensified,
  author = {Zhang, Zhiliang and Zhang, Lijuan and Sun, Jimin},
  title = {Intensified aridification of the Tarim Basin since the beginning of the Pliocene: Implications for the interaction between tectonics and climate},
  journal = {Global and Planetary Change},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.105124},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.105124}
}