沧海桑田长江源——古生物化石讲述的故事

Evolution of the Source of Yangtze River on Basis of Fossils

长江的发源地——可可西里无人区,位于青藏高原腹地,青海、西藏和新疆三省交界地带,但主要位于青海省境内,东至青藏公路,西以喀喇昆仑山脉为界,北依昆仑山,南被唐古拉山截住,方圆约24万平方公里,平均海拔5000多米,气候干燥寒冷,环境险恶,缺氧严重,是青藏高原最大的高寒地带,也是"神秘的死亡地带".然而,长江总水量的1/4就来自这一令人望而生畏的"人类禁区".

The source of Yangtze River, Hohxile, had been a vast sheet of water before the Late Permian and an open shelf sea in the Late Permian. In the Cretaceous, however, the vast sea retreated southward but lakes and rivers jointed together to cover almost all of the Hohxile land. Volcanoes exploded from all the directions and the land was rapidly uplifted in the Cenozoic. It has become a real desert since the Pleistocene.