Cenozoic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau:Evidence from the tectonic-sedimentary evolution of the western Qaidam Basin

Geologists agree that the collision of the Indian and Asian plates caused uplift of the Tibet Plateau. However, controversy still exists regarding the modes and mechanisms of the Tibetan Plateau uplift. Geology has recorded this uplift well in the Qaidam Basin. This paper analyzes the tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the western Qaidam Basin using sub-surface seismic and drill data. The Cenozoic intensity and history of deformation in the Qaidam Basin have been reconstructed based on the tectonic developments, faults growth index, sedimentary facies variations, and the migration of the depositional depressions. The changes in the sedimentary facies show that lakes in the western Qaidam Basin had gone from inflow to still water deposition to withdrawal. Tectonic movements controlled deposition in various depressions, and the depressions gradually shifted southeastward. In addition, the morphology of the surface structures in the western Qaidam Basin shows that the Cenozoic tectonic movements controlled the evolution of the Basin and divided it into （a） the southern fault terrace zone, （b） a central Yingxiongling orogenic belt, and （c） the northern fold-thrust belt; divided by the XI fault （Youshi fault） and Youbei fault, respectively. The field data indicate that the western Qaidam Basin formed in a Cenozoic compressive tectonic environment caused by the India--Asia plate collision. Further, the Basin experienced two phases of intensive tectonic deformation. The first phase occurred during the Middle Eocene--Early Miocene （Xia Ganchaigou Fm. and Shang Ganchaigou Fro., 43.8- 22 Ma）, and peaked in the Early Oligocene （Upper Xia Ganchaigou Fro., 31.5 Ma）. The second phase occurred between the Middle Miocene and the Present （Shang Youshashan Fro. and Qigequan Fro., 14.9-0 Ma）, and was stronger than the first phase. The tectonic--sedimentary evolution and the orienta- tion of surface structures in the western Qaidam Basin resulted from the Tibetan Plateau uplift, and recorded the periodic northward growth of the Plateau. Recognizing this early tectonic--sedimentary evolution supports the previous conclusion that northern Tibet responded to the collision between India and Asia shortly after its initiation. However, the current results reveal that northern Tibet also experi- enced another phase of uplift during the late Neogene. The effects of these two stages of tectonic activity combined to produce the current Tibetan Plateau.

Hybrid grid generation for viscous flow simulations in complex geometries

In this paper,we present a hybrid grid generation approach for viscous flow simulations by marching a surface triangulation on viscous walls along certain directions.Focuses are on the computing strategies used to determine the marching directions and distances since these strategies determine the quality of the resulting elements and the reliability of the meshing procedure to a large extent.With respect to marching directions,three strategies featured with different levels of efficiencies and robustness performance are combined to compute the initial normals at front nodes to balance the trade-off between efficiency and robustness.A novel weighted strategy is used in the normal smoothing scheme,which evidently reduces the possibility of early stop of front generation at complex corners.With respect to marching distances,the distance settings at concave and/or convex corners are locally adjusted to smooth the front shape at first;a further adjustment is then conducted for front nodes in the neighbourhood of gaps between opposite viscous boundaries.These efforts,plus other special treatments such as multi-normal generation and fast detection of local/global intersection,as a whole enable the setup of a hybrid mesher that could generate qualitied viscous grids for geometries with industry-level complexities.

Mesh Adaptation for Curing the Pathological Behaviors of an Upwind Scheme

In present paper,mesh adaptation is applied for curing the pathological behaviors of the enhanced time-accurate upwind scheme(Loh&Jorgenson,AIAAJ 2016).In the original ETAU(enhanced time-accurate upwind)scheme,a multidimensional dissipation model is required to cure the pathological behaviors.The multi-dimensional dissipation model will increase the global dissipation level reducing numerical resolution.In present work,the metric-based mesh adaptation strategy provides an alternative way to cure the pathological behaviors of the shock capturing.The Hessian matrix of flow variables is applied to construct the metric,which represents the curvature of the physical solution.The adapting operation can well refine the anisotropic meshes at the location with large gradients.The numerical results show that the adaptation of mesh provides a possible way to cure the pathological behaviors of upwind schemes.