Dr. Wentao Cao
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences Assistant Professor Wentao Cao co-authored a new paper, on the trench-slope basin in central Qiangtang, Tibetan Plateau, in Basin Research, an international journal that publishes original, high-impact research papers on sedimentary basin systems.
In this newly published paper, “A late Permian–Triassic trench‐slope basin in the Central Qiangtang Metamorphic Belt, Northern Tibet: stratigraphy, sedimentology, syndepositional deformation and tectonic implications,” Dr. Cao and co-authors from China and South Korea studied the sedimentary system in the Central Qiangtang Metamorphic Belt (CQMB) in northern Tibet using paleontological and geochronological methods.
The CQMB in the Tibetan Plateau was an ancient ocean, part of the Tethys Ocean.
The sedimentary associations in the CQMB represent a typical continental slope environment, with conodont assemblages and interlayered igneous-sedimentary rocks indicating late Permian to late Triassic ages.
Analysis of U-Pb dating of zircon in the studied rocks indicates two sedimentary provenances from the former continental arc in North Qiangtang block and the accretionary wedge during subduction of an ancient oceanic tectonic plate. Spatial variation from north to south shows the changes from bathyal setting and carbonate platform to deep marine setting, which represents a trench-slope depositional environment.
