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Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences

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ARTICLE IN » Volume 14, 2019 - Number 2

THE SMALL-SCALE TECTONIC LANDFORMS OF GYIRONG WATERSHED IN THE MIDDLE HIMALAYAN OROGEN, TIBET, CHINA



Lu CHEN1, 3, Aike KAN*2, 3 & Yingjie WANG3
1Institute of Humanity Resources in Western China, Chengdu Normal College, Chengdu 611130, China, 051052@cdnu.edu.cn
2College of Geophysics, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China, kanaike@qq.com
3State Key Laboratory of Resource and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China, wangyj@igsnrr.ac.cn


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Abstract

DOI: 10.26471/cjees/2019/014/096

The relationship between small-scale topographic features and tectonic response of orogenic belts is often neglected due to scale differences in topographic data. Using Aster GDEM2, we calculated swath elevation, 200m topographic relief, and average slope angle of a small-scale watershed in the middle Himalayan orogen. Based on the geological history of Gyirong and data on the Himalayan uplift process, this study analyzed the topographic characteristics of Gyirong watershed, discussed the relationships between landform and structure, lithology, and climate, and compared slope stability. The results showed that the topographic elevation characteristics retained correspondence to local basement forms and tectonic associations. Periodic spatial change at the summit level had a clear response to the structural distribution, and may support the theory that the Gyirong basin floor is a combination of normal and reverse faults. Average height increased at first and then stabilized, and these morphological characteristics and distribution patterns provide topographic evidence for the interpretation of tectonic uplift and erosional accumulation, which confirmed that 4000m was the vertical differentiation boundary for the tectonic landform. Although climate, landforms, tectonics, and lithology vary across different orogenic belts, the similar slope angle threshold provided the insight that erosion is the tectonic genesis to equilibrium of heterogeneous hillsides at different scales.

Keywords:
  • tectonic
  • landform
  • digital
  • topographic
  • analysis
  • Aster
  • GDEM2
  • the
  • Middle
  • Himalayan
  • orogen
  • Gyirong
  • watershed

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© 2019 by the author(s). Licensee CJEES, Carpathian Association of Environment and Earth Sciences. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

How to cite

Lu CHEN, Aike KAN & Yingjie WANG (2019). THE SMALL-SCALE TECTONIC LANDFORMS OF GYIRONG WATERSHED IN THE MIDDLE HIMALAYAN OROGEN, TIBET, CHINA, Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, August 2019, Vol. 14, No. 2, p. 473 - 482; https://doi.org/10.26471/cjees/2019/014/096

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