Fossils found in Tibet by FSU geologist revise history of elevation, climate

Florida State University ^ | Jun 11, 2008 | Unknown

[decimon]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- About 15,000 feet up on Tibet's desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates.

Back at the FSU-based National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes in the fossils revealed the animals' diet (abundant plants) and the reason for their demise during the late Pliocene era in the region (a drastic climate change). Paleo-magnetic study determined the sample's age (a very young 2 or 3 million years old).

That fossil evidence from the rock desert and cold, treeless steppes that now comprise Earth's highest land mass suggests a literally groundbreaking possibility:

Major tectonic changes on the Tibetan Plateau may have caused it to attain its towering present-day elevations -- rendering it inhospitable to the plants and animals that once thrived there -- as recently as 2-3 million years ago, not millions of years earlier than that, as geologists have generally believed. The new evidence calls into question the validity of methods commonly used by scientists to reconstruct the past elevations of the region.

"Establishing an accurate history of tectonic and associated elevation changes in the region is important because uplift of the Tibetan Plateau has been suggested as a major driving mechanism of global climate change over the past 50-60 million years," said Yang, an associate professor in FSU's Department of Geological Sciences and a researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. "What's more, the region also is thought to be important in driving the modern Asian monsoons, which control the environmental conditions over much of Asia, the most densely populated region on Earth."

The fossil findings and implications are described in the June 15, 2008 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The journal can be accessed online at www.elsevier.com/locate/epsl.

Yang co-authored the paper ("Stable isotopes in fossil mammals, fish and shells from Kunlun Pass Basin, Tibetan Plateau: Paleoclimatic and paleoelevation implications") with paleontologists from the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing). The collaborative research project, which since 2004 has featured summer field study on the remote Tibetan Plateau, is funded by a grant from the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

"The uplift chronology of the Tibetan Plateau and its climatic and biotic consequences have been a matter of much debate and speculation because most of Tibet's spectacular mountains, gorges and glaciers remain barely touched by man and geologically unexplored," Yang said.

"So far, my research colleagues and I have only worked in two basins in Tibet, representing a very small fraction of the Plateau, but it is very exciting that our work to-date has yielded surprising results that are inconsistent with the popular view of Tibetan uplift," she said.

This summer, Yang and her colleagues from Los Angeles and Beijing will conduct further fieldwork in areas near the Tibetan Plateau. "The next phase of our work will focus on examining the spatial and temporal patterns of long-term vegetative and environmental changes in and around the region," she said. "Such records are crucial for clarifying the linkages among climatic, biotic and tectonic changes."

There is much still to learn and understand about those changes.

"Many of the places we've visited in Tibet are now deserts, and yet we found those thick deposits of lake sediments with abundant fossil fish and shells," Yang said. "This begs the question: What came first and caused the disappearance of those lakes? Global climate change? Or, tectonic change?"

###

For more stories about FSU, visit our news site at www.fsu.com

[decimon]

Top of the world ping.

[editor-surveyor]

Catastrophic after-flood shifts ping ;o)

[tlj18]

Noah’s Flood ping :-)

[Coyoteman]

Catastrophic after-flood shifts ping ;o)

Wishful thinking ping ; - )

[doodad]

geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates.

What geologist would be surprised? I am not. I found horn coral in Montana at 8K feet.

[newheart]

"Global climate change? Or, tectonic change?""

This guy obviously has not been paying attention. As the great Obama has explained to us, NOW is the moment that the oceans begin to recede and the planet begins to heal itself. A unique moment in all of history.

[editor-surveyor]

What are you wishing for DogBoy, a bone?

[trumandogz]

So now there is proof that the was a Great Flood three million years ago during the time of Noah!

[editor-surveyor]

As long as you’re imagining millions of years, why not make it 999 million?

[trumandogz]

Actually the article states millions of years ago.

In case you missed it here it is again:

Major tectonic changes on the Tibetan Plateau may have caused it to attain its towering present-day elevations -- rendering it inhospitable to the plants and animals that once thrived there -- as recently as 2-3 million years ago, not millions of years earlier than that, as geologists have generally believed.

[editor-surveyor]

Why not 999 million?

Why not 100 billion?

It all makes as much sense.

[LukeL]

This geologist (student) is surprised at the "young" age of the fossils in this old lake bed. It would indicate a rapid event occurred, like the lake draining and then being covered by a mudslide along with rapid uplifting.

If this is true they should find some huge stress fractures and faults in the area (besides the boundary near the Indian Subcontinent.

[trumandogz]

The earth may be hundreds a millions of years old or more likely 4.6 billion years old. However, it is not 6000 years old.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks again decimon.

Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower elevations and warmer, wetter climates... Paleo-magnetic study determined the sample's age (a very young 2 or 3 million years old)... Major tectonic changes on the Tibetan Plateau may have caused it to attain its towering present-day elevations -- rendering it inhospitable to the plants and animals that once thrived there -- as recently as 2-3 million years ago, not millions of years earlier than that, as geologists have generally believed... "Establishing an accurate history of tectonic and associated elevation changes in the region is important because uplift of the Tibetan Plateau has been suggested as a major driving mechanism of global climate change over the past 50-60 million years," said Yang, an associate professor in FSU's Department of Geological Sciences and a researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.

Global warming is BS. ['Civ takes bows as the audience tosses flowers]

"Many of the places we've visited in Tibet are now deserts, and yet we found those thick deposits of lake sediments with abundant fossil fish and shells," Yang said. "This begs the question: What came first and caused the disappearance of those lakes? Global climate change? Or, tectonic change?"

Elsewhere -- Antarctic fossils of temperate plant species which can't survive there, a bit more than 2 million years old.

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[blam]

Ping.

[RightWhale]

Catastrophism will have its day; wait, you’ll see.

[allmendream]

Only if one discounts the Scientific method, which obviously you have.

[decimon]

Catastrophism will have its day; wait, you’ll see.

I'm getting old so what do I care? In the last hours I'll drive around laughing at young people. ;-)