Sedimentary characteristics in the Wenquan Basin on the northern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and their geological implications

The Late Cenozoic Wenquan Basin is interpreted as a half graben active sedimentary basin created from the NS-trending compression and EW-trending extension of the hinterland of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. The basin has recorded the Late Cenozoic uplifting of the Plateau and lateral shearing and expulsion, and is always controlled by the Tanggulabingzhan boundary fault. The middle Pleistocene (224.0-150.2 ka BP) glacial deposits and glaciofluvial deposits represented by the basin as a fault basin was responded to the third phase of the uplifting of the Plateau. During the late stage of the middle Pleistocene to the early stage of the late Pleistocene (144.0-56 ka BP), the lacustrine deposits were accentuated in the basin. From the middle stage of the late Pleistocene to the present (35-0 ka BP), the Plateau has long been subjected to slow uplifting and peneplanation.