The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated
plateau
In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...
located at the intersection of
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
,
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
and
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
covering most of the
Tibet Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...
, most of
Qinghai
Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...
, western half of
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
, Southern
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
provinces in
Western China
Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality ( Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), and three autonomous re ...
, southern
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
, the
Indian regions of
Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...
and
Lahaul and Spiti (
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
) as well as
Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory, and constituting the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region which has been the subject of a dispute bet ...
in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, northwestern
Nepal
Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne,
सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
, eastern
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
and southern
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...
. It stretches approximately north to south and east to west. It is the world's highest and largest plateau above sea level, with an area of (about five times the size of
Metropolitan France
Metropolitan France (french: France métropolitaine or ''la Métropole''), also known as European France (french: Territoire européen de la France) is the area of France which is geographically in Europe. This collective name for the European ...
). With an average elevation exceeding and being surrounded by imposing mountain ranges that harbor the world's two highest summits,
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
and
K2, the Tibetan Plateau is often referred to as "the
Roof of the World
The Roof of the World or Top of the World is a metaphoric epithet or phrase used to describe the high region in the world, also known as High Asia. The term usually refers to the mountainous interior of Asia, including the Pamirs, the Himalayas, ...
".
The Tibetan Plateau contains the
headwaters
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
The ...
of the
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
s of most of the streams and rivers in surrounding regions. This includes the three longest rivers in Asia (the Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong). Its tens of thousands of
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s and other geographical and ecological features serve as a "water tower" storing water and maintaining
flow. It is sometimes termed the
Third Pole
The Third Pole, also known as the Hindu Kush-Karakoram- Himalayan system (HKKH), is a mountainous region west and south of the Tibetan Plateau. Part of High-Mountain Asia, it spreads over an area of more than across nine countries, i.e. Afghanist ...
because its ice fields contain the largest reserve of fresh water outside the polar regions. The impact of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
on the Tibetan Plateau is of ongoing scientific interest.
Description
The Tibetan Plateau is surrounded by the massive mountain ranges of
high-mountain Asia
High-Mountain Asia (HMA) is a high-elevation geographic region in Asia that includes numerous cordillera and highland systems around the Tibetan Plateau, encompassing regions of East, Southeast, Central and South Asia. The region was orogenically ...
. The plateau is bordered to the south by the
inner Himalayan range, to the north by the
Kunlun Mountains
The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...
, which separate it from the
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
, and to the northeast by the
Qilian Mountains
The Qilian Mountains (, also romanized as Tsilien; Mongghul: Chileb), together with the Altyn-Tagh (Altun Shan) also known as Nan Shan (, literally "Southern Mountains"), as it is to the south of Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunlu ...
, which separate the plateau from the
Hexi Corridor
The Hexi Corridor (, Xiao'erjing: حْسِ ظِوْلاْ, IPA: ), also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relativ ...
and
Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world.
Geography
The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...
. To the east and southeast the plateau gives way to the forested gorge and ridge geography of the mountainous headwaters of the
Salween
, ''Mae Nam Salawin'' (
, name_etymology =
, image = Sweet_View_of_Salween_River_in_Tang_Yan_Township,_Shan_State,_Myanmar.jpg
, image_size =
, image_caption = Salween River in Shan State, Myanmar
, map ...
,
Mekong
The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of rivers by length, twelfth longest river and List of longest rivers of Asia, the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , ...
, and
Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
rivers in northwest
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...
and western
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
(the
Hengduan Mountains). In the west, the curve of the rugged
Karakoram
The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
range of northern
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
embraces the plateau. The
Indus River
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
originates in the western Tibetan Plateau in the vicinity of
Lake Manasarovar
Lake Manasarovar (Sanskrit: मानसरोवर), also called Mapam Yutso (;) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The l ...
.
![Aba County Aba Prefecture Sichuan China](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Aba_County_Aba_Prefecture_Sichuan_China.jpg)
The Tibetan Plateau is bounded in the north by a broad escarpment where the altitude drops from around to over a horizontal distance of less than . Along the escarpment is a range of mountains. In the west, the
Kunlun Mountains
The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...
separate the plateau from the Tarim Basin. About halfway across the Tarim the bounding range becomes the
Altyn-Tagh
Altyn-Tagh (also Altun Mountains, Altun Shan; , Pinyin: ''A'erjin Shan'', Wade–Giles: ''A-erh-chin Shan;'' Uyghur'':ئالتۇن تاغ'') is a mountain range in Northwestern China that separates the Eastern Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Plate ...
and the Kunluns, by convention, continue somewhat to the south. In the 'V' formed by this split is the western part of the
Qaidam Basin. The Altyn-Tagh ends near the Dangjin pass on the
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...
–
Golmud
Golmud, also known by various other romanizations, is a county-level city in the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai Province, China. It is now the second-largest city in Qinghai and the third largest in the Tibetan Pl ...
road. To the west are short ranges called the Danghe, Yema, Shule, and Tulai Nanshans. The easternmost range is the Qilian Mountains. The line of mountains continues east of the plateau as the
Qinling
The Qinling () or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Yellow ...
, which separates the
Ordos Plateau
The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin or simply the Ordos, is a highland sedimentary basin in northwest China with an elevation of , and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the Ordos Loop, a large northerly rectangular bend of the Y ...
from Sichuan. North of the mountains runs the Gansu or
Hexi Corridor
The Hexi Corridor (, Xiao'erjing: حْسِ ظِوْلاْ, IPA: ), also known as the Gansu Corridor, is an important historical region located in the modern western Gansu province of China. It refers to a narrow stretch of traversable and relativ ...
which was the main silk-road route from
China proper
China proper, Inner China, or the Eighteen Provinces is a term used by some Western writers in reference to the "core" regions of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China. This term is used to express a distinction between the "core" regions popu ...
to the West.
The plateau is a high-altitude arid
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
interspersed with mountain ranges and large
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...
lakes. Annual precipitation ranges from and falls mainly as hail. The southern and eastern edges of the steppe have grasslands that can sustainably support populations of nomadic herdsmen, although frost occurs for six months of the year.
Permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
occurs over extensive parts of the plateau. Proceeding to the north and northwest, the plateau becomes progressively higher, colder, and drier, until reaching the remote
Changtang
The Changtang (alternatively spelled Changthang or Qangtang) is a part of the high altitude Tibetan Plateau in western and northern Tibet extending into the southern edges of Xinjiang as well as southeastern Ladakh, India, with vast highlands and g ...
region in the northwestern part of the plateau. Here the average altitude exceeds and winter temperatures can drop to . As a result of this extremely inhospitable environment, the Changthang region (together with the adjoining Kekexili region) is the least populous region in Asia and the third least populous area in the world after Antarctica and northern Greenland.
Geology and geological history
![Yamdrok Lake, Tibet 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Yamdrok_Lake%2C_Tibet_2.jpg)
The geological history of the Tibetan Plateau is closely related to that of the Himalayas. The Himalayas belong to the
Alpine Orogeny and are therefore among the younger mountain ranges on the planet, consisting mostly of uplifted
sedimentary
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic matter, organic particles at Earth#Surface, Earth's surface, followed by cementation (geology), cementation. Sedimentati ...
and
metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causin ...
. Their formation is a result of a
continental collision
In geology, continental collision is a phenomenon of plate tectonics that occurs at convergent boundaries. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains prod ...
or
orogeny
Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted t ...
along the
convergent boundary
A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more Plate tectonics, lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can ...
between the
Indo-Australian Plate
The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...
and the
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...
.
The collision began in the
Upper Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...
period about 70 million years ago, when the north-moving
Indo-Australian Plate
The Indo-Australian Plate is a major tectonic plate that includes the continent of Australia and the surrounding ocean and extends northwest to include the Indian subcontinent and the adjacent waters. It was formed by the fusion of the Indian an ...
, moving at about per year, collided with the
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...
. About 50 million years ago, this fast-moving Indo-Australian plate had completely closed the
Tethys Ocean
The Tethys Ocean ( el, Τηθύς ''Tēthús''), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean that covered most of the Earth during much of the Mesozoic Era and early Cenozoic Era, located between the ancient continents ...
, the existence of which has been determined by
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
s settled on the ocean floor, and the
volcano
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...
es that fringed its edges. Since these sediments were light, they crumpled into mountain ranges rather than sinking to the floor.
Palaeobotanical evidence indicates that Tibet remained a tropical or subtropical
lowland
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of ...
until the latest
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
or
Early Miocene
The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages.
The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was prece ...
.
The age of east-west grabens in the Lhasa and Himalaya terranes suggests that the plateau's elevation was close to its modern altitude by around 14 to 8 million years ago. The Indo-Australian plate continues to be driven horizontally below the Tibetan Plateau, which forces the plateau to move upwards; the plateau is still
rising at a rate of approximately per year (although erosion reduces the actual increase in height).
Much of the Tibetan Plateau is of relatively low relief. The cause of this is debated among geologists. Some argue that the Tibetan Plateau is an uplifted
peneplain
390px, Sketch of a hypothetical peneplain formation after an orogeny.
In geomorphology and geology, a peneplain is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion. This is the definition in the broadest of terms, albeit with frequency the usage ...
formed at low altitude, while others argue that the low relief stems from
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
and
infill
In urban planning, infill, or in-fill, is the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open-space, to new construction. Infill also applies, within an urban polity, to construction on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban mar ...
of topographic depressions that occurred at already high elevations.
The current tectonics of the plateau is much debated. The two end-member models are the block model, in which the crust of the plateau is formed of several blocks with little internal deformation separated by major
strike-slip fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
s. In the alternative continuum model, the plateau is affected by distributed deformation resulting from flow within the crust.
Environment
![YangpachenValley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/YangpachenValley.jpg)
The Tibetan Plateau supports a variety of ecosystems, most of them classified as
montane
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...
grasslands. While parts of the plateau feature an
alpine tundra
Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...
-like environment, other areas feature monsoon-influenced shrublands and forests.
Species diversity
Species diversity is the number of different species that are represented in a given community (a dataset). The effective number of species refers to the number of equally abundant species needed to obtain the same mean proportional species abundan ...
is generally reduced on the plateau due to the elevation and low precipitation. The Tibetan Plateau hosts the
Tibetan wolf
The Himalayan wolf (''Canis lupus chanco'') is a canine of debated taxonomy. It is distinguished by its genetic markers, with mitochondrial DNA indicating that it is genetically basal to the Holarctic gray wolf, genetically the same wolf as the ...
, and species of
snow leopard
The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a Felidae, felid in the genus ''Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia, Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red ...
,
wild yak
The wild yak (''Bos mutus'') is a large, wild bovine native to the Himalayas. It is the ancestor of the domestic yak (''Bos grunniens'').
Taxonomy
The ancestor of the wild and domestic yak is thought to have diverged from ''Bos primigenius'' ...
,
wild donkey, cranes, vultures, hawks, geese, snakes, and
water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called the domestic water buffalo or Asian water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, North America, So ...
. One notable animal is the
high-altitude jumping spider, that can live at elevations of over .
Ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
s found on the Tibetan Plateau, as defined by the
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
, are as follows:
* The
Pamir alpine desert and tundra
The Pamir alpine desert and tundra ecoregion (WWF ID: PA1014) covers the high plateau of the Pamir Mountains, at the central meeting of the great mountain ranges of Central Asia: Himalaya, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Kunlun, and Tian Shan. It is a r ...
covers the western end of the Tibetan Plateau where it transitions to the
Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
* The
North Tibetan Plateau–Kunlun Mountains alpine desert covers the northwestern limits of the Tibetan Plateau along the
Kunlun Mountains
The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...
* The
Karakoram–West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe covers the westernmost parts of the Tibetan Plateau and
Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...
* The
Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
The Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion of the elevations of the northwestern Himalaya of China, India, and Pakistan.
Setting
Northwestern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows cover ...
on the edges mountains bordering the extreme west of the Tibetan Plateau
* The
Central Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe
The Central Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe ecoregion (WWF ID: PA1002) covers the high alpine plateau that stretches over across the Tibetan Plateau to Qinghai Lake in China. Because of the high altitude—much it over —the region is a cold, ar ...
covers most of the central portions of the Tibetan Plateau and the eastern
Changtang
The Changtang (alternatively spelled Changthang or Qangtang) is a part of the high altitude Tibetan Plateau in western and northern Tibet extending into the southern edges of Xinjiang as well as southeastern Ladakh, India, with vast highlands and g ...
* The
Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
The Western Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion of Nepal, India, and Tibet, which lies between the tree line and snow line in the western portion of the Himalaya Range.
Setting
The Western Himalayan ...
covers the southwestern plateau in the
Garuda Valley
Garuda (Sanskrit: ; Pāli: ; Vedic Sanskrit: गरुळ Garuḷa) is a Hindu demigod and divine creature mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. He is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. Garuda is a ...
region
* The
Qaidam Basin semi-desert located in the
Qaidam Basin on the northern Tibetan Plateau
* The
Qilian Mountains subalpine meadows
The Qilian Mountains subalpine meadows ecoregion (WWF ID: PA1015) covers the high meadows and shrubland of the Qilian Mountains, on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in central China. These mountains form a divide between the dry reg ...
covering the
Qilian Mountains
The Qilian Mountains (, also romanized as Tsilien; Mongghul: Chileb), together with the Altyn-Tagh (Altun Shan) also known as Nan Shan (, literally "Southern Mountains"), as it is to the south of Hexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of the Kunlu ...
in the northernmost portions of the plateau
* The
Qilian Mountains conifer forests
The Qilian Mountains Conifer Forests ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0517) is an ecoregion that consists of a series of isolated conifer forests on the northern slopes of the Qilian Mountain Range, on the northeast edge of the Tibetan Plateau in central Chi ...
covering parts of the mountain ranges in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau
* The
Tibetan Plateau alpine shrublands and meadows
The Tibetan Plateau alpine shrublands and meadows ecoregion covers the middle transition zone between the northern and southern regions of the Tibetan Plateau. The region supports both cold alpine steppe and meadows across a broad expanse of the ...
covering a swath of the central and northeastern Tibetan Plateau
* The
Yarlung Tsangpo arid steppe in the
Yarlung Tsangpo
The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () is the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The upper section is also called D ...
river Valley, where most of the permanent human population on the Tibetan Plateau lives
* The
Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows
The Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion of Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, and Nepal, which lies between the tree line and snow line in the eastern portion of the Himalaya Range.
Setting
T ...
cover the southern Tibetan Plateau on the north side of the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
* The
Southeast Tibet shrub and meadows
The Southeast Tibet shrub and meadows are a montane grassland ecoregion that cover the southeast and eastern parts of the Tibetan Plateau in China. The meadows in this region of Tibet are in the path of the monsoon rains and are wetter than the ...
cover the southeastern and eastern parts of the plateau and are generally rainier than the other high-altitude Tibetan Plateau regions
* The
Northeastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests
The Northeastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion of the middle to upper elevations of the eastern Himalayas and southeast Tibetan Plateau. The ecoregion occurs in southeastern Tibet Autonomous Reg ...
reach up mountain valleys in the southern plateau and contain some of the highest altitude forests in the world
* The
Nujiang Lancang Gorge alpine conifer and mixed forests
The Nujiang Lancang Gorge alpine conifer and mixed forests are a temperate coniferous forests ecoregion in Southwest China and northeastern Myanmar. The forests cover mountains and valleys in the western Hengduan Mountains and because of the ex ...
cover the mountain valleys that reach into the southeastern Tibetan Plateau
* The
Hengduan Mountains subalpine conifer forests
The Hengduan Mountains subalpine conifer forests are a temperate forest in the Hengduan Mountains of southwestern China. The forests extend within the Jinsha (upper Yangtze) and Yalong River valleys from approximately 32°N to 27°N. In addi ...
cover the southeasternmost mountain valleys on the plateau
* The
Qionglai–Minshan conifer forests cover the eastern edges of the plateau and are the densest forests to be found anywhere on the Tibetan Plateau
Human history
Nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
s on the Tibetan Plateau and in the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
are the remainders of nomadic practices historically once widespread in Asia and Africa. Pastoral nomads constitute about 40% of the ethnic
Tibetan
Tibetan may mean:
* of, from, or related to Tibet
* Tibetan people, an ethnic group
* Tibetan language:
** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard
** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...
population. The presence of nomadic peoples on the plateau is predicated on their adaptation to survival on the world's
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
by raising livestock rather than crops, which are unsuitable to the terrain. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest human occupation of the plateau occurred between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. Since colonization of the Tibetan Plateau, Tibetan culture has adapted and flourished in the western, southern, and eastern regions of the plateau. The northern portion, the
Changtang
The Changtang (alternatively spelled Changthang or Qangtang) is a part of the high altitude Tibetan Plateau in western and northern Tibet extending into the southern edges of Xinjiang as well as southeastern Ladakh, India, with vast highlands and g ...
, is generally too high and cold to support permanent population.
One of the most notable civilizations to have developed on the Tibetan Plateau is the
Tibetan Empire
The Tibetan Empire (, ; ) was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 38 ...
from the 7th century to the 9th century AD.
Impact on other regions
Role in monsoons
![Jewel-Toned Lakes of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Jewel-Toned_Lakes_of_the_Qinghai-Tibet_Plateau.jpg)
Monsoons are caused by the different amplitudes of surface temperature seasonal cycles between land and oceans. This differential warming occurs because heating rates differ between land and water. Ocean heating is distributed vertically through a "mixed layer" that may be 50 meters deep through the action of wind and buoyancy-generated
turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
, whereas the land surface conducts heat slowly, with the seasonal signal penetrating only a meter or so. Additionally, the
specific heat capacity
In thermodynamics, the specific heat capacity (symbol ) of a substance is the heat capacity of a sample of the substance divided by the mass of the sample, also sometimes referred to as massic heat capacity. Informally, it is the amount of heat t ...
of liquid water is significantly greater than that of most materials that make up land. Together, these factors mean that the heat capacity of the layer participating in the seasonal cycle is much larger over the oceans than over land, with the consequence that the land warms and cools faster than the ocean. In turn, air over the land warms faster and reaches a higher temperature than does air over the ocean.
[Oracle Thinkquest Education Foundation]
monsoons: causes of monsoons.
Retrieved on 22 May 2008. The warmer air over land tends to rise, creating an area of
low pressure
In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...
. The pressure anomaly then causes a steady wind to blow toward the land, which brings the moist air over the ocean surface with it. Rainfall is then increased by the presence of the moist ocean air. The rainfall is stimulated by a variety of mechanisms, such as low-level air being lifted upwards by mountains, surface heating, convergence at the surface, divergence aloft, or from storm-produced outflows near the surface. When such lifting occurs, the air cools due to expansion in lower pressure, which in turn produces
condensation
Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle. It can also be defined as the change in the state of water vapor to ...
and precipitation.
In winter, the land cools off quickly, but the ocean maintains the heat longer. The hot air over the ocean rises, creating a low-pressure area and a breeze from land to ocean while a large area of drying high pressure is formed over the land, increased by wintertime cooling.
Monsoons are similar to
sea and land breezes, a term usually referring to the localized,
diurnal cycle
A diurnal cycle (or diel cycle) is any pattern that recurs every 24 hours as a result of one full rotation of the planet Earth around its axis. Earth's rotation causes surface temperature fluctuations throughout the day and night, as well as w ...
of circulation near coastlines everywhere, but they are much larger in scale, stronger and seasonal. The seasonal monsoon wind shift and weather associated with the heating and cooling of the Tibetan plateau is the strongest such monsoon on Earth.
Glaciology: the Ice Age and at present
![Tibet Midui Glacier,Autumn colour](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Tibet_Midui_Glacier%2CAutumn_colour.jpg)
Today, Tibet is an important heating surface of the atmosphere. However, during the
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...
, an approximately ice sheet covered the plateau.
[
See chapter entitled: "Reconstruction of an approximately complete Quaternary Tibetan Inland Glaciation between the Mt. Everest and Cho Oyu Massifs and the Aksai Chin. – A new glaciogeomorphological southeast-northwest diagonal profile through Tibet and its consequences for the glacial isostasy and Ice Age cycle".] Due to its great extent, this glaciation in the subtropics was an important element of
radiative forcing
Radiative forcing (or climate forcing) is the change in energy flux in the atmosphere caused by natural or anthropogenic factors of climate change as measured by watts / metre2. It is a scientific concept used to quantify and compare the external ...
. With a much lower latitude, the ice in Tibet reflected at least four times more radiation energy per unit area into space than ice at higher
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
s. Thus, while the modern plateau heats the overlying atmosphere, during the Last Ice Age it helped to cool it.
This cooling had multiple effects on regional climate. Without the
thermal low
Thermal lows, or heat lows, are non-frontal low-pressure areas that occur over the continents in the subtropics during the warm season, as the result of intense heating when compared to their surrounding environments.Glossary of Meteorology (200 ...
pressure caused by the heating, there was no
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
over the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. This lack of monsoon caused
extensive rainfall over the
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
, expansion of the
Thar Desert
The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's Li ...
, more dust deposited into the
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...
, and a lowering of the
biotic life zones on the Indian subcontinent. Animals responded to this shift in climate, with the
Javan rusa migrating into India.
In addition, the glaciers in Tibet created
meltwater lakes in the
Qaidam Basin, the
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
, and the
Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world.
Geography
The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...
, despite the strong evaporation caused by the low latitude.
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...
and clay from the glaciers accumulated in these lakes; when the lakes dried at the end of the ice age, the silt and clay were
blown by the
downslope wind off the Plateau. These airborne fine grains produced the enormous amount of
loess
Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
in the Chinese lowlands.
[
]
Effects of climate change
The Tibetan Plateau contains the world's third-largest store of ice. Qin Dahe, the former head of the China Meteorological Administration
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) is the national weather service of the People's Republic of China. The institution is located in Beijing.
History
The agency was originally established in December 1949 as the Central Military Commi ...
, issued the following assessment in 2009, though this opinion is now over a decade old:
See also
* Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China
Tibet came under the control of People's Republic of China (PRC) after the Government of Tibet signed the Seventeen Point Agreement which the 14th Dalai Lama ratified on 24 October 1951, but later repudiated on the grounds that he rendered his ...
* Bayan Har block
The Bayan Har block or Bayan Kola block is an elongate wedge-shaped block that forms part of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. It is bounded to the southeast by the Longmenshan Fault, a major thrust fault zone, which forms the active tectonic boundary b ...
* Central Tibetan Administration
The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, compo ...
* Geography of Tibet
The geography of Tibet consists of the high mountains, lakes and rivers lying between Central, East and South Asia. Traditionally, Western (European and American) sources have regarded Tibet as being in Central Asia, though today's maps show a t ...
* Geology of the Himalaya
The geology of the Himalayas is a record of the most dramatic and visible creations of the immense mountain range formed by plate tectonic forces and sculpted by weathering and erosion. The Himalayas, which stretch over 2400 km between t ...
* Tibet (1912–1951)
Tibet was a ''de facto'' independent state between the collapse of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in 1912 and its annexation by the People's Republic of China in 1951.
;
The Tibetan Ganden Phodrang regime was a protectorate of the Qing dynasty ...
* Tibetan culture
Tibet developed a distinct culture due to its geographic and climatic conditions. While influenced by neighboring cultures from China, India, and Nepal, the Himalayas, Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinc ...
* Tibetan sovereignty debate
The Tibetan sovereignty debate refers to two political debates. The first political debate is about whether or not the various territories which are within the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) that are claimed as political Tibet should separ ...
* Tibetan diaspora
The Tibetan diaspora are the diaspora of Tibetan people living outside Tibet.
Tibetan emigration has three separate stages. The first stage was in 1959 following the 14th Dalai Lama's defection to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, India. The s ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
External links
ON THINNER ICE 如履薄冰 (by GRIP, Asia Society and MediaStorm)
The Third Pole: Understanding Asia's Water Crisis
Long Rivers and Distant Sources
"Roof of the Earth" Offers Clues About How Our Planet Was Shaped
Plateau Perspectives (international NGO)
*
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070510185558/http://www.plateauperspectives.org/tibetan_PAs.htm Protected areas of the Tibetan Plateau region*
Photos of Tibetan nomads
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150201221817/http://www.thirdpolecast.com/ Contemporary lifestyle and language learning center from Tibet lhasa, the official language of Tibetan. podcast.
Tibetan History
The true history of any region cannot be fully understood without knowing the basic characteristics of a region and of its inhabitants
{{Authority control
Plateaus of Asia
Plateaus of China
Plateaus of India
Plateaus of Pakistan
Landforms of Tibet
Landforms of Jammu and Kashmir
Landforms of Ladakh
Landforms of Central Asia
Landforms of East Asia
Landforms of South Asia
Regions of Asia
Montane ecology
Physiographic provinces
Geology of the Himalaya