Paleosalinity evolution of the Paleogene perennial Qaidam lake on the Tibetan Plateau: climatic vs. tectonic control

As the largest Cenozoic terrestrial intermountain basin in the Tibetan Plateau, the Qaidam Basin is an ideal basin to understand the coupling controls of tectonics and climate on plateau lake evolution. More than 10,000 data of chloride content from the Paleogene sediments of the endorheic Qaidam Basin have been collected to monitor changes in lake paleosalinity. Results show that there were two prominent salinity increase events in the...