Deciphering mantle, tectonic and climatic drivers of exhumation
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Date
2025
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Boone, S.C.
Glorie, S.
Zahirovic, S.
Nixon, A.
Meeuws, F.
Kohlmann, F.
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Communications Earth & Environment, 2025; 6(1):1015-1-1015-14
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Samuel C. Boone, Stijn Glorie, Sabin Zahirovic, Angus Nixon, Fun Meeuws, Fabian Kohlmann
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Abstract
Regional thermochronology provides an important record of crustal exhumation through deep time. However, untangling the myriad of geodynamic, tectonic, climatic and surface processes responsible for long-term upper crustal cooling is often hindered by thermochronology data being conventionally interpreted in a static geographic framework. Here, we present a workflow for interpreting thermochronology data and thermal history models via integration with numerical plate tectonic, mantle convection, and paleoclimate reconstructions. Using a compilation of inverse thermal history models from Central Asia, based on fission-track and (U-Th)/He data, we demonstrate the power of placing thermochronology data in their paleogeographic context to untangle the geodynamic, tectonic and climate drivers of exhumation. This shows that the diachronous Mesozoic-to-recent (230-0Ma) exhumation history of Central Asia was primarily controlled by reactivation of pre-Mesozoic crustal-scale shear zones in response to plate kinematics and Tethyan subduction dynamics, while dynamic topography and changes in paleoprecipitation played relatively insignificant roles.
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© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.