@article{902307dcb7454072803f7da0be00c889,
title = "Late Cretaceous drainage reorganization of the Middle Yangtze River",
abstract = "The middle reach of the Yangtze River experienced significant drainage reorganization during the Mesozoic to Cenozoic tectonic evolution of South China. A continental-scale, westward-flowing axial river, or paleo-Middle Yangtze, formed following the Mesozoic collision between the North China and South China blocks. The river later flowed to the east as a result of the Cenozoic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, but its reversal history remains largely unknown. Changes in detrital zircon U-Pb ages of Mesozoic to Cenozoic strata in the Three Gorges region identify a vital provenance shift in the sediments of the paleo-Middle Yangtze. Combined with paleocurrent measurements and petrography, our results indicate that the paleo-Middle Yangtze initially reversed during the late Cretaceous, followed by progressive westward capturing in the Eocene. This conclusion provides a paleogeographic explanation for the limited exposures of Upper Cretaceous to Cenozoic rocks in the Sichuan Basin and refutes the {"}drainage divide{"} hypothesis for the Three Gorges.",
author = "Ping Wang and Hongbo Zheng and Shaofeng Liu and Gregory Hoke",
note = "Funding Information: Feng Pan, Tangjun Gao, Kai Wang, Mingqing Hu, Xiaochun Wei, Lin Chen, Xinya Yao, Yingfeng Xu, and Yuliang Chen helped to collect the paleocurrent data and samples in the field. We thank Lindsay Schoenbohm and two anonymous reviewers for their careful review. Editor Kurt Stuewe is also thanked for helpful suggestions. This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41572154, 41102104, 40830107, and 41030318), Natural Science Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of Jiangsu Province (15KJB170005), and Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03020300). Ping Wang thanks the China Scholarship Council for supporting his time in residence at Syracuse University under visiting scholar award 201606865014 Funding Information: Feng Pan, Tangjun Gao, Kai Wang, Mingqing Hu, Xiaochun Wei, Lin Chen, Xinya Yao, Yingfeng Xu, and Yuliang Chen helped to collect the paleocurrent data and samples in the field. We thank Lindsay Schoenbohm and two anonymous reviewers for their careful review. Editor Kurt Stuewe is also thanked for helpful suggestions. This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41572154, 41102104, 40830107, and 41030318), Natural Science Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of Jiangsu Province (15KJB170005), and Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB03020300). Ping Wang thanks the China Scholarship Council for supporting his time in residence at Syracuse University under visiting scholar award 201606865014. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 The Authors.",
year = "2018",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1130/L695.1",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "10",
pages = "392--405",
journal = "Lithosphere",
issn = "1941-8264",
publisher = "Geological Society of America",
number = "3",
}