Geological heritage of Hoh Xil in Qinghai and its tectonic evolution

Hoh Xil in Qinghai has undergone complicated tectonic evolution and surface process since Carboniferous. Some plateau and alpine landforms were formed by these geological processes, such as high mountains, broad valleys, planation surfaces, glaciers, hot springs, rivers and lakes. In addition, Hoh Xil has preserved some geological heritages, like ophiolitic mélange zone, fault zones, earthquake sites and volcanoes. In this paper, the authors divided geological heritages of Hoh Xil in Qinghai into seven types, i.e., geological structure, volcanic systems, mountains systems, stratigraphic sites, fluvial and lacustrine systems, glaciers, and ice ages site, which constitute more than sixty sites of geological heritages in accordance with IUCN (2005), based on geological field survey and previous studies. The results show that the study of geological heritages in Hoh Xil of Qinghai has important geoscience significance in reconstructing ancient Tethys and investigating the mechanism of earthquake, the uplift process of the Tibetan Plateau and the relevant global climate change. Eight tectonic evolution stages of Hoh Xil from Carboniferous to Quaternary were recognized on the basis of geological heritages in Hoh Xil area.