A review and prospect of geological researches on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract：The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest, largest and youngest plateau in the world, known as the best natural laboratory for understanding continental geodynamics. The formation and evolution of the Tethys and the uplift of the plateau constitute two major themes in the study of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Of many scientific problems, eight have been reviewed in this paper, namely, the formation and evolution of the Tethys; Indo-Asia continental collision; the structure and composition of the crust/mantle of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; the origin of the extremely thick crust in the plateau; lateral deep crustal and asthenospheric mantle；mantle plumes; uplift and growth of the plateau；mineralization.