Modeling the Response of Climate and Precipitation Oxygen Stable Isotopes to the Tectonic Development of the Indian Collision Zone during the Cenozoic

Tectonics-climate interaction as well as the impact of greenhouse forcing on climate has become a major focus of paleoclimate studies since the quarter of the century. The Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau owes its current height to the Cenozoic collision between Indian and Asian plates, since 55 Ma. However, the timing and rate of surface elevations remain controversial and its impact on Asian climate and the onset of monsoon systems is highly debated. Stable oxygen paleoaltimetry is considered to be a very efficient and widely applied technique, but has limitations from two sides: 1) the link between stable oxygen composition of precipitation and climate is not well established, 2) Cenozoic climate over Asia is poorly reconstructed. With a purpose of filling the gap in our knowledge of climate variability over Asia during the Cenozoic climate we use the atmospheric general circulation model LMDZ. Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene boundary conditions have been applied together with various scenarios of TP growth. The results of our numerical modeling show a significant influence of paleogeography on the Asian climate. Moreover, we use isotope-equipped atmospheric model LMDZ-iso for understanding the controlling factors of δ18O in precipitation. Experiments with reduced height over the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas have been designed. We develop a theoretical expression for the precipitation composition. In addition, realist Cenozoic boundary conditions together with isotope-equipped atmospheric model allowed reconstructing δ18O in paleoprecipitation for several periods during the Cenozoic, while comparison of simulated δ18O patterns with data from carbonate archives allowed revealing possible limitations of paleoelevation techniques based on stable oxygen isotopes.