Abstract:

 Based on the detrital zircon fissiontrack age analysis on the northern foot of the western Kunlun Mountains, we plotted out 8 ranges of peak values, P1: since 47 Ma, P2: 139 Ma, P3: 2418 Ma, P4: 4733 Ma, P5: 7957 Ma, P6: 131103 Ma, P7: 185180 Ma, P8: 267235 Ma; all the peaks resulted from the periodical uplift and thermal events. The main control factor of P8 and P5 are thermal events; and that of P6, P4, P3, P2, P1 are uplift and exhumation; the cause of P7 is unsure. The consistency of a series of important tectonic events and associated intensive regional fault activities reveal that the fissiontrack peaks recorded important tectonic events  around the western Kunlun Mountains and adjacent regions; among them, the uplifts of west and east tectonic syntaxes of the Tibetan plateau since the late Cretaceous are similar, which reflects that the Tibetan plateau underwent similar periodical uplifts since the collision between Indian and Eurasian plates. The continuous depositional succession  of Kekeya reveals that 47 Ma was the beginning of the last large scale uplift, and it shows that the fissiontrack age trend evolved since the Pliocene from diversity to simplicity and from irregularity to becoming younger in these regions. It implies that the uplifts behaved as an integration and  36 Ma was  the turning point of uplift process, since then the uplift and exhumation rate had been accelerated, most of the basement rocks began to outcrop onto the surface and the western Kunlun Mountains became  the obstacle to the currents from the south.

Key words: the Western Kunlun, detrital zircon, fission track, peak values, uplift