A review on regressive time in southwest Tarim Basin and its forming mechanism

The withdrawal the sea water from the Neo-Tethys in the west part of Tarim Basin brought about significant impacts to the Central Asia on basin-mountain coupling, sea-land distribution and associated aridification, and even the drastic changes of climate in the whole Asia. Therefore, it has been remained a key issue in the study of Cenozoic tectonics and climate in the region. On the basis of the data collected from the low temperature thermochronology, geophysics, sedimentology, and paleomagnetic chronology studies around the southwest Tarim Basin, this paper devotes to the description of geological background about the West Kunlun orogenic belt, Pamir Plateau, Tarim Basin, and the Neo-tethys, summarized the spatiotemporal relationship between the Tarim Basin and Pamir-West Kunlun, and reviewed the time of regression in the southwest Tarim Basin. After analyzing the mechanism about the sea water retreating from the southwest Tarim Basin, we suggest that the final sea water regression since the early-middle Eocene owes its origin to tectonic processes.