TIMING OF PALEOTOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOMORPHOLOGIC EVOLUTION AND PALEOTOPOGRAPHIC RECONSTRUCTION BY LOW-TEMPERATURE THERMOCHRONOLOGIC APPROACHES

Tectonism together with surface processes create terrain (topography and geomorphology), and thus paleotopographic reconstruction and geomorphologic studies are helpful to the understanding of these processes and their co-relationships. Usually geomorphological dating methods such as optically stimulated luminescence dating, thermoluminescence dating, radiocarbon dating, and magnetostratigraphy are used to qualitatively or semiquantitatively define the tectonic activation and climate change in the evolutionary history of geomorphology and topography. As mineral grains, such as apatite and zircon, are considered, low-temperature thermochronology is the choice to define the cooling age of the rocks. Popular applications of this method has contributed greatly to the study of tectonic-thermal history and provenance analysis as well as paleotopographic reconstruction. Here we first review the principles of low-temperature thermochronology and then illustrate the application of this method in the following fields related with paleotopography:(1) Timing of paleotopographic evolution and (2) Paleotopographic reconstruction. We also note that low-temperature thermochronometry with the lower closure temperature will be the important mean for resolving the problem on the evolution of shallow crust associated with surface processes.