Relief Map of Tibet and Western China

Tectonic map

Tectonics of Lateral Displacement

Rock units are clearly shortened east-west and elongated north-south, and the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween drainages are compressed into a zone about one hundred miles across near the Tibet-Yunnan border. Rocks in this area are being thrust over the Sichuan Basin to the northeast and transported southeast of the Yangtze Platform along major strike slip faults

a huge amount of displacement occurs by shear within blocks

Earthquakes in Yunnan

Pre-platea uplift: dendritic drainage pattern

Geologic Map of the Mekong Headwaters Area

Canyons along the river are dominated by northwest trending ranges of massive Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic and Jurassic limestones such as those near the Zhi Xi La Wu Monastery. Photo by Mark Gamble

a typical exposure of Jurassic volcanic sediments.Photo by Scott Sanderson

The Source of the Mekong River, Qinghai. Photo from Tokyo University of Agriculture Archives, 1994

Gongga Shan (also called Minya Konga). Photo by Ben Foster

Qamdo. Tortured bedding. Mesozoic clastic sediments that become increasingly folded and faulted as one progresses downstream (falling off the Tibetan Plateau), and in places there are spectacular views of folded quartzite beds.Photo by Lui Li

the Mekong canyon gorge and the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon, which is also cut through Precambrian schist in a desert environment. Photo by Travis Winn

Geologic Map of SW YunnanMap produced by the Chinese Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources.

Dragon''s Teeth Rapids, which was caused by landslides from high on the south slope associated with two large earthqakes on the Nanding River fault system in 1988. Photo by David Hettig

The Mekong and Yangbi carry huge amounts of sediment from Tibet and Yunnan during monsoonal floods.Photo by Ben Foster

Red Button rapids. Photo by Steve Van Beek

Geologic Map of the Salween Headwaters Area.Map produced by the Chinese Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources

Salween glacial gravels.Photo by Travis Winn