{"id":255685,"date":"2026-01-24T17:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/255685\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:33:21","slug":"lost-ocean-may-hold-clues-to-central-asias-mountain-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/255685\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Ocean May Hold Clues to Central Asia\u2019s Mountain Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

SciTechDaily highlights that researchers from Adelaide University suggest that a long-lost ocean could explain the formation of Central Asia\u2019s mountains. Their study explores how the disappearance of this ancient ocean shaped the region\u2019s geology, offering new insights into the origins of its towering mountain ranges.<\/p>\n

A vanished ocean may have helped sculpt Central Asia\u2019s mountains, The Caspian Post<\/a> reports via SciTechDaily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Geologists from the University of Adelaide report that the forces shaping Central Asia <\/a>during the age of dinosaurs may have originated far from the region itself. Their research points to the ancient Tethys Ocean as an unexpected influence on the rise and fall of mountains across the continent during the Cretaceous period.<\/p>\n

Rather than relying on a single dataset, the scientists combined hundreds of previously published thermal history models created over roughly three decades of research in Central Asia<\/a>. By treating this vast archive as a unified dataset, they were able to trace long-term geological patterns that individual studies could not easily reveal.<\/p>\n

Rethinking Established Explanations<\/p>\n

Central Asia<\/a>\u2019s rugged terrain is commonly explained as the outcome of interacting tectonic movements, shifting climates, and processes deep within Earth\u2019s mantle acting over the last 250 million years. The new findings suggest this picture may be incomplete, especially when it comes to the role of climate and mantle activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that climate change and mantle processes had only little influence on the Central Asian<\/a> landscape, which persisted in an arid climate for much of the last 250 million years,\u201d said Dr Sam Boone, who was a post-doctoral researcher at Adelaide University when the research was conducted.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, the dynamics of the distant Tethys Ocean can directly be correlated with short-lived periods of mountain building in Central Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, the Tethys Ocean stretched between major landmasses and played a central role in global plate motions. Its gradual closure during the Meso-Cenozoic period, which spans the last 250 million years, set off tectonic changes that rippled across Eurasia. Although the ocean itself has vanished, with only the Mediterranean Sea remaining, its influence appears to be preserved in the ancient mountains of Central Asia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mountain Building Before the Himalayas<\/p>\n

\u201cThe present-day relief of Central Asia was largely built by the India-Eurasia collision and ongoing convergence,\u201d said co-author Associate Professor Stijn Glorie, from Adelaide University\u2019s School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences.<\/p>\n

\"Latest<\/p>\n

Credit: Stijn Glorie<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, during the Cretaceous periods, dinosaurs would have seen a mountainous landscape as well, similar to the present-day Basin-and-Range Province in the western USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is thought that the extension in the Tethys, due to roll-back of subducting slabs of ocean crust, reactivated old suture zones into a series of roughly parallel ridges in Central Asia, up to thousands of kilometers away from the Himalaya collision zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlocking Geological Histories With Thermal Models<\/p>\n

The study relied on thermal history models that enabled the research team to uncover geological processes and stages of Earth\u2019s development that had not been identified before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese models were constructed using thermochronology methods and reveal how rocks cooled down when they are brought towards the surface during mountain uplift and subsequent erosion,\u201d Associate Professor Glorie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe analyzed a compilation of thermal history models in function of plate-tectonic models for the Tethys Ocean evolution, as well as deep-time precipitation and mantle-convection models.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applying the Approach Beyond Central Asia<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Glorie, whose study was published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, said the same approach could be applied to other areas of the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many parts on the planet where the drivers and timing for mountain building and\/or rifting are poorly understood. For example, closer to home, the breakup history of Australia from Antarctica is somewhat enigmatic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia drifted away about 80 million years ago, but there is no obvious imprint of this in the thermal history record of either the Antarctic or Australian plate margins. Instead, they record much older cooling histories.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are applying the same approach as used in Central Asia to advance understanding of Australia-Antarctica break-up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SciTechDaily highlights that researchers from Adelaide University suggest that a long-lost ocean could explain the formation of Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[111023,85,46,141],"class_list":{"0":"post-255685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-caspian-post","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}