An Alternative Gas Cause and Mechanism for Uplifting Tibetan Plateau

Abstract:

Many researchers have examined the cause and mechanism for the uplift of Tibetan Plateau over last 50 million years. The isostasy is used to explain the negative values of the Bouguer gravity anomaly. The crustal thickness of the Tibetan Plateau becomes the thickest of the Earth. Such thick crust is further used by the hypothesis of plate tectonics for the collision and subduction of the Indian plate into and underneath the Eurasian plate, also used as the cause of the rapid uplifting of the plateau. Such crustal movement induces earthquakes using the hypothesis of elastic rebound theory of active geological faults. The uplifting and active seismicity of the plateau are used to explain the occurrences of huge landslides in the mountainous rock slopes. The hypothesis of organic material of ancient life for the fossil origin of petroleum and natural gas (CH4) is used to interpret the existence and presence of oil and gas in sedimentary basins surrounding and within the plateau.

This paper presents a new and alternative hypothesis of gas cause and mechanism to better interpret and explain these observations and facts associated with Tibetan Plateau. The hypothesis assumes that the liquid outer core of the Earth can generate and produce natural gas (CH4) mass every day and moment. According to thermodynamics, the natural gas mass has to seep into and through the mantle and accumulate at the bottom of the crustal rocks. The accumulation of the gas mass with high pressure would uplift individual portions of the crust of the Earth due to the heterogeneity of the crustal rocks. One of these uplifting portions forms the region of the Tibetan Plateau. The gas mass layer beneath the crustal rocks has lower density comparing to the crustal rocks, which causes the negative Bouguer gravity anomaly. The rupturing and leaking of the gas accumulated and pressurized along geological fault zones induce occurrences of earthquakes. The migrating and expansion of the compressed gas in mountainous rock slopes induce the occurrences of huge landslides. The migration and accumulation of natural gas in the sedimentary basins further transfer the basins into oil and gas fields. The mega-earthquake with magnitude of 8.1 that occurred on April 25, 2015 and near the capital city of Nepal is also used to illustrate the gas hypothesis.