The correlation analysis and continental dynamics significance of high-temperature geothermal areas from the eastern margin to central of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract

As one of the most developed high-temperature geothermal activity areas, the Tethys-Himalayan geothermal belt was strictly controlled by the structural system without the Neoid volcanic activities in the world. Accompanied with a large amount of hydrothermal activity and energy generation, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau had the greatest potential and concentration of high-temperature geothermal resources in mainland China. From the eastern margin to central of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there can be divided into three high-temperature geothermal areas: the western Sichuan geothermal area on eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (WSQT), the eastern Tibet geothermal area in the eastern Himalayan syntaxis field (ETHF), and the southern Tibet geothermal area in the central of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (STQT). On the basis of the geothermal distribution and development characteristics of the Tibetan plateau, this paper systematically summarizes the heat source and heat-controlling structures of the high temperature geothermal fields, and discusses the deep dynamic mechanism of the high-temperature hydrothermal activities in the context of the land-land collisional uplift process in the Tibetan Plateau.