A research team from the Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at Chinese Academy of Sciences has carried out the Thunderstorms and Lightning Observation Experiment in Lhasa (about 3650 meter above sea level) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) for two consecutive summers. The IAP team had observed 25 thunderstorms over the downtown area of Lhasa before wrapping up the campaign on August 21.
The latest study conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revised the uplift chronology of the Lunpola Basin in the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Chinese scientists have for the first time accurately measured and established the Cenozoic stratigraphic chronology of Lunpola Basin from about 41 million to 21.5 million years ago. They pointed out that the basin was lower than 2.3 km 40 million years ago and might not have reached 3.5 to 4.5 km until 26 million to 21 million years ago.
The total water reserves of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are estimated to be more than nine trillion cubic meters, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said on Tuesday. The research is part of China's second comprehensive scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
During the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition in Tibet, an international research team from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology discovered a highly diverse fossil assemblage from the current elevation of ~4,850 m in the Bangor Basin in central Tibet. The fossils characterize a luxuriant seasonally wet and warm Shangri-La forest that once occupied a deep central Tibetan valley along the Banggong-Nujiang Suture (BNS).
Chinese paleontologists have determined that subtropical forests once existed on the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau about 47 million years ago, according to a paper published on Tuesday. The conclusion was drawn based on the large number of fossils found in the Baingoin Basin at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters during the second comprehensive scientific expedition to the plateau.
researchers reporting on November 20 have found that, in places where the herb is harvested more, the plant has evolved to blend in better with the background, making them harder for people to find. As a result, the plant varies in color from brown or grey to green, depending on whether it lives in a place that is frequented by human collectors or not.
86-10-68597521 (day)
86-10-68597289 (night)
86-10-68511095 (day)
86-10-68512458 (night)
cas_en@cas.cn
52 Sanlihe Rd., Xicheng District,
Beijing, China (100864)