By the end of this year, a geophysical work will be published by China Science Press in both Chinese and English, consisting of three volumes focusing respectively on the three geoscience transects on the North Tibetan Plateau, i.e., Geoscience transect from Baicheng, Xinjiang to Da Qaidam, Qinghai, China, Geoscience transect from Emin to Hami, Xinjiang, China, and Geoscience Transcet from Fuyun to Korla, Xinjiang, China. This work condenses the intelligence and hard work of Chinese geologists, in particular, ITP scientific staff headed by Prof. Zhao Junmeng. It also presents one of Prof. Zhao’s research achievements funded by the CAS Hundred Talents Program.

In the past three years’ research and in situ expedition, the research group led by Prof Zhao have taken a systematic measure to study the three geoscience transects on the North Plateau, yielding a deepened understanding and some innovative interpretations of the transects. Among them, they acquired a new understanding of the base structure of the Junggar basin and its geological features, and established thereupon a ‘model of lithospheric seductions with intrusion of layers into the crust’ for the Tianshan Orogenic Belt. They also proposed with reliable evidences the east-west division of the Tarim Basin and its inner structure. Above all, they found the interaction mechanism among the Tarim basin, Altyn Tagh Range and the Qaidam basin, which is the latest scientific understanding of the area.

To be critical and cautious about the interpretations of the geoscience transects on the Tibetan Plateau, a themed seminar was thus held at the ITP’s Beijing campus recently, inviting internationally acknowledged scholars as professors Li Tingdong, Xiao Xuchang, Teng Jiwen, Ma Zongjin and others. The participants all thought highly of the research work, considering it not only conducive to domestic exploration of the oil and natural gas in the superposed basins in Northwest China, but also to systematical study of the Tibetan Plateau uplift with a sound understanding of geological composition in northern boundary of the Plateau. Some valuable suggestions were also offered to improve certain geoscientific interpretations in concern.