Eocene Tibetan plateau remnants preserved in the northwest Himalaya

International audienceThe northwest Himalaya shows strongly contrasting relief. Deeply incised mountain ranges that are characterized by extremely rapid exhumation and some of the highest peaks in the world are in contrast with high-elevation, low-relief areas such as the Deosai plateau in northern Pakistan, which lies at an altitude of 4,000m. The origin and evolution of such plateau regions at the convergence of the most active continental collision in the world remain elusive. Here we report low-temperature thermochronology data from the Deosai plateau and use thermal history modelling to show that the plateau has undergone continuous slow denudation at rates below 250mMyr-1 for the past 35Myr at least. This finding suggests tectonic and morphologic stability of the plateau since at least Eocene times, only 15-20Myr after the onset of the India-Asia collision. Our work contradicts the hypothesis that widespread low-relief surfaces in the northwest Himalaya result from efficient kilometre-scale glacial erosion during Quaternary times. We show that similarly stable surfaces exist throughout the entire northwest Himalaya and share common morphologic characteristics and denudation histories, which are comparable to those of the western Tibetan plateau. Our results suggest that these surfaces are preserved remnants of an Eocene southwestern Tibetan plateau that was more extensive than today

Electrically conductive silicon oxycarbide thin films prepared from preceramic polymers

This work focuses on silicon oxycarbide thin film preparation and characterization. The Taguchi method of experimental design was used to optimize the process of film deposition. The prepared ceramic thin films with a thickness of c. 500 nm were characterized concerning their morphology, composition, and electrical properties. The molecular structure of the preceramic polymers used for the preparation of the ceramic thin films as well as the thermomechanical properties of the resulting SiOC significantly influenced the quality of the ceramic films. Thus, an increase in the content of carbon was found beneficial for the preparation of crack-free thin films. The obtained ceramic films exhibited increased electrical conductivity as compared to monolithic SiOC of similar chemical composition. This was shown to correlate with the unique hierarchical microstructure of the SiOC films, which contain large oxygen-depleted particles, mainly consisting of highly graphitized carbon and SiC, homogeneously dispersed in an oxygen-containing amorphous matrix. The matrix was shown to also contain free carbon and to contribute to charge carrier transport between the highly conductive large particles. The ceramic thin films possess electrical conductivities in the range from 5.4 to 8.8 S/cm and may be suitable for implementation in miniaturized piezoresistive strain gauges