Li, J. X.Yue, L. P.Roberts, Andrew P.Hirt, A. M.Pan, F.Guo, LinXu, Y.Xi, R. G.Guo, LeiQiang, XiaokeGai, C. C.Jiang, ZhaoxiaSun, Z. M.Liu, Q. S.2020-04-142020-04-142041-1723http://hdl.handle.net/1885/202931Tibetan Plateau uplift has been suggested as the main driving force for mid-latitude Asian inland aridity (AIA) and for deposition of thick aeolian sequences in northern China since the Miocene. However, the relationship between earlier AIA and Tibetan Plateau mountain building is uncertain because of a lack of corresponding thick aeolian sequences with accurate age constraints. We here present results for a continuous aeolian sequence that spans the interval from >51 to 39 Ma from the eastern Xorkol Basin, Altun Shan, northeastern Tibetan Plateau. The basal age of the studied sequence postdates initial uplift of the Tibetan Plateau by several million years. Our results indicate that the local palaeoclimate was teleconnected strongly to the overall global cooling pattern, so that local enhanced aridification recorded by the studied aeolian sequence is dominantly a response to global climatic forcing rather than plateau uplift.This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC Grant Nos. 41002052), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFA0601903), NNSFC Grant Nos. 41430962, 41072136, 41202133 and 90814005, the “Geological Elite Program” of the China Geological Survey, Land Resources Survey Project (Grant No. 1212011121185), Nonprofit Special Project of Land Resources (Grant No. 201311126) and the Australian Research Council (grant DP110105419).application/pdfen-AU© The Author(s) 2018http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/201810.1038/s41467-018-05415-x2019-11-25Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License