ABSTRACT
The lithosphere comprises a layer of crust underlain by the upper, rigid part of the mantle – the mantle being the zone, composed of dense silicate minerals, that extends from the base of the crust down to the Earth’s core. Since the 1990s there has been an increasing realization that a number of major features on the Earth’s surface considered to be the result of internal processes are the product of complex interactions between internal and external mechanisms. A potentially much more pervasive influence of tectonics and landscape development on climate extending to the global scale is through the interaction of chemical weathering rates and the concentration of the ‘greenhouse gas’ carbon dioxide. A fundamental tenet of plate tectonics is that plates are sufficiently rigid for stresses to be transmitted across them with little internal deformation. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Tibetan Plateau is the extensive development of internal drainage, especially in the centre and the west.
