The Tibetan Plateau is composed of multiple accreted terranes, including (from south to north) the Tethyan Himalaya, the Lhasa, the Qiangtang, the Songpan-Ganzi and the Qaidam-Qilian terranes. These terranes originated from the supercontinent of Gondwana, successively drifted northward and accreted to Eurasia from the Early Paleozoic until the Late Mesozoic. Afterward, the Tibetan Plateau was established due to the persistent northward indentation of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate and the related subduction. 

The Qiangtang Terrane, the target terrane of the present study, is a long and narrow major crustal fragment in the central Tibetan Plateau, generally thought to have separated from Gondwana in Late Paleozoic. It collided with the Songpan-Ganzi Terrane during the Late Triassic to the Early Jurassic. To the south, the Lhasa Terrane accreted with the Qiangtang terrane during the Middle or Late Jurassic to the Cretaceous. Its post- Jurassic evolution has involved the Lhasa-Qiangtang (hence the closure of the Meso-Tethys-Bangong-Nujiang Ocean), and the India-Eurasia collisions (hence the closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean), with resultant uplift and deformation of the region, such as crustal shortening, orogenic building and regional rotations (e.g., the clockwise rotation of the eastern part of the Qiangtang Terrane in response to India-Eurasia collision).

At present, some paleomagnetic studies of the post-Jurassic have been carried out on the Qiangtang Terrane, and the drift and rotation history evolution of the Qiangtang Terrane during this period have been preliminarily established. However, these data are quite limited compared with such a large area of the Qiangtang Terrane, and the data quality varies a lot. In addition, the remagnetization of sedimentary rocks (especially carbonate) is also a major challenge in paleogeographic reconstructions, which to some extent hinders our further understanding of the above processes.

Therefore, my research aims to carry out rock magnetic, petrographic, and paleomagnetic study of the Jurassic limestone and the Cretaceous granite in the Zaduo area, Qamdo, the eastern part of the Qiangtang Terrane. On the other hand, I put more weight on the remagnetization of the limestones, which can interfere with paleogeographic reconstructions, as is increasingly recognized.