E-Mail IMAGE: (a) Current lithospheric structure across the western Qilian Mountains and adjacent regions by combining our result with previous geological and geophysical results. (b) The construction process of the Qilian Mountains.... view more Credit: @Science China Press As the largest orogenic plateau on earth, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was caused by a complex crustal deformation process during the continuous collision and compression process between the Indian and Eurasian continents starting at least 60-50 Ma ago. The formation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau records the collision of the two continents and the deformation process and mechanism within the continents. Therefore, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is considered as a natural ideal laboratory for the study of continent-continent collision and dynamics. At present, the continuous collision between Eurasia and Indian continents is still ongoing, resulting in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is still continuing to expand outward. The western section of Qilian Mountains on the northeast margin of The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, as the northeast boundary of the Plateau, was uplifted and became part of the present Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during the Middle Miocene, according to the latest chronology results. Therefore, as one of the youngest parts of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the western Qilian Mountains is one of the key areas to test various proposed models of the formation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.