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Cenozoic magmatism on the Tibetan plateau shows systematic variations in space and time that must be considered in models concerning Tibetan tectonic evolution. After the India–Asia collision, which started in the early Tertiary and terminated the Gangdese arc magmatism in the Lhasa terrane made of the southern Tibetan plateau, widespread potassium-rich lavas and subordinate sodium-rich basalts were generated from ∼50 to 30 Ma in the Qiangtang terrane of northern Tibet. Subsequent post-collisional magmatism migrated southwards, producing ultrapotassic and adakitic lavas coevally between ∼26 and 10 Ma in the Lhasa terrane. Then potassic volcanism was renewed to the north and has become extensive and semicontinuous since ∼13 Ma in the western Qiangtang and Songpan–Ganze terranes. Such spatial–temporal variations enable us to elaborate a geodynamic evolution model which depicts …