The Weihe Basin contains a unique well-preserved fluvial lacustrine sequence covering the entire Cenozoic. This project (Phase I) will drill a 3000-m borehole to provide a highly resolved and accurately dated terrestrial record spanning the Late Miocene to the Holocene. Scientific objectives of this project are as follows:

(1) To reconstruct the East Asian hydroclimate variability over the past 10 Ma and address how gradual expansion of the Northern Hemisphere ice-sheets and regional tectonics modulate the amplitude and periodicities of orbital- and millennial-scale climate variability;

(2) To address how the change of East Asian hydroclimate affected mountain erosion and basin filling;

(3) To investigate how subsurface life adapted to environmental change in deep Earth and ascertain the depth and temperature limits of deep microbial biosphere.

Keywords: Asia, China, Weihe Basin, Deep Biosphere, Hydroclimate, Late Cenozoic