The proposed Sino-American cooperation will carry out investigations on tectonic settings of Northern Tibetan Plateau (NTP), key strata age and sediment stable isotope research to detect the height, timing and scope of phased NTP growth; The cooperation will reconstruct the long time scale history of Asian monsoon and inland aridification evolution utilizing all types of geological records since Oligocene and Miocene as well as available materials; The team will obtain further understanding of environmental effects of Plateau through shorter time scale climate change study of the Plateau and its outer range, and will on the base of atmospheric circulation models of featured periods (such as 3.6-2.6 and 7-10Ma etc) reconstructed by geological records numerically retrieve the coupling process between the Plateau especially the northern part and the evolution of Asian monsoon-arid environment.