A tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collisions between India, Eurasia and intra-oceanic arcs of the central-eastern Tethys

Gibbons, A.; Zahirovic, Sabin; Müller, R. Dietmar; Whittaker, Joanne M.; Yatheesh, V.

doi:10.1016/j.gr.2015.01.001

Cited by 191 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 334 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

138

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Subduction of the southern Neo-Tethyan flank of the 1873 spreading system from ~100 Ma would have been associated with progressively strengthening 1874 northward slab pull, to which we attribute the change towards largely northward convergence with1876 The role of two coeval north-dipping subduction zones in the Neo-Tethys (Fig. 26) were 1878 suggested to have contributed to the ~80 Ma acceleration of India in Gibbons et al (2015), which 1879 has recently been proposed as a mechanism for India's rapid northward advance using numerical 1880 (Fig. 25).…”

mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…A few years on, Audley-Charles (1966) provided the first 245 synthesis of stratigraphic evidence to describe the region's Mesozoic paleogeographic evolution in 246 (Gibbons et al, 2015;Matthews et al, 2012;van Hinsbergen et al, 2011). Although the 324 reconstructions are presented in 1 Myr intervals, no relative or absolute plate rotation parameters 325 have been provided, which limits the testability of such models.…”

Section: Explained the Geological Affinities Between 242mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Tectonic evolution and deep mantle structure of the eastern Tethys since the latest Jurassic

Zahirovic

Matthews

Flament

et al. 2016

Earth-Science Reviews

182

225

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The breakup of Pangea in the Jurassic saw the opening of major ocean basins at the expense of older Tethyan and Pacific oceanic plates. Although the Tethyan seafloor spreading history has been lost to subduction, proxy indicators from multiple generations of Tethyan ribbon terranes, as well as the active margin geological histories of volcanism and ophiolite obduction events can be used to reconstruct these ancient oceanic plates. The plate reconstructions presented in this study reconcile observations from ocean basins and the onshore geological record to provide a regional synthesis, embedded in a global plate motion model, of the IndiaEurasia convergence history, the accretionary growth of Southeast Asia and the Tethyan-Pacific tectonic link through the New Guinea margin. The global plate motion model presented in this study captures the timedependent evolution of plates and their tectonic boundaries since 160 Ma, which are assimilated as surface boundary conditions for numerical experiments of mantle convection. We evaluate subducted slab locations and geometries predicted by forward mantle flow models against P-and S-wave seismic tomography models. This approach harnesses modern plate reconstruction techniques, mantle convection models with imposed one-sided subduction, and constraints from the surface geology to address a number of unresolved Tethyan geodynamic controversies. Our synthesis reveals that north-dipping subduction beneath Eurasia in the latest Jurassic consumed the Meso-Tethys, and suggests that northward slab pull opened the younger Neo-Tethyan ocean basin from ~ 155 Ma. We model the rifting of ' Argoland', representing the East Java and West Sulawesi continental fragments, as a northward transfer of continental terranes in the latest Jurassic from the northwest Australian shelf -likely colliding first with parts of the Woyla intra-oceanic arc in the mid-Cretaceous, and accreting to the Borneo (Sundaland) core by ~ 80 Ma. The Neo-Tethyan ridge was likely consumed along an intra-oceanic subduction zone south of Eurasia from ~ 105 Ma, leading to a major change in the motion of the Indian Plate by ~ 100 Ma, as observed in the Wharton Basin fracture zone bends. We investigate the geodynamic consequences of long-lived intra-oceanic subduction within the Neo-Tethys, requiring a twostage India-Eurasia collision involving first contact between Greater India and the Kohistan-Ladakh Arc sometime between ~ 60 and 50 Ma, followed by continent-continent collision from ~ 47 Ma. Our models suggest that the Sunda slab kink beneath northwest Sumatra in the mantle transition zone results from the rotation and extrusion of Indochina from ~ 30 Ma. Our results are also the first to reproduce the enigmatic Proto South China Sea slab beneath northern Borneo, as well as the Tethyan/Woyla slab that is predicted at mid-mantle depths south of Sumatra. Further east, our revised reconstructions of the New Guinea margin, notably the evolution of the Sepik composite terrane and the Maramuni subduction zone, produce...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Explained the Geological Affinities Between 242mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tectonic evolution and deep mantle structure of the eastern Tethys since the latest Jurassic

Zahirovic

Matthews

Flament

et al. 2016

Earth-Science Reviews

182

225

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…1): an Andean-style subduction system along the southern continental margin of Eurasia (22) and an intraoceanic subduction system (the Trans-Tethyan Subduction System) in the northern Neo-Tethys Ocean (23,24). During the Cretaceous, the Trans-Tethyan Subduction System extended for at least 9,000 km in an east-west direction and was dominantly located at low latitude (25,26). The Andean-style subduction system that bounded the southern margin of Eurasia extended east-west for at least 13,000 km, but except in its easternmost extent was located farther north, at ∼20-30°N (27) (Fig.…”

Section: Tectonic Evolution Of the Neo-tethyan Ocean In The Late Cretmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-latitude arc–continent collision as a driver for global cooling

Jagoutz

Macdonald

Royden

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

New constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Neo-Tethys Ocean indicate that at ∼90-70 Ma and at ∼50-40 Ma, vast quantities of mafic and ultramafic rocks were emplaced at low latitude onto continental crust within the tropical humid belt. These emplacement events correspond temporally with, and are potential agents for, the global climatic cooling events that terminated the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum and the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum. We model the temporal effects of CO 2 drawdown from the atmosphere due to chemical weathering of these obducted ophiolites, and of CO 2 addition to the atmosphere from arc volcanism in the Neo-Tethys, between 100 and 40 Ma. Modeled variations in net CO 2 -drawdown rates are in excellent agreement with contemporaneous variation of ocean bottom water temperatures over this time interval, indicating that ophiolite emplacement may have played a major role in changing global climate. We demonstrate that both the lithology of the obducted rocks (mafic/ultramafic) and a tropical humid climate with high precipitation rate are needed to produce significant consumption of CO 2 . Based on these results, we suggest that the low-latitude closure of ocean basins along east-west trending plate boundaries may also have initiated other long-term global cooling events, such as Middle to Late Ordovician cooling and glaciation associated with the closure of the Iapetus Ocean.climate change | climate-tectonic connection | arc-continent collision O ver geologic time, atmospheric pCO 2 is regulated by a balance between sources and sinks (1-5), including the products of volcanism (6), metamorphism (7, 8), and silicate weathering (4), which are fundamentally the results of plate tectonic processes (9-11). However, attempts to relate particular episodes of Cretaceous to recent climate change to specific tectonic events remain controversial (1,9,(12)(13)(14)(15).Studies of present-day chemical weathering document an important control of lithology and paleogeography on weathering rates and associated CO 2 drawdown (16,17). Highly active regions of intense chemical weathering account for >50% of the consumed CO 2 per year, yet the proportion of this land area is <10% (18, 19). In these areas, high CO 2 consumption rates are the consequence of elevated physical and chemical weathering rates, which result from a combination of significant topographic relief, high rates of precipitation (20), elevated surface temperatures, and exposure of large volumes of highly weatherable mafic and ultramafic) rocks (16,17,21). Such conditions are characteristic of tectonically active (or recently active) regions located at low latitude, within the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and adjacent regions of humid tropical climate and high precipitation (6,9,16). Based on these observations, we propose that the obduction of mafic and ultramafic rocks at low latitude that resulted from arc-continent collision during the closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean exerted important controls on Late Cretaceous to Eocene (100-40 Ma) g...

show abstract

“…The process of subduction was initiated at around 45 Ma near the Java trench. A widespread spreading in the Indian Ocean during the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene led to: (i) a change in convergence direction from north to NE and (ii) an increase in the rate of subduction (50-60 mm/year) along the Andaman-Sumatra and Java margins (Karig et al 1979;Liu et al 1983;Daly et al 1991;Hall 2012;Gibbons et al 2015). This spreading also in turn initiated the development of the Neogene AFB along the Sunda trench to the Andaman arc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Cenozoic seismic stratigraphy of the Andaman Forearc Basin, Indian Ocean

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interpretation of new multichannel seismic reflection data from the Andaman Forearc Basin (AFB) in the northern Indian Ocean is presented here. The highquality multichannel seismic data from the Andaman Forearc region enable us to examine the seismic characters and to demarcate seismic sequences bounded by distinct unconformities. Ages of marked seismic horizons have been calibrated with available litholog data from nearby industry boreholes. Seismic interpretation of new data shows that the AFB is filled with * 4.5-s-two way travel time (TWT) thick Neogene to Recent sediments. The entire basin assemblage exhibits two distinct major sequences pertaining to the Neogene and Quaternary times. A large part of the basin is filled with intermittent mass transport deposits (MTD). We infer that the episodic uplift of the Invisible Bank, protuberance of the outerarc and regular deformation through reactivation of preexisting normal faults since the Pleistocene could be attributed as causal mechanisms for the MTDs. Strong bottom simulating reflectors are identified in the Late Miocene and younger sediments of the outerarc and AFB at a depth of * 0.6 s TWT and correspond to the presence of gas hydrates in this region. Our interpretations have significant implications for geodynamic as well as resource exploration in the AFB.

show abstract

A tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collisions between India, Eurasia and intra-oceanic arcs of the central-eastern Tethys

Cited by 191 publications

References 334 publications

Tectonic evolution and deep mantle structure of the eastern Tethys since the latest Jurassic

Tectonic evolution and deep mantle structure of the eastern Tethys since the latest Jurassic

Low-latitude arc–continent collision as a driver for global cooling

Late Cenozoic seismic stratigraphy of the Andaman Forearc Basin, Indian Ocean

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About