India–Eurasia collision chronology has implications for crustal shortening and driving mechanism of plates

Patriat, P.; Achache, J.

doi:10.1038/311615a0

Cited by 1,195 publications

(718 citation statements)

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“…This collision, which initiated at 50-52 Ma [Patriat and Achache, 1984;Guillot, 2003;van Hinsbergen et al, 2011] and has led to the creation of world's highest mountain ranges and largest plateaux, is presently ongoing with a convergence velocity of 34 mm/yr near the western syntaxis [Molnar and Stock, 2009;DeMets et al, 2010]. The Pamir, a northwardconvex mountain range, has presumably been moving north relative to the surrounding regions since about 25 Ma [Sobel and Dumitru, 1997], overriding the Tajik-Yarkand Basin [Burtman and Molnar, 1993], which previously connected the Tajik Depression in the west and the Tarim Basin in the east.…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2] Today's Himalaya-Tibet orogenic system is, to first order, the result of the ongoing indentation of a rigid cratonic block (India) into a mechanically weaker Eurasia [e.g., Tapponnier et al, 1982] following the closure of the Neo-Tethys ocean [Patriat and Achache, 1984;Guillot, 2003]. The tectonic evolution of the collision is complex and involves subduction/underthrusting of (greater) Indian lithosphere, possible slab break-off(s), distributed lithospheric shortening of both Eurasia and India as well as possible lithospheric delamination and continental-scale escape along large strike-slip systems [e.g., Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975;Tapponnier and Molnar, 1979;Avouac and Tapponnier, 1993;Yin and Harrison, 2000;Chemenda et al, 2000].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geometry of the Pamir‐Hindu Kush intermediate‐depth earthquake zone from local seismic data

et al. 2013

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[1] We present new seismicity images based on a two-year seismic deployment in the Pamir and SW Tien Shan. A total of 9532 earthquakes were detected, located, and rigorously assessed in a multistage automatic procedure utilizing state-of-the-art picking algorithms, waveform cross-correlation, and multi-event relocation. The obtained catalog provides new information on crustal seismicity and reveals the geometry and internal structure of the Pamir-Hindu Kush intermediate-depth seismic zone with improved detail and resolution. The relocated seismicity clearly defines at least two distinct planes: one beneath the Pamir and the other beneath the Hindu Kush, separated by a gap across which strike and dip directions change abruptly. The Pamir seismic zone forms a thin (approximately 10 km width), curviplanar arc that strikes east-west and dips south at its eastern end and then progressively turns by 90°to reach a north-south strike and a due eastward dip at its southwestern termination. Pamir deep seismicity outlines several streaks at depths between 70 and 240 km, with the deepest events occurring at its southwestern end. Intermediate-depth earthquakes are clearly separated from shallow crustal seismicity, which is confined to the uppermost 20-25 km. The Hindu Kush seismic zone extends from 40 to 250 km depth and generally strikes east-west, yet bends northeast, toward the Pamir, at its eastern end. It may be divided vertically into upper and lower parts separated by a gap at approximately 150 km depth. In the upper part, events form a plane that is 15-25 km thick in cross section and dips sub-vertically north to northwest. Seismic activity is more virile in the lower part, where several distinct clusters form a complex pattern of sub-parallel planes. The observed geometry could be reconciled either with a model of two-sided subduction of Eurasian and previously underthrusted Indian continental lithosphere or by a purely Eurasian origin of both Pamir and Hindu Kush seismic zones, which necessitates a contortion and oversteepening of the latter.

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Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geometry of the Pamir‐Hindu Kush intermediate‐depth earthquake zone from local seismic data

et al. 2013

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“…The Central Indian Ridge (CIR) and the South East Indian Ridge (SEIR) underwent an important decrease of the spreading rate followed by a major reorganization in spreading orientation between anomalies 22 and 18, i.e. 49-38 Ma [13,14]. The selected areas correspond to oceanic crust produced before these major modifications.…”

Section: Html)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Geomagnetic field variations between chrons 33r and 19r (83–41 Ma) from sea-surface magnetic anomaly profiles

Bouligand

Dyment

Gallet

et al. 2006

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

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Sea-surface magnetic profiles exhibit coherent short wavelength "micro-anomalies" (or "tiny wiggles") superimposed to the main anomalies due to reversals. In this study, we investigate the nature and distribution of these tiny wiggles on oceanic crust formed during the ∼42 Myr-long period following the Cretaceous Normal Superchron. To this end, we compute stacks of anomaly profiles from different areas in the Indian and Pacific oceans.Using a simple method based on upward continuation, we demonstrate that, the tiny wiggles are consistent worldwide although their patterns exhibit different resolutions at different spreading rates. They are therefore confidently ascribed to past fluctuations of the geomagnetic dipole moment. A high resolution record of these fluctuations is obtained by selecting and stacking profiles from areas with the highest spreading rates. Modeling the micro-anomalies as short magnetic polarity intervals yields durations for these intervals generally shorter than 10 kyr, likely too short to be indeed "true" subchrons. Moreover, the number of detected tiny wiggles clearly depends on the spreading rate. These results support geomagnetic intensity fluctuations as being the cause of most tiny wiggles, as also Preprint submitted to Elsevier Science suggested by recent magnetostratigraphic data. The tiny wiggles are uniformly distributed within chrons, indicating that paleointensity fluctuations are neither inhibited after, nor enhanced before, a reversal beyond a "blind" zone of about 10 km (corresponding to 80 to 250 kyr depending on the spreading rate) for which the anomalies due to reversals prevent the detection of tiny wiggles. Most tiny wiggles probably represent a filtered record of a uniform secular variation regime, as suggested by their uniform spatial distribution over the whole investigated period.

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“…We applied an apparent polar wander synthesis (25) and paleomagnetic data for the Asian blocks (mainly Tibet) (27), in conjunction with a plate kinematic model (28,29), to reconstruct the paleogeographic evolution of India and surrounding continents over the Mesozoic-Cenozoic. India resided in the southern hemisphere for much of the Mesozoic era as part of the Gondwana supercontinent (30), which began to disperse with the opening of the Somali basin during the middle Jurassic (31) and the separation of East Gondwana (which included India, Mada-…”

Section: Drift Of India and Collision With Eurasiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Equatorial convergence of India and early Cenozoic climate trends

Kent

Muttoni

2008

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

143

108

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India's northward flight and collision with Asia was a major driver of global tectonics in the Cenozoic and, we argue, of atmospheric CO 2 concentration (pCO2) and thus global climate. Subduction of Tethyan oceanic crust with a carpet of carbonate-rich pelagic sediments deposited during transit beneath the high-productivity equatorial belt resulted in a component flux of CO 2 delivery to the atmosphere capable to maintain high pCO 2 levels and warm climate conditions until the decarbonation factory shut down with the collision of Greater India with Asia at the Early Eocene climatic optimum at Ϸ50 Ma. At about this time, the India continent and the highly weatherable Deccan Traps drifted into the equatorial humid belt where uptake of CO 2 by efficient silicate weathering further perturbed the delicate equilibrium between CO 2 input to and removal from the atmosphere toward progressively lower pCO 2 levels, thus marking the onset of a cooling trend over the Middle and Late Eocene that some suggest triggered the rapid expansion of Antarctic ice sheets at around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary.CO2 ͉ Deccan ͉ Tethys ͉ Himalaya ͉ Eocene M odern-day glacial climate, characterized by polar ice at sea level, is the long-term cooling derivative of a Cretaceousearly Cenozoic world dominated by warm conditions and the general absence of ice sheets (1, 2). The zenith of global warmth in the Cenozoic (0-65 Ma) was reached at Ϸ50 Ma during the Early Eocene climatic optimum (EECO) as the culmination of a Late Paleocene-Early Eocene (Ϸ60-50 Ma) warming trend in oceanic bottom waters (3) (Fig. 1A). The EECO was characterized by the widespread occurrence of cherts (4) (Fig. 1B) and reflected in warm climate conditions at even extreme high latitudes (5, 6). A persistent cooling trend ensued over the Middle and Late Eocene that eventually plummeted into a glacial climate mode with the inception of major Antarctic ice sheets at Oi-1 near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary at Ϸ34 Ma (7). Changes in ocean circulation and heat transport related to the opening of Southern Ocean gateways (8) occurred well after the start of the cooling trend at Ϸ50 Ma and do not seem to adequately account for inception of Antarctic glaciation according to recent climate models (e.g., refs. 9 and 10). Instead, reduction in greenhouse gas concentrations is the more likely fundamental cause of Antarctic freezing and global cooling (10). This is supported by the occurrence of high (albeit highly scattered) pCO 2 estimated values of Ͼ1,000 ppm at around the EECO (e.g., 11, 12; see also ref. 13) and generally low (Ͻ500 ppm) pCO 2 estimated values after Oi-1 that followed a decline that more or less parallels the long-term temperature record (14, 15) (Fig. 1 A). However, what triggered the global cooling from the EECO to Oi-1 (and thus the cause of the long-term decrease in pCO 2 ) is unclear (16).The BLAG model (17, 18) postulates that long-term changes in pCO 2 and resulting climate were driven primarily by variations in mantle outgassing tied to global seafloor prod...

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India–Eurasia collision chronology has implications for crustal shortening and driving mechanism of plates

Cited by 1,195 publications

References 30 publications

Geometry of the Pamir‐Hindu Kush intermediate‐depth earthquake zone from local seismic data

Geometry of the Pamir‐Hindu Kush intermediate‐depth earthquake zone from local seismic data

Geomagnetic field variations between chrons 33r and 19r (83–41 Ma) from sea-surface magnetic anomaly profiles

Equatorial convergence of India and early Cenozoic climate trends

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