“…The Tianshan is a 2500-km-long tectonically active mountain range that dominates Central Asia with an average altitude of 2500 m and summits reaching up to 7000 m. While its geology consists of mainly island arc rocks linked to a long-lived Paleozoic history of subduction/collision (Burtman, 1975;Charvet et al, 2007;Gao et al, 1998;Lin et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2008;Windley et al, 1990), the present high topography attests to a more recent and intense deformation. This later owes its origin to the Cenozoic reactivation of the range during the Oligocene to early Miocene (>16 Ma) (Avouac et al, 1993;Bullen et al, 2003;Bullen et al, 2001;Charreau et al, 2009a;Charreau et al, 2005;Charreau et al, 2006;Dumitru et al, 2001;Sobel et al, 2006;Sobel and Dumitru, 1997;Windley et al, 1990;Yin et al, 1998), under the influence of the ongoing India-Asia collision. The Tianshan range indeed plays a major role in the IndiaAsia collision since it presently accomodates up to 40% of the total convergence between those two continents (Abdrakhmatov et al, 1996;Reigber et al, 2001).…”