Abstract
The Western Ghats (WG) is one of the Great Escarpments of the world that developed and persisted for the last ~60 Ma at the passive Western Continental Margin of India (WCMI). Like many such escarpments, the origin and persistence of the WG cannot be explained by a single mechanism, either lithosphere-asthenosphere or surficial processes, and hence, these are debated. Here I suggest a unified multistage model for the evolution of WG based on the available geophysical and geological data, and link its origin and persistence through possible underplating and detachmentcontrolled mid-crustal ductile flow with the characteristics of the Deccan plateau and the offshore region. The implications of the model for lithosphere-asthenosphere dynamics of the Deccan plateau and Stable Continental Region (SCR) seismicity are discussed.
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