Abstract
The eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau is marked by an extremely steep mountain front with relief of over 5 km. This topography, coupled with abundant Mesozoic thrusts within the margin, explains why tectonic maps of the India-Asia collision typically show the eastern margin as a major thrust zone. Actually, it does not like that. Field observations suggest that the margin is better characterized as a zone of NNE-directed dextral shear with extensive strike-slip faulting and secondary thrusting. The high relief and steep gradients are partially explained by erosional unloading of an elastic lithosphere; the pre-erosion inherited topography may be the inherited Mesozoic thrust belt landscape modified by a component of Cenozoic tectonic shortening.
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