Abstract
Indian continental subduction can explain Cenozoic crustal deformation, magmatic activity and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau following the India-Asia collision. In the western Himalayan syntaxis and central Himalaya, subduction or underthrusting of the Indian Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate is well known from seismological studies. However, because information on the deep structure of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis is lacking, the nature of the Indian subduction slab beneath Myanmar and the related tectonic regime remain unclear. Here, we use receiver function common conversion point imaging from a densely spaced seismic array to detect direct structural evidence of present-day Indian continental subduction beneath Asia. The entire subducting Indian crust has an average crustal thickness of ~30 km, dips at an angle of ~19°, and extends to a depth of 100 km under central Myanmar. These results reveal a unique continental subduction regime as a result of Indian-Eurasian continental collision and lateral extrusion.
Highlights
Indian continental subduction can explain Cenozoic crustal deformation, magmatic activity and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau following the India-Asia collision
In the western Himalayan syntaxis (WHS), two converging continental subduction zones have been reported to extend to a depth of ~400 km, with a south-dipping 10–15 km-thick low-velocity zone proposed as the subducting Eurasian continental lower crust beneath the Pamir and a north-dipping Indian slab beneath the Hindu Kush[5,6,7,8]
Incorporating our results with the sideways extrusion tectonics of the Asian lithosphere, we propose a scenario of a geodynamic regime in a continental subduction system following continental collision with lateral extrusion
Summary
Indian continental subduction can explain Cenozoic crustal deformation, magmatic activity and uplift of the Tibetan Plateau following the India-Asia collision. Because information on the deep structure of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis is lacking, the nature of the Indian subduction slab beneath Myanmar and the related tectonic regime remain unclear. The entire subducting Indian crust has an average crustal thickness of ~30 km, dips at an angle of ~19°, and extends to a depth of 100 km under central Myanmar. These results reveal a unique continental subduction regime as a result of Indian-Eurasian continental collision and lateral extrusion. In the central Himalaya, the underthrusting of the Indian Plate beneath the Tibetan Plateau has been well revealed by seismic imaging[1,2]. A slate belt, and the Mogok metamorphic belt intruded by Late Cretaceous-Miocene granites, which appear to correlate with the rifting of the Sibumasu terrane from Gondwana and subsequent docking with the Indochina terrane during the Mesozoic[15]
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