Evolution of the deformation and stress patterns of the East Asia continent under multi-driving force

Abstract

The India plate’s continuous motion to the north, the convective removal to the thickening lithosphere caused by small-scale mantle convection and the effect of denudation on the uplifted plateau are regarded as main driving forces that make the patterns of stress field of East Asia continent at present time. The method of numerical simulation is used to study the deformation and the stress field of East Asia continent under different boundary conditions, different denudation coefficients and different rock mechanics parameters within a trapezoid geological frame. Comparing with the results obtained by modern space geodetic technique (such as GPS) the results derived from seismological data show that the predicted data by our model can fit them very well. The degree of the fitness in the west is better than that in the east. These results imply that the main driving force of the deformation and the stress patterns of the west part of East Asia continent may come from the collision and compression between the India and the Eurasia plates. The interaction to the Pacific and the Philippines plates in the east part need to be considered. It also shows that the convective removal to the thickening lithosphere caused by small-scale mantle convection and the effect of denudation cannot be negligible in the evolution of the stress patterns.