http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~yin/05-Publications/papers/091-Yin-2006-ESR.pdf

Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Himalayan orogen as constrained by along-strike variation of structural geometry, exhumation history, and foreland sedimentation

The Himalaya and Tibet provide an unparalleled opportunity to examine the complex ways in which continents respond to collisional orogenesis. This paper is an attempt to synthesize the known geology of this orogenic system, with special attention paid to the tectonic evolution of the Himalaya and southernmost Tibet since India-Eurasia collision at ca. 50 Ma. Two alternative perspectives are developed. The first is largely historical. It includes brief (and necessarily subjective) reviews of the tectonic stratigraphy, the structural geology, and metamorphic geology of the Himalaya. The second focuses on the processes that dictate the behavior of the orogenic system today. It is argued that these processes have not changed substantially over the Miocene–Holocene interval, which suggests that the orogen has achieved a quasi–steady state. This condition implies a rough balance between plate-tectonic processes that lead to the accumulation of energy in the orogen and many other processes (e.g., erosion of the Himalayan front and the lateral flow of the middle and lower crust of Tibet) that lead to the dissipation of energy. The tectonics of the Himalaya and Tibet are thus intimately related; the Himalaya might have evolved very differently had the Tibetan Plateau never have formed.

Tectonics of the Himalaya and southern Tibet from two perspectives

Stable isotope geochemistry of ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks from the Dabie–Sulu orogen in China: implications for geodynamics and fluid regime

The largest tract of ultrahigh-pressure rocks, the Dabie-Hong'an area of China, was exhumed from 125 km depth by a combination of normal-sense shear from beneath the hanging wall Sino-Korean craton, southeastward thrusting onto the footwall Yangtze craton, and orogen-parallel eastward extrusion. Prior to exhumation the UHP slab extended into the mantle a downdip distance of 125–200 km at its eastern end, whereas it was subducted perhaps only 20–30 km at its far western end ∼200 km away. Structural reconstructions imply that the slab was >10 km thick. U/Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology indicate that exhumation up to crustal depths occurred diachronously between 240 and ∼225–210 Ma, reflecting a vertical exhumation rate of >2 mm/yr. The upper boundary of the slab is the Huwan shear zone, a normal-sense detachment that reactivated the plate suture. The lower boundary is represented by the Lower Yangtze fold-thrust belt. NW-trending stretching lineations, NE-vergent, WNW-ESE trending folds, dominant top-NW shear, and conjugate, but overall asymmetric, shear band fabrics, document that exhumation was accomplished by updip and orogen-parallel extrusion accompanied by layer-parallel thinning. The orientation and shape of the folds, and a change from SE to SW flow directions, imply that the slab rotated clockwise about a western pivot during exhumation; this rotation was likely caused by the eastward increasing depth of subduction mentioned above, combined with a possible marginal basin and a weak eastern plate boundary. Exhumation of the slab produced considerable shortening in the Lower Yangtze fold-thrust belt, perhaps producing the foreland orocline.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2000JB900039

Exhumation of ultrahigh-pressure continental crust in east central China: Late Triassic-Early Jurassic tectonic unroofing

High-P/T metamorphic belts were classified into types A and B according to their protoliths. The A-type (collision-type) blueschists possess passive-margin protoliths characterized by platform-type carbonates, bimodal volcanics, and peraluminous sediments. B-type (Cordilleran-type) blueschists consist of active continental-margin protoliths in an accretionary complex characterized by bedded chert, MORB and ocean-island basalts, reef limestones, and graywackes. The spatiotemporal distribution of blueschists and eclogites of the world was compiled; among 250 recognized high-P/T belts, about 20% belong to the A type and the rest to the B type. Most A-type zones lie in Europe and the Tethyan domain, include ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic terranes, and have metamorphic pressure up to 45 kbar. B-type zones occur mainly in the circum-Pacific orogenic belts and intracontinental orogens in Asia, and were recrystallized at P <12 kbar. Associated peridotites include garnet peridotite in the A type and strongly serpe...

Blueschists and Eclogites of the World and Their Exhumation

A mechanism for syn-collisional rock exhumation and associated normal faulting: Results from physical modelling

http://www.geoazur.net/PERSO/chemenda/Perso_Chem/Geodynpub_files/EPSL%20exum2,%202006.pdf

Alexander I. Chemenda

Papers

A mechanism for syn-collisional rock exhumation and associated normal faulting: Results from physical modelling

Continental subduction and a mechanism for exhumation of high-pressure metamorphic rocks: new modelling and field data from Oman