A review of the geologic history of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen suggests that at least 1400 km of north-south shortening has been absorbed by the orogen since the onset of the Indo-Asian collision at about 70 Ma. Significant crustal shortening, which leads to eventual construction of the Cenozoic Tibetan plateau, began more or less synchronously in the Eocene (50–40 Ma) in the Tethyan Himalaya in the south, and in the Kunlun Shan and the Qilian Shan some 1000–1400 km in the north. The Paleozoic and Mesozoic tectonic histories in the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen exerted a strong control over the Cenozoic strain history and strain distribution. The presence of widespread Triassic flysch complex in the Songpan-Ganzi-Hoh Xil and the Qiangtang terranes can be spatially correlated with Cenozoic volcanism and thrusting in central Tibet. The marked difference in seismic properties of the crust and the upper mantle between southern and central Tibet is a manifestation of both Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonics. The form...

Geologic Evolution of the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen

A global plate motion model, named NUVEL-1, which describes current plate motions between 12 rigid plates is described, with special attention given to the method, data, and assumptions used Tectonic implications of the patterns that emerged from the results are discussed It is shown that wide plate boundary zones can form not only within the continental lithosphere but also within the oceanic lithosphere; eg, between the Indian and Australian plates and between the North American and South American plates Results of the model also suggest small but significant diffuse deformation of the oceanic lithosphere, which may be confined to small awkwardly shaped salients of major plates

Current plate motions

SUMMARY 
We determine best-fitting Euler vectors, closure-fitting Euler vectors, and a new global model (NUVEL-1) describing the geologically current motion between 12 assumed-rigid plates by inverting plate motion data we have compiled, critically analysed, and tested for self-consistency. We treat Arabia, India and Australia, and North America and South America as distinct plates, but combine Nubia and Somalia into a single African plate because motion between them could not be reliably resolved. The 1122 data from 22 plate boundaries inverted to obtain NUVEL-1 consist of 277 spreading rates, 121 transform fault azimuths, and 724 earthquake slip vectors. We determined all rates over a uniform time interval of 3.0m.y., corresponding to the centre of the anomaly 2A sequence, by comparing synthetic magnetic anomalies with observed profiles. The model fits the data well. Unlike prior global plate motion models, which systematically misfit some spreading rates in the Indian Ocean by 8–12mm yr−1, the systematic misfits by NUVEL-1 nowhere exceed ∼3 mm yr−1. The model differs significantly from prior global plate motion models. For the 30 pairs of plates sharing a common boundary, 29 of 30 P071, and 25 of 30 RM2 Euler vectors lie outside the 99 per cent confidence limits of NUVEL-1. Differences are large in the Indian Ocean where NUVEL-1 plate motion data and plate geometry differ from those used in prior studies and in the Pacific Ocean where NUVEL-1 rates are systematically 5–20 mm yr−1 slower than those of prior models. The strikes of transform faults mapped with GLORIA and Seabeam along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge greatly improve the accuracy of estimates of the direction of plate motion. These data give Euler vectors differing significantly from those of prior studies, show that motion about the Azores triple junction is consistent with plate circuit closure, and better resolve motion between North America and South America. Motion of the Caribbean plate relative to North or South America is about 7 mm yr−1 slower than in prior global models. Trench slip vectors tend to be systematically misfit wherever convergence is oblique, and best-fitting poles determined only from trench slip vectors differ significantly from their corresponding closure-fitting Euler vectors. The direction of slip in trench earthquakes tends to be between the direction of plate motion and the normal to the trench strike. Part of this bias may be due to the neglect of lateral heterogeneities of seismic velocities caused by cold subducting slabs, but the larger part is likely caused by independent motion of fore-arc crust and lithosphere relative to the overriding plate.

Two end member models of how the high elevations in Tibet formed are (i) continuous thickening and widespread viscous flow of the crust and mantle of the entire plateau and (ii) time-dependent, localized shear between coherent lithospheric blocks. Recent studies of Cenozoic deformation, magmatism, and seismic structure lend support to the latter. Since India collided with Asia ∼55 million years ago, the rise of the high Tibetan plateau likely occurred in three main steps, by successive growth and uplift of 300- to 500-kilometer-wide crustal thrust-wedges. The crust thickened, while the mantle, decoupled beneath gently dipping shear zones, did not. Sediment infilling, bathtub-like, of dammed intermontane basins formed flat high plains at each step. The existence of magmatic belts younging northward implies that slabs of Asian mantle subducted one after another under ranges north of the Himalayas. Subduction was oblique and accompanied by extrusion along the left lateral strike-slip faults that slice Tibet's east side. These mechanisms, akin to plate tectonics hidden by thickening crust, with slip-partitioning, account for the dominant growth of the Tibet Plateau toward the east and northeast.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/294/5547/1671.full.pdf

Oblique Stepwise Rise and Growth of the Tibet Plateau

Cenozoic geological and plate tectonic evolution of SE Asia and the SW Pacific: computer-based reconstructions, model and animations

The motion of the Indian plate is determined in an absolute frame of reference and compared with the position of the southern margin of Eurasia deduced from palaeomagnetic data in Tibet. The 2,600±900 km of continental crust shortening observed is shown to have occurred in three different episodes: subduction of continental crust, intracontinental thrusting and internal deformation, and lateral extrusion. The detailed chronology of the collision and plate reorganizations in the Indian and Pacific oceans supports the hypothesis that slab-pull is a dominant driving mechanism of plate tectonics.

India–Eurasia collision chronology has implications for crustal shortening and driving mechanism of plates

We present the interpretation of a new set of closely spaced marine magnetic profiles that complements previous data in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the South China Sea (Nan Hai). This interpretation shows that seafloor spreading was asymmetric and confirms that it included at least one ridge jump. Discontinuities in the seafloor fabric, characterized by large differences in basement depth and roughness, appear to be related to variations in spreading rate. Between anomalies 11 and 7 (32 to 27 Ma), spreading at an intermediate, average full rate of ≈50 mm/yr created relatively smooth basement, now thickly blanketed by sediments. The ridge then jumped to the south and created rough basement, now much shallower and covered with thinner sediments than in the north. This episode lasted from anomaly 6b to anomaly 5c (27 to ≈16 Ma) and the average spreading rate was slower, ≈35 mm/yr. After 27 Ma, spreading appears to have developed first in the eastern part of the basin and to have propagated towards the southwest in two major steps, at the time of anomalies 6b-7, and at the time of anomaly 6. Each step correlates with a variation of the ridge orientation, from nearly E-W to NE-SW, and with a variation in the spreading rate. Spreading appears to have stopped synchronously along the ridge, at about 15.5 Ma. From computed fits of magnetic isochrons, we calculate 10 poles of finite rotation between the times of magnetic anomalies 11 and 5c. The poles permit reconstruction of the Oligo-Miocene movements of Southeast Asian blocks north and south of the South China Sea. Using such reconstructions, we test quantitatively a simple scenario for the opening of the sea in which seafloor spreading results from the extrusion of Indochina relative to South China, in response to the penetration of India into Asia. This alone yields between 500 and 600 km of left-lateral motion on the Red River-Ailao Shan shear zone, with crustal shortening in the San Jiang region and crustal extension in Tonkin. The offset derived from the fit of magnetic isochrons on the South China Sea floor is compatible with the offset of geological markers north and south of the Red River Zone. The first phases of extension of the continental margins of the basin are probably related to motion on the Wang Chao and Three Pagodas Faults, in addition to the Red River Fault. That Indochina rotated at least 12° relative to South China implies that large-scale “domino” models are inadequate to describe the Cenozoic tectonics of Southeast Asia. The cessation of spreading after 16 Ma appears to be roughly synchronous with the final increments of left-lateral shear and normal uplift in the Ailao Shan (18 Ma), as well as with incipient collisions between the Australian and the Eurasian plates. Hence no other causes than the activation of new fault zones within the India-Asia collision zone, north and east of the Red River Fault, and perhaps increased resistance to extrusion along the SE edge of Sundaland, appear to be required to terminate seafloor spreading in the largest marginal basin of the western Pacific and to change the sense of motion on the largest strike-slip fault of SE Asia.

/pdf/updated-interpretation-of-magnetic-anomalies-and-seafloor-3u4t355qwx.pdf

Updated interpretation of magnetic anomalies and seafloor spreading stages in the south China Sea: Implications for the Tertiary tectonics of Southeast Asia

Reconstruction of the Central Indian Ocean

Magnetic data were collected during the Wilkes (1973) and Seacarib II (1987) cruises to the Cayman trough. A new interpretation of magnetic data is carried out. An isochron pattern is drawn up from our anomaly identifications. An early Eocene age (49 Ma, Ypresian) for Cayman trough opening is proposed instead of the late Oligocene or middle Eocene ages suggested by previous studies. Our plate tectonic reconstruction is simpler and fits the on-land geology (Jamaica and Cuba) and the tectonics. Our reconstruction shows a southward propagation of the spreading centre between magnetic anomalies 8 and 6 (26 and 20 Ma). The trough width increases by 30 km in this period. The southward propagation of the Cayman spreading centre from the Middle Oligocene to the Early Miocene induced the development of the restraining bend of the Swan Islands, the formation of a 1 km high scarp on the eastern trace of the Cayman trough transform fault (Walton fault) and the formation of a pull-apart basin (Hendrix pull-apart). Magnetic anomalies and magnetization maps give information about the deformation and the rocks. The proposed evolutionary model of the Cayman trough from the inception of seafloor spreading to the present configuration is presented in relation to the tectonic escape of the northern boundary of the Caribbean plate from the Maastrichtian to the Present.

An alternative interpretation of the Cayman trough evolution from a reidentification of magnetic anomalies

Conventional plate tectonics theory postulates that plates only deform on their boundaries. To the contrary, there is ample evidence of intraplate deformation in the equatorial Indian Ocean, west of the Ninetyeast aseismic ridge. Prior to this study, no direct evidence of deforma- tion east of the Ninetyeast Ridge was available. We present the results of a multipurpose geo- physical cruise showing that intraplate deformation also occurs in this area. Long, at least 1000 km, left-lateral north-south strike-slip faults are active and reactivate fossil fracture zones. This style of deformation is strikingly different from the east-west folds and reverse faults that affect the region west of the Ninetyeast Ridge. Contrasting processes of convergence at the northern plate boundaries can account for the two styles of deformation. West of the Ninetyeast Ridge there is a continent-continent collision, and east of the ridge oceanic lithosphere subducts along the Sumatra trench. The Ninetyeast aseismic ridge therefore appears to be a mechanical border separating two distinct deformed areas.

https://www.emsc-csem.org/Files/event/261636/Deplus_Dominguez_Geology_1998-1.pdf

Philippe Patriat

Papers

India–Eurasia collision chronology has implications for crustal shortening and driving mechanism of plates

Updated interpretation of magnetic anomalies and seafloor spreading stages in the south China Sea: Implications for the Tertiary tectonics of Southeast Asia

Reconstruction of the Central Indian Ocean

An alternative interpretation of the Cayman trough evolution from a reidentification of magnetic anomalies

Direct evidence of active deformation in the eastern Indian oceanic plate