crustal shortening during the paleoproterozoic can it be accommodated by paleomagnetic data abstract in the last 130 million years perhaps as much as 2000 km of intra continental shortening has taken place within asia during 10 000 km of convergence between siberia and india with 8000 km being accommodated by oceanic subduction given that earth was hotter during the paleoproterozoic crustal shortening at this time may have been equally if not more significant compared to today warranting a search of the paleomagnetic data base for any supporting evidence paleomagnetic data from units on either side of the paleoproterozoic trans hudson orogen in canada have been chosen because this orogen bears close similarity both in size and history to the india siberia one the data do not prove but can accommodate continental crustal shortening between the archean slave and superior provinces of about 3000 1000 km the results allow crustal shortening to have been a significant component of continental collision in the paleoproterozoic an important issue in any re assembly of precambrian continents if true the present dimensions of precambrian shields may be significantly different compared to those existing in earlier times

recent investigations of the 0 5 ma geomagnetic field recorded by lava flows we present a synthesis of 0 5 ma paleomagnetic directional data collected from 17 different locations under the collaborative time averaged geomagnetic field initiative tafi when combined with regional compilations from the northwest united states the southwest united states japan new zealand hawaii mexico south pacific and the indian ocean a data set of over 2000 sites with high quality stable polarity and declination and inclination measurements is obtained this is a more than sevenfold increase over similar quality data in the existing paleosecular variation of recent lavas psvrl data set and has greatly improved spatial sampling the new data set spans 78 s to 53 n and has sufficient temporal and spatial sampling to allow characterization of latitudinal variations in the time averaged field taf and paleosecular variation psv for the brunhes and matuyama chrons and for the 0 5 ma interval combined the brunhes and matuyama chrons exhibit different taf geometries notably smaller departures from a geocentric axial dipole field during the brunhes consistent with higher dipole strength observed from paleointensity data geographical variations in psv are also different for the brunhes and matuyama given the high quality of our data set polarity asymmetries in psv and the taf cannot be attributed to viscous overprints but suggest different underlying field behavior perhaps related to the influence of long lived core mantle boundary conditions on core flow psv as measured by dispersion of virtual geomagnetic poles shows less latitudinal variation than predicted by current statistical psv models or by previous data sets in particular the brunhes data reported here are compatible with a wide range of models from those that predict constant dispersion as a function of latitude to those that predict an increase in dispersion with latitude discriminating among such models could be helped by increased numbers of low latitude data and new high northern latitude sites tests with other data sets and with simulations indicate that some of the latitudinal signature previously observed in vgp dispersion can be attributed to the inclusion of low quality insufficiently cleaned data with too few samples per site our matuyama data show a stronger dependence of dispersion on latitude than the brunhes data the taf is examined using the variation of inclination anomaly with latitude best fit two parameter models have axial quadrupole contributions of 2 4 of the axial dipole term and axial octupole contributions of 1 5 approximately 2 of the octupole signature is likely the result of bias incurred by averaging unit vectors

active thrusting and folding along the northern tien shan and late cenozoic rotation of the tarim relative to dzungaria and kazakhstan we have studied geometries and rates of late cenozoic thrust faulting and folding along the northern piedmont of the tien shan mountain belt west of urumqi where the m 8 3 manas earthquake occurred on december 23 1906 the northern range of the tien shan rising above 5000 m overthrusts a flexural foredeep filled with up to 11 000 m of sediment of the dzungarian basement our fieldwork reveals that the active thrust reaches the surface 30 km north of the range front within a 200 km long zone of neogene quaternary anticlines fault scarps are clearest across inset terraces within narrow valleys incised through the anticlines by large rivers flowing down from the range in all the valleys the scarps offset vertically the highest terrace surface by the same amount 10 2 0 7 m inferring an early holocene age 10 2 kyr for this terrace which is continuous with the largest recent fans of the piedmont yields a rate of vertical throw of 1 0 0 3mm yr on the main active thrust at the surface a quantitative morphological analysis of the degradation of terrace edges that are offset by the thrust corroborates such a rate and yields a mass diffusivity of 5 5 2 5 m 2 kyr a rather fresh surface scarp 0 8 0 15 m high that is unlikely to result from shallow earthquakes with 6 m 7 in the last 230 years is visible at the extremities of the main fold zone we associate this scarp with the 1906 manas earthquake and infer that a structure comprising a deep basement ramp under the range gently dipping flats in the foreland and shallow ramps responsible for the formation of the active fault propagation anticlines could have been activated by that earthquake if so the return period of a 1906 type event would be 850 380 years the small size of the scarp for an earthquake of this magnitude suggests that a large fraction of the slip at depth 2 3 is taken up by incremental folding near the surface comparable earthquakes might activate flat detachments and ramp anticlines at a distance from the front of other rising quaternary ranges such as the san gabriel mountains in california or the mont blanc aar massifs in the alps we estimate the finite cenozoic shortening of the folded dzungarian sediments to be of the order of 30 km and the cenozoic shortening rate to have been 3 1 5 mm yr assuming comparable shortening along the tarim piedmont and minor additional active thrusting within the mountain belt we infer the rate of shortening across the tien shan to be at least 6 3 mm yr at the longitude of manas 85 5 e a total shortening of 125 30 km is estimated from crustal thickening assuming local airy isostatic equilibrium under the same assumption serial n s sections imply that cenozoic shortening across the belt increases westwards to 203 50 km at the longitude of kashgar 76 e as reflected by the westward increase of the width of the belt this strain gradient implies a clockwise rotation of tarim relative to dzungaria and kazakhstan of 7 2 5 around a pole located near the eastern extremity of the tien shan west of hami 96 e 43 5 n comparable to that revealed by paleomagnetism between tarim and dzungaria 8 6 8 7 a 6 mm yr rate of shortening at the longitude of manas would imply a rate of rotation of 0 45 m y and would be consistent with a shortening rate of 12 mm yr north of kashgar taking such values to be representative of late cenozoic rates would place the onset of reactivation of the tien shan by the india asia collision in the early to middle miocene 16 22 9 m y in accord with the existence of particularly thick late neogene and quaternary deposits such reactivation would thus have started much later than the collision roughly at the time of the great mid miocene changes in tectonic regimes denudation and sedimentation rates observed in southeast asia the himalayas and the bay of bengal and of the correlative rapid change in seawater sr isotopic ratio 20 to 15 ma like these other changes the rise of the tien shan might be a distant consequence of the end of indochina s escape

west east transition from underplating to steep subduction in the india tibet collision zone revealed by receiver function profiles abstract closely spaced receiver function profiles in the east central india tibet collision zone reveal drastic west east changes of the crustal and upper mantle structure west of 91 5 e we show the indian crust mantle boundary moho extending subhorizontally from 50 km depth below sea level under the high himalaya to 90 km under the central lhasa terrane further north this boundary transitions to become the top of the indian lithospheric mantle and becoming faint but still observable it can be tracked continuously to 135 km depth near 31 5 n the top of the indian lithospheric mantle is clearly beneath the tibetan moho that is also a conspicuous boundary undulatory at 60 75 km depth from the central lhasa terrane to the north end of our profile at 34 n this geometry is consistent with underthrusting of indian lower crust and underplating of the indian plate directly beneath southern tibet in contrast east of 91 5 e the indian moho is only seen under the southernmost margin of the tibetan plateau and eludes imaging from 50 km south of the yarlung zangbo suture to the north the indian lower crust thins greatly and in places lacks a clear moho this is in contrast to our observation west of 91 5 e that the indian lower crust thickens northwards a clear depression of the top of the indian lower crust is also observed along west east oriented profiles centered above the region where the indian moho is not imaged our observations suggest that roll back of the indian lithospheric mantle has occurred east of 91 5 e likely due to delamination associated with density instabilities in eclogitized indian lower crust with the center of foundering beneath the southern lhasa terrane slightly east of 91 5 e

what was the paleogene latitude of the lhasa terrane a reassessment of the geochronology and paleomagnetism of linzizong volcanic rocks linzhou basin tibet the paleogene latitude of the lhasa terrane southern tibet can constrain the age of the onset of the india asia collision estimates for this latitude however vary from 5 n to 30 n and thus here we reassess the geochronology and paleomagnetism of paleogene volcanic rocks from the linzizong group in the linzhou basin the lower and upper parts of the section previously yielded particularly conflicting ages and paleolatitudes we report consistent 40ar 39ar and u pb zircon dates of 52 ma for the upper linzizong and 40ar 39ar dates 51 ma from the lower linzizong are significantly younger than u pb zircon dates 64 63 ma suggesting that the lower linzizong was thermally and or chemically reset paleomagnetic results from 24 sites in lower linzizong confirm a low apparent paleolatitude of 5 n compared to the upper part 20 n and to underlying cretaceous strata 20 n detailed rock magnetic analyses end member modeling of magnetic components and petrography from the lower and upper linzizong indicate widespread secondary hematite in the lower linzizong whereas hematite is rare in upper linzizong volcanic rocks of the lower linzizong have been hydrothermally chemically remagnetized whereas the upper linzizong retains a primary remanence we suggest that remagnetization was induced by acquisition of chemical and thermoviscous remanent magnetizations such that the shallow inclinations are an artifact of a tilt correction applied to a secondary remanence in lower linzizong we estimate that the paleogene latitude of lhasa terrane was 20 4 n consistent with previous results suggesting that india asia collision likely took place by 52 ma at 20 n

structural evolution of the yushu nangqian region and its relationship to syncollisional igneous activity east central tibet field mapping geochronological analyses and cross section construction reveal a protracted deformation history and a minimum of 61 km of cenozoic ne sw shortening in present coordinates across the yushu nangqian thrust belt in northern tibet cenozoic contraction started prior to 51 ma and was followed first by northwest striking right slip faulting and later by northwest striking left slip faulting renewed ne sw contraction is expressed by folding of neogene strata and thrusting which again was followed by northwest striking left slip faults late neogene deformation is expressed by local north striking normal faults shortening across the yushu nangqian belt appears to be accommodated by thin skinned thrusting which raises the question of how the deformation was accommodated in the lower crustal levels to resolve this problem we perform geochemical analysis of igneous rocks dated as 51 49 and 38 37 ma the rocks exhibit geochemical signatures characteristic of subduction which implies that coeval crustal thickening in northeastern tibet was most likely induced by continental subduction

palaeomagnetism and 40ar 39ar geochronology of upper palaeogene volcanic rocks from central tibet implications for the central asia inclination anomaly the palaeolatitude of tibet and post 50 ma shortening within asia summary palaeomagnetic results from upper palaeogene volcanics from three localities in the qiangtang terrane of central tibet record a maximum likelihood palaeolatitude of 28 7 3 7 n these are the first volcanic based palaeomagnetic results from the plateau interior that appear to average secular variation well enough to yield a reliable palaeolatitude estimate this palaeolatitude estimate is significantly lower than the 36 3 n predicted for central tibet by late palaeogene eurasia reference poles consistent with the so called central asia inclination anomaly but it is consistent with values predicted from upper palaeogene reference poles for mongolia the mean inclination of coeval sedimentary rocks from central tibet is 15 5 shallower than our volcanic results similar to the magnitude of sedimentary inclination shallowing estimated from elongation inclination analysis of remanent directions in clastic rocks from the same region we conclude that most of the inclination anomaly observed in volcanic rocks and that which remains after removal of sedimentary flattening in clastic rocks probably is due to the combined effect of reference poles that are not representative of stable asia and by cenozoic intracontinental shortening within central asia on the order of several hundred not more than 1000 kilometers our compilation of palaeomagnetic data from the qiangtang terrane further suggest that the southern margin of the lhasa terrane the southern margin of pre india asia was located as far south as 20 n throughout eocene time these palaeolatitudes in conjunction with the upper crustal shortening record for asia indicate that only approximately one third of the post 50 ma india asia convergence is partitioned in asian lithosphere low latitudes also imply that much of the proto tibetan plateau occupied southerly tropical to subtropical latitudes which has important implications for the weathering and erosion of the tibetan plateau palaeoaltimetry proxies and early cenozoic climate dynamics

palaeomagnetism of cretaceous to tertiary sediments from southern tibet evidence for the extent of the northern margin of india prior to the collision with eurasia abstract palaeomagnetic studies have been carried out on mid cretaceous to latest palaeocene sediments from the tethyan himalaya on the northern margin of the indian plate near the localities of gamba 28 3 n 88 5 e and duela 28 0 n 89 2 e in southern tibet a total of 61 sites more than 700 cores have been sampled mainly from limestones zongshan formation jidula formation member ii zongpu formation sandstones jidula formation member iii and graywackes gamba group member ii with ages well defined from detailed lithological and biostratigraphic analyses carriers of characteristic remanences are magnetite in limestones and graywackes and hematite in sandstones reliable palaeodirections were obtained from 35 sites 356 specimens positive fold tests antiparallel normal and reverse polarities a northward trend of the palaeolatitudes with decreasing age and absence of any metamorphic overprint indicate a primary origin for the characteristic remanences the results have been compared with expected palaeodirections according to available data for the indian subcontinent based on its present day geometry the late maastrichtian sites fourteen sites 156 specimens and the middle late palaeocene sites fourteen sites 113 specimens yield palaeolatitudes of 5 7 s and 4 0 n for the sampling localities in southern tibet respectively these palaeolatitudes are much further north than expected and imply that crustal shortening between the tethyan himalaya and the indian shield since the time of india eurasia collision has occurred on the order of 1500 km at the longitude of gamba duela comparison of our observed palaeolatitudes with palaeolatitudes for the lhasa block during cretaceous and palaeocene times indicate that initial contact of the northern indian margin with the lhasa block was already established at 65 60 ma with suturing completed at about 55 50 ma

age of initiation of the india asia collision in the east central himalaya abstract we document the stratigraphy and provenance of the lower tertiary terrigenous sections in the zhepure shan region of the tethyan himalaya southern tibet using petrographic and geochemical whole rock and single grain techniques the cretaceous early tertiary shelf deposits of shallow marine carbonates and siliciclastics of the former indian passive margin near the western end of the zhepure shan are conformably overlain by lower tertiary clastic rocks sandstones in the jidula formation paleocene mostly contain monocrystalline quartz grains of cratonic origin in contrast significant amounts of immature framework grains with a distinct ophiolitic and volcanic arc influence are present in the youxia early eocene and shenkeza post early eocene formations major trace and rare earth element concentrations in both sandstones and shales complement the petrographic data and indicate that the source of the jidula formation consisted primarily of quartzose basement rocks probably of indian con

the timing of india asia collision onset facts theories controversies abstract the timing of initial collision between india and asia has remained controversial for half a century this paper attempts to review this crucial and hotly debated argument describing first the different methods used to constrain the age of collision and discussing next the rationale results inferences and problems associated with each we conclude that stratigraphy represents the best direct way to unravel collision chronology other methods focusing on the magmatic metamorphic or paleomagnetic record provide additional fundamental constraints but cannot provide a robust direct estimate of collision onset initial collision in the central eastern himalaya is dated directly at the middle paleocene 59 1 ma by the abrupt change in sediment provenance recorded in trench settings the quasi synchronous unconformities documented along both tethyan passive margin of india and active margin of asia from tibet to zanskar ladakh confirm that orogeny was underway at the close of the paleocene 56 ma well before the disappearance of marine seaways in the himalaya during the early middle eocene 50 45 ma sedimentary evolution and provenance changes in marine to fluvio deltaic successions are recorded synchronously within error from the western to the central eastern himalaya failing to provide conclusive evidence for diachronous collision these coherent observations are hard to reconcile with three widely cited hypotheses invoking either paleogene arc continent collision or late cretaceous ophiolite obduction or the protracted existence of a greater india basin which are all not favored after discussing the geological evidence critically point by point a scenario no more complex than the one involving solely the passive continental margin of india and the active continental margin of asia is needed to explain the geological evolution of the nascent himalaya the collision between the tethys himalaya and the transhimalayan arc trench system does represent the collision between india and asia because the yarlung zangbo ophiolite is the forearc basement of the asian active margin its obduction onto india could not have preceded the initial closure of neo tethys ophiolite obduction began when collision began in the middle paleocene

subsidence history of the tethys himalaya abstract this article reconstructs the evolution of the passive northern margin of peninsular india facing the neotethys from the earliest rifting stages in the carboniferous to final collision with the active southern margin of asia in the early eocene classical techniques of basin analysis were applied to an extensive and coherent stratigraphic data base facies analysis biostratigraphic dating and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of an over 10 km thick sedimentary succession from eight main composite sections allowed us to draw accurate sedimentation and backstripped subsidence curves and to place quantitative constraints on the palaeotectonic scenario inferred from the sedimentary record in each of the investigated composite sections three major stratigraphic gaps are consistently recognised in the rift sequence the rift unconformity mississippian the carboniferous permian hiatus largely kasimovian to asselian and the break up unconformity mid sakmarian two or even all three gaps may merge into a single hiatus spanning up to 70 ma overall gaps are associated with rift shoulder uplift which after calculation of backstripped subsidence sums up to 600 m at least in three of the investigated sections thermal subsidence and low sedimentation rates are documented by the mid permian to middle triassic drift sequence deposited while the neotethys was expanding between northern gondwana and the detached peri gondwanan blocks a marked increase in accumulation rates is recorded in the carnian norian but calculations of uniform lithospheric stretching suggest that extension was minor and associated with tectonic processes affecting distant parts of gondwana the tethys himalayan margin was uplifted around the jurassic cretaceous boundary at the onset of a major volcanic episode finally uplift exceeding in magnitude all previous events is documented by the uppermost units of the stratigraphic column deposited during the earliest stages of collision between india and asia in the latest paleocene to early eocene

nappe stacking resulting from subduction of oceanic and continental lithosphere below greece we quantitatively investigate the relation between nappe stacking and subduction in the aegean region if nappe stacking is the result of the decoupling of upper crustal parts 5 10 km thick from subducting lithosphere then the amount of convergence estimated from balancing the nappe stack provides a lower limit to the amount of convergence accommodated by subduction the balanced nappe stack combined with the estimated amount of completely subducted lithosphere indicates 700 km of jurassic and 2400 km of post jurassic convergence from seismic tomographic images of the underlying mantle we estimate 2100 2500 km of post jurassic convergence we conclude that 1 the imaged slab represents the subducted lithosphere that originally underlay the nappes 2 since the early cretaceous subduction in the aegean has occurred in one single subduction zone and 3 the composition of the original basement of the nappes indicates that at least 900 km of sub upper crust continental lithosphere subducted in the aegean

new paleomagnetic results from the lhasa block revised estimation of latitudinal shortening across tibet and implications for dating the india asia collision knowing how and when the tibetan plateau formed is of global concern as high topography modifies climate circulation patterns and alters species migration paths previous paleomagnetic work suggested that intracontinental shortening from deformation related to the india asia collision played a major role in building the tibetan plateau however these studies were derived from red bed facies which are often afflicted by inclination shallowing leading to overestimates of continental shortening we report new paleomagnetic data from the lhasa block the southern continental margin of asia before the india asia collision a high temperature characteristic remanent magnetization chrm was isolated from 43 sites of late cretaceous red beds 32 sites of late cretaceous lava flows and nine sites of eocene tuffs all the chrm directions are significantly different from the present day geomagnetic field and the mean directions of red beds lava flows and tuffs pass the fold test the distribution patterns of chrm directions derived from volcanic rocks are consistent with a secular variation model suggesting that secular variation was likely averaged out in contrast the red bed chrm directions exhibit an east west elongated distribution pattern indicative of inclination flattening the mean chrm inclination of the red beds 23 5 degrees 2 5 degrees is consistent with previous results but significantly shallower than that of 41 9 degrees 4 4 degrees carried by the coeval lava flows an elongation inclination analysis of the red bed chrm directions yielded an unflattened mean inclination of 39 7 degrees with 95 confidence limits between 37 7 degrees and 41 9 degrees the paleolatitudes of the late cretaceous volcanic rocks and inclination corrected sediments suggest about 10 degrees less shortening occurred between lhasa and siberia than previous estimates with total shortening lying between 3 3 degrees 2 6 degrees and 7 3 degrees 5 4 degrees since the late cretaceous the mean chrm inclination derived from the eocene tuffs 51 8 degrees 5 2 degrees is indistinguishable from the expected reference direction our new results imply that india asia convergence was accommodated mainly through consumption of the india plate and yield a much younger age ca 43 ma for the initial india asia collision than previously estimated by paleomagnetic data c 2010 elsevier b v all rights reserved

paleomagnetic and plate tectonic constraints on the movement of tibet abstract the paleomagnetic results from tibet north of the yarlung zang bo suture zone show that tibet was at about 15 20 n in middle cretaceous time it then moved south down to 7 10 n in the late cretaceous paleogene the oceanic crust of the xigaze ophiolites was magnetized at 13 n but thereafter migrated further south this movement is compared with the relative movement of india and asia as deduced from magnetic anomalies and paleomagnetism experimental models on deformation help us to explain how tibet moved during the late cretaceous under the constraint of the africa arabia indenter and during the upper tertiary under the constraint of the indian indenter

upper crustal shortening and forward modeling of the himalayan thrust belt along the budhi gandaki river central nepal a balanced cross section along the budhi gandaki river in central nepal between the main central thrust including displacement on that fault and the main frontal thrust reveals a minimum total shortening of 400 km minimum displacement on major orogen scale structures include 116 km on the main central thrust 110 km on the ramgarh thrust 95 km on the trishuli thrust and 56 km in the lesser himalayan duplex the balanced cross section was also incrementally forward modeled assuming a generally forward breaking sequence of thrusting where early faults and hanging wall structures are passively carried from the hinterland toward the foreland the approximate correspondence of the forward modeled result to observe present day geometries suggest that the section interpretation is viable and admissible in the balanced cross section the trishuli thrust is the roof thrust for the lesser himalayan duplex the forward model and reconstruction emphasize that the lesser himalayan duplex grew by incorporating rock from the footwall and transferring it to the hanging wall along the main himalayan thrust as the duplex developed the lesser himalayan ramp migrated southward the movement of lesser himalayan thrust sheets over the ramp pushed the lesser himalayan rock and the overburdens of the greater and tibetan himalayan rock toward the erosional surface this vertical structural movement caused by footwall collapse and duplexing in combination with erosion exhumed the lesser himalaya

nyainqentanglha shan a window into the tectonic thermal and geochemical evolution of the lhasa block southern tibet 1 in the nyainqentanglha nqtl massif southern tibet a late cenozoic se dipping normal fault exhumed an oblique section of crust in its footwall u th pb dating of zircon and monazite from footwall exposures reveals a collage of felsic intrusions including cretaceous early tertiary and miocene granitoids ages of the latter span 10 m y suggesting semicontinuous or episodic miocene magmatism geochemical and isotopic analyses show a gangdese arc affinity indicating significant mantle heat and mass transfer in their formation and semicontinuous calc alkaline magmatism throughout the cenozoic indo asian collision the undeformed nature of the footwall cretaceous and miocene granitoids suggests that mesozoic cenozoic lhasa block deformation was thin skinned being concentrated in supracrustal assemblages this coupled with the lack of migmatites exposed in the nqtl implies the exposed crust was not a partial melt zone nor involved in large scale channel flow some 40ar 39ar thermochronologic studies of footwall k feldspars reveal that samples collected within several kilometers below the normal fault cooled prior to emplacement of young leucogranites indicating little perturbation of the background thermal structure since 15 ma this plus high melting temperatures and the lack of penetrative granitoid deformation requires that the melts formed at lower crustal levels and were emplaced rapidly to the midcrust seismic reflection results showing high bright spot anomalies in the midcrust along the nqtl rift may have imaged the youngest magmatic episode or its associated hydrothermal system

the onset of india asia continental collision early steep subduction required by the timing of uhp metamorphism in the western himalaya ultrahigh pressure uhp rocks in the nw himalaya are some of the youngest on earth and allow testing of critical questions of uhp formation and exhumation and the timing of the india asia collision initial collision of india with asia is widely cited as being at 55f1 ma based on a paleomagnetically determined slowdown of india s plate velocity and as being at ca 51 ma based on the termination of marine carbonate deposition even relatively small changes in this collision age force large changes in tectonic reconstructions because of the rapid india asia convergence rate of 134 mm a at the time of collision new u pb shrimp dating of zircon shows that indian rocks of the tso morari complex reached uhp depths at 53 3f0 7 ma given the high rate of indian subduction this dating implies that indian continental crust arrived at the asian trench no later than 57f1 ma providing a metamorphic age for comparison with previous paleomagnetic and stratigraphic estimates india s collision with asia may be compared to modern processes in the timor region in which initiation of collision precedes both the slowing of the convergence rate and the termination of marine carbonate deposition the indian uhp rocks must have traveled rapidly along a short hence steep path into the mantle early continental subduction was at a steep angle probably vertical comparable to modern continental subduction in the hindu kush despite evidence for modern day low angle subduction of india beneath tibet oceanic slab break off likely coincided with exhumation of uhp terranes in the western himalaya and led to the initiation of low angle subduction and leucogranite generation d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

discordant paleomagnetic direction in miocene rocks from the central tarim basin evidence for local deformation and inclination shallowing from exposures at the southeastern end of the maza tagh range in the central tarim basin latitude 38 5 n longitude 80 5 e 55 paleomagnetic sites were collected from red mudstones and sandstones of the miocene wuqia formation thermal demagnetization revealed a high unblocking temperature characteristic remanent magnetization chrm five sites collected across a kink fold yield a positive fold test at 99 confidence level the mean directions computed from normal and reversed polarity sites are antipodal suggesting a primary origin for the chrm in stratigraphic coordinates the final set of 30 site mean chrm directions yields a section mean direction inclination i 29 4 declination d 24 7 k95 6 2 when compared to the miocene expected direction at 20 ma the observed direction indicates 30 8 5 5 flattening of inclination and 15 3 6 7 clockwise vertical axis rotation anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility measurements on 155 samples show a strong foliation of 1 092 with a subvertical minimum susceptibility axis these observations indicate a rock magnetic depositional or compaction shallowed origin for the inclination flattening the clockwise deflection of the observed declination can be interpreted as either 1 15 3 6 7 clockwise rotation of the entire tarim basin since the miocene or 2 a local km scale structural deformation it is not a simple matter to discard the interpretation of 15 3 6 7 clockwise rotation of the tarim basin because the fastest rates of rotation determined from global positioning system and slip rate studies of quaternary faults could produce such a rotation if extrapolated to 20 ma nevertheless we argue that local deformation is the preferred interpretation because the map pattern of local structures shows v20 clockwise deflection toward the southeastern end of the maza tagh range where the paleomagnetic samples were collected 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

reply to comment by ali and aitchison on restoration of cenozoic deformation in asia and the size of greater india in our recent paper van hinsbergen et al 2011a weprovide a kinematic restoration of cenozoic deformation inasia based on the currently available kinematic estimates onfault zones and fold thrust belts in tibet the pamir the tienshan mongolia siberia and indochina our reconstructionsuggests that approximately 1050 km in the pamir to600 km in eastern tibet of india asia convergence wasaccommodated by intraasian shortening in the last 50 ma by comparing this reconstruction with the respective posi tions of india and asia constrained by the eurasia northamerica africa india plate circuit using model a of vanhinsbergen et al 2011b we explored the implicationsfor the size for greater india as a function of collision age whereby we define greater india as the area of lithosphereconsumed by northward subduction beneath the asianmargin since collision of the tibetan himalaya with asia importantly wedonot aprioridefine thatall thatlithospheremust be continental in nature our reconstruction demon strated that if collision started by 50 ma greater india at thetime of initial collision must have been up to 2600 km wide such a 50 ma collision age follows from the timing of thefirst arrival of asia derived detritus in the tibetan himalaya najman et al 2010 wang et al 2011 hu et al 2012 andthe overlap of paleomagnetically determined paleolatitudesfrom the former southern margin of asia the lhasa terrane e g dupont nivet et al 2010a lippert et al 2011 withthose from the tibetan himalaya patzelt et al 1996 yiet al 2011 such a large n s width of greater india inlate cretaceous and paleocene time is consistent with thehigh quality paleomagnetic data from tibetan himalayanrocks of patzelt et al 1996 shown to have undergonenegligible inclination shallowing due to compaction bydupont nivet et al 2010b and recently corroborated by yiet al 2011 when compared to high quality paleomagneticpoles from india those paleomagnetic data demonstrate an s separation between the tibetan himalaya and theindian craton of 22 0 3 0

tibetan uplift prior to the eocene oligocene climate transition evidence from pollen analysis of the xining basin uplift of the tibetan plateau and the himalayas since the onset of the indo asia collision is held responsible for asian aridifi cation and monsoon intensifi cation but may also have gradually cooled global climate leading to the 34 ma eocene oligocene transition to unravel the interplay between tibetan uplift and global climate proxy records of asian paleoenvironments constrained by accurate age models are needed for the paleogene period here we report the 38 ma appearance of high altitude vegetation recovered from palynological assemblages in precisely dated lacustrine sediments from the xining basin of the northeastern tibetan plateau region this result confi rms previous evidence for important regional uplift in the central and northern tibetan plateau regions during the early stage of the indo asia collision this is consistent with the idea that the associated increase in rock weathering and erosion contributed to lowering of atmospheric co 2 leading to the eocene oligocene transition

magnetostratigraphy of the neogene siwalik group in the far eastern himalaya kameng section arunachal pradesh india abstract the siwalik group was deposited from the mid miocene to the pliocene in the foreland of the himalaya and records the unroofing history of the mountain belt in this study we provide the first magnetostratigraphic data for the eastern himalayan foreland basin we analyzed two sections of the lower to upper siwalik group along the kameng river in arunachal pradesh india magnetostratigraphic data were acquired from 395 sites within a 5 8 km thick molassic series thermal demagnetization and magnetic rock property analyses indicate a relatively low temperature 150 340 c characteristic remanent magnetization chrm yielding reliable primary directions carried by iron sulfides such as greigite the results show local counter clockwise rotation of the thrust sheets which is consistent with partitioning of arc normal and left lateral strain along the himalaya nineteen polarity zones have been identified in the two sections detrital fission track data from the top and bottom of the sections are used to constrain correlations with the geomagnetic polarity time scale gpts from chron c5ar 1n to chron c2an 2n from these results we propose that the siwalik formation in arunachal pradesh was deposited between 13 and 2 5 ma the transition between the lower and middle siwaliks is dated at about 10 5 ma and the middle to upper siwaliks transition is dated at 2 6 ma these results coupled with sedimentological observations suggest that the eastern himalayan chrono stratigraphic record is nearly synchronous with that analyzed in other parts of the neogene himalayan foreland basin nevertheless some differences in the evolution of the sedimentation rate and in the thickness of the middle siwaliks suggest that indian plate flexure in the east is different from that observed in other parts of the indian foreland basin and could be affected by the presence of the shillong plateau to the south

initial geometry of western himalaya and ultrahigh pressure metamorphic evolution ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks on both sides of the western himalayan syntaxis show different p t t paths the kaghan unit was metamorphosed under the uhp conditions significantly later 46 ma than the tso morari unit 53 ma implying that the tso morari was subducted earlier 57 ma than the kaghan unit 52 ma the age difference likely reflects the initial shape of greater india with the kaghan unit located greater than 300 km south of the tso morari before the collision of two continents we calculate the dip of the subducting plate using two independent methods the results show gentle dipping subduction east of the western syntaxis and steep subduction west of the syntaxis since the time of india eurasia collision to the present time we propose that the steep subduction in the western part is likely related to the proto chaman and karakorum faults along which the indian plate moved northward in the eastern part the overlying eurasian plate extruded to east which allowed gentle dipping subduction of the indian continent although the main period of eastward extrusion of the eurasian continent occurred between 30 and 15 ma our results suggest that this was likely taking place since the early india asia collision using those geometrical constraints a 3d image of the slab is reconstructed in the western part showing the sharp bending of the western syntaxis along the proto chaman fault this bending resulted in the warping of the slab surface to form a conical fold with a north dipping axis located near the western syntaxis 2007 published by elsevier ltd

detrital zircon provenance comparison between the paleocene eocene nangqian xialaxiu and gongjue basins new insights for cenozoic paleogeographic evolution of the eastern tibetan plateau abstract paleogeographic reconstructions of terranes can greatly benefit from the provenance analysis of sediments a series of cenozoic basins provide key sedimentary archives for investigating the growth of the tibetan plateau yet the provenance of the sediments in these basins has never been constrained robustly here we report sedimentary petrological and detrital zircon geochronological data from the paleocene eocene nangqian xialaxiu and gongjue basins sandstone detrital modes and zircon morphology suggest that the samples collected in these two basins were sourced from recycled orogen detrital zircon geochronology indicates that sediments in the nangqian xialaxiu basin are characterized by two distinct age populations at 220 280 ma and 405 445 ma in contrast three predominant age populations of 207 256 ma 423 445 ma and 1851 1868 ma and two subordinate age populations of 50 ma and 2500 ma are recognized in the gongjue basin comparison with detrital zircon ages from the surrounding terranes suggests that sediments in the nangqian xialaxiu basin come from the neighboring thrust belts whereas sediments from the gongjue basin are predominantly derived from the distant songpan ganzi terrane with minor contribution from the surrounding areas a three stage cenozoic evolution of the eastern tibetan plateau is proposed during the paleocene the nangqian xialaxiu basin appeared as a set of small intermontane sub basins and received plentiful sediments from the neighboring mountain belts during the eocene the gongjue basin kept a relatively low altitude and was a depression at the edge of a proto plateau since the oligocene the tibetan plateau further uplifted and the marginal gongjue basin was involved in the tibetan interior orogeny indicating the eastward propagation of the tibetan plateau

a quasi linear structure of the southern margin of eurasia prior to the india asia collision first paleomagnetic constraints from upper cretaceous volcanic rocks near the western syntaxis of tibet we report the first combined geochronologic and paleomagnetic study of volcanic rocks from the shiquanhe and yare basins at the westernmost lhasa terrane which aims to provide an accurate constraint on the shape and paleoposition of the southern margin of asia prior to the india asia collision three new 40ar 39ar ages of 92 5 2 9 ma 92 4 0 9 ma and 79 6 0 7 ma determined by fresh matrix or feldspar from lava flows suggest a late cretaceous age for the investigated units characteristic remanent magnetizations have been successfully isolated from 38 sites which pass positive fold and or reversal conglomerate tests and are hence interpreted as primary in origin the two paleopoles obtained from yare and shiquanhe yield consistent paleolatitudes of 13 6 n 9 6 n and 14 2 n 2 7 n respectively for a reference site of 31 5 n 80 e indicating that the southern margin of asia near the western syntaxis was located far south during the late cretaceous time a reconstruction of the lhasa terrane in the frame of eurasia with paleomagnetic data obtained from its western and eastern parts indicates that the southern margin of eurasia probably had a quasi linear orientation prior to the collision formerly trending approximately 315 e this is compatible with the shape of the neo tethys slab observed from seismic tomographic studies our findings provide a solid basis for evaluating cenozoic crustal shortening in the asian interior and the size of greater india near the western syntaxis

fluxed melting of metapelite and the formation of miocene high cao two mica granites in the malashan gneiss dome southern tibet identifying the timing of formation and geochemical nature of the cenozoic granites along the himalayan orogen is essential to test or formulate models that link crustal anatexis with tectonic transition during the evolution of large scale collisional orogenic belts the malashan gneiss dome one of the prominent domes within the tethyan himalaya experienced barrovian type metamorphism and partial melting of pelitic rocks at relatively deep levels during the collision between india and eurasia new la mc icp ms zircon u pb analyses yielded that the malashan two mica granites formed at a time span of 17 6 0 1 to 16 9 0 1 ma the malashan two mica granites are characterized by 1 high sio2 71 3 wt al2o3 14 8 wt and relatively high cao 1 3 wt 2 relatively high sr 146 ppm but low rb sr ratios 1 3 which are nearly constant relative to large variations in ba concentrations 3 enrichment in lree depletion in hree and no or weak negative eu anomalies eu eu 0 7 0 9 4 as compared to granites in the other northern himalayan gneiss domes and high himalayan belt relatively lower initial 87sr 86sr ratios 0 7391 0 7484 and similar unradiogenic nd isotope compositions end t 13 7 to 14 4 these characteristics imply that the two mica granites were derived from fluid fluxing melting of metapelite possibly triggered by the e w extension our new data in combination with literature data indicate that there are three types of granites with diverse geochemical characteristics and distinct formation mechanisms along the himalayan orogen since the cenozoic india eurasia continental collision conceivably our new results will provide new insights on how the partial melting behavior of relatively deeper crustal rocks evolved as the tectonic evolution of large orogenic belts

paleomagnetism of eocene red beds in the eastern part of the qiangtang terrane and its implications for uplift and southward crustal extrusion in the southeastern edge of the tibetan plateau abstract a primary magnetic component with the acquisition time of 56 0 43 2 ma was isolated between 580 c and 685 c from the eocene gonjo and ranmugou formations in the eastern part of the qiangtang terrane tibetan plateau the tilt corrected site mean direction is d s 35 5 i s 29 3 k 45 9 95 3 2 the site mean inclination increased from 29 3 to 41 6 after multiple inclination shallowing corrections giving a paleopole of 57 9 n 192 1 e a 95 2 9 comparison of the paleogene paleomagnetic data for the qiangtang terrane and lhasa terrane reveals that both terranes experienced latitudinal crustal shortening before 54 43 ma indicating the uplift of southern and central tibet in the early eocene subsequently since 35 4 2 4 ma the north of the qiangtang terrane experienced 1300 410 km of crustal shortening indicating the uplift of the northern tibetan plateau the lhasa terrane and qiangtang terrane have not experienced further crustal shortening since the late eocene and the southeastern part of tibet cannot have provided abundant crustal material to accommodate the significant crustal southward extrusion in the southeastern edge of the tibetan plateau the crust of the tengchong terrane and shan thai block did not experience significant southward extrusion since the late oligocene early miocene the indochina block was situated in the north of the qiangtang terrane before the oligocene and since the early oligocene the indochina block began to experience southward extrusion from the north of the qiangtang terrane which absorbed part of the crustal shortening in the north of the qiangtang terrane

inclination flattening and the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis abstract william gilbert first articulated what has come to be known as the geocentric axial dipole hypothesis the gad hypothesis is the principle on which paleogeographic reconstructions rely to constrain paleolatitude for decades there have been calls for permanent non dipole contributions to the time averaged field recently these have demanded large contributions of the axial octupole which if valid would call into question the general utility of the gad hypothesis in the process of geological recording of the geomagnetic field earth filters distort the directions many processes for example sedimentary inclination flattening and random tilting can lead to a net shallowing of the observed direction therefore inclinations that are shallower than expected from gad can be explained by recording biases northward transport or non dipole geomagnetic fields using paleomagnetic data from the last 5 million years from well constrained lava flow data allows the construction of a statistical geomagnetic field model such a model can predict not only the average expected direction for a given latitude but also the shape of the distribution of directions produced by secular variation the elongation of predicted directions varies as a function of latitude from significantly elongate in the up down direction at the equator to circularly symmetric at the poles sedimentary inclination flattening also works in a predictable manner producing elongations that are stretched side to side and the degree of flattening depending on the inclination of the applied field and a flattening factor f the twin tools of the predicted elongation inclination relationship characteristic of the geomagnetic field for the past 5 million years and the distortion of the directions predicted from sedimentary inclination flattening allows us to find the flattening factor that yields corrected directions with an elongation and average inclination consistent with the statistical field model the method can be tested using sediments deposited in a known field application of the elongation inclination correction method to two magnetostratigraphic data sets from red beds in asia and pakistan brings the inclinations into agreement with those predicted from modern gps measurements and from global paleomagnetic data there appears to be no compelling reason at this time to abandon the geocentric dipole hypothesis which has provided such an excellent working model for so long

dominant control of the south asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating heat emitted from the tibetan plateau as dry heat and water vapour has long been assumed to be the main driver of the south asian summer monsoon but new work suggests that in fact it is the neighbouring mountains that are the major influence william boos and zhiming kuang use an atmospheric model to show that flattening the tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon so long as the himalayas and surrounding mountain ranges remain the plateau does boost rainfall locally along its southern edge but it is the build up of hot moist air over india insulated from colder drier air by the himalayas that drives large scale monsoon circulation the elevation of the tibetan plateau is thought to cause its surface to serve as a heat source that drives the south asian summer monsoon potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales here however an atmospheric model is used to show that flattening of the tibetan plateau has little effect on the monsoon provided that the narrow orography of the himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges is preserved the tibetan plateau like any landmass emits energy into the atmosphere in the form of dry heat and water vapour but its mean surface elevation is more than 5 km above sea level this elevation is widely held to cause the plateau to serve as a heat source that drives the south asian summer monsoon potentially coupling uplift of the plateau to climate changes on geologic timescales1 2 3 4 5 observations of the present climate however do not clearly establish the tibetan plateau as the dominant thermal forcing in the region peak upper tropospheric temperatures during boreal summer are located over continental india south of the plateau here we show that although tibetan plateau heating locally enhances rainfall along its southern edge in an atmospheric model the large scale south asian summer monsoon circulation is otherwise unaffected by removal of the plateau provided that the narrow orography of the himalayas and adjacent mountain ranges is preserved additional observational and model results suggest that these mountains produce a strong monsoon by insulating warm moist air over continental india from the cold and dry extratropics these results call for both a reinterpretation of how south asian climate may have responded to orographic uplift and a re evaluation of how this climate may respond to modified land surface and radiative forcings in coming decades

cretaceous paleomagnetic results from western tibet and tectonic implications we present paleomagnetic results obtained from samples collected in the summer of 1989 along a 1000 km traverse between yecheng xinjiang and shiquanhe tibet in the western qinghai xizang plateau along 80 e longitude during this field trip 480 paleomagnetic cores in jurassic to tertiary limestones and sandstones were drilled at 49 sites 400 were measured isothermal remanent magnetization analysis indicates the existence of high coercivity minerals and thermal rather than alternating field demagnetization was found to be more efficient in isolating paleomagnetic directions the characteristic magnetization has rather low unblocking temperatures 250 560 c in most limestone samples and higher unblocking temperatures 400 c 680 c in the sandstone samples about half of the measured samples show the present geomagnetic field or aberrant directions the remainder display stable multicomponent magnetizations the stable characteristic magnetizations indicate 1 a probable jurassic remagnetization 2 a cretaceous 120 80 ma magnetization which passes a fold test yielding a mean pole at 66 2 n 245 0 e a95 5 1 n 14 sites and 3 a large scatter of tertiary directions which may be due to tectonic problems and or remagnetization in the sampling zone the cretaceous paleodirections from aksaichin and longmuco 11 sites on the qiangtang north tibet block are very similar to those from shiquanhe three sites on the lhasa south tibet block separated by 300 km this suggests that the north and south tibet blocks formed a single unit at least as early as the cretaceous comparing our results with previous paleomagnetic work on the tibetan plateau it is found that the paleolatitude of 10 6 5 1 obtained from this study for a reference at domar 33 75 n 80 4 e is close to that 9 6 2 8 obtained by achache et al 1984 and lin and watts 1988 from the takena formation 110 100 ma in the lhasa region 30 n 91 e in addition it appears that the southern margin of the tibetan blocks i e eurasia occupied an e w trending position at about 7 6 n latitude paleodeclination differences between the western and eastern tibetan blocks suggest internal deformations of the plateau at different scales from 1 to 1000 km according to differences in paleomagnetic declinations the arcuate shape of the blocks would have been partly acquired after the collision

neo tethyan evolution in southeastern extension of tibet constraints from early paleocene to early eocene granitic rocks with associated enclaves in tengchong block abstract the granite is one of most widely distribution rocks in crust and its petrogenesis is crucial to advance our knowledge of thermal condition in continental crust the long time tectonic evolution of crust in the active continental margin could be recorded by multi stages of granitic assemblage in order to reveal the subduction of neo tethys and initial collision of indian asian continents in eastern tibetan plateau we selected the early paleocene to early eocene granitic rocks with associated enclaves in tengchong block southeastern extension of gangdese magmatic belt to clarify their different derivation regimes using geochemical and isotopic compositions mineral compositional variation the zircon data show that early paleocene granites formed at 64 ma and early eocene granitic rocks formed at 54 ma combing with the field contact relationship the similar and enriched sr nd pb and zircon hf isotopic compositions indicate that the two stages of granitic rocks have a common and ancient lower crustal source the enclaves in early paleocene granites could represent crystallization of coeval and cognate magmas at margin of magmatic conduit but the enclaves in early eocene granitic rocks are products of magma mixing between mafic and felsic magma according to rock assemblages and geochemical signatures of granitic rocks during early paleocene to early eocene in tengchong block we propose that early paleocene granitic rocks are derived from partial melting of lower crustal rocks induced by long lived heat accumulation with no or minimal basalt flux during the neo tethyan subduction whereas early eocene granitic rocks are derived from melting of crustal materials resulted from high mafic magma flux during indian asian continental collision the initial collision occurred at ca 55 ma

cretaceous tertiary carbonate platform evolution and the age of the india asia collision along the ladakh himalaya northwest india abstract the india asia collision resulted in the formation and uplift of the himalaya and the enhanced uplift of the tibetan plateau the transition from marine to continental facies within the indus yarlung tsangpo suture zone and along the northern margin of the indian plate provides the most accurate method of dating the closure of the tethys ocean separating the indian and asian plates other indirect methods of dating the collision such as paleomagnetism dating the uhp metamorphism along the north margin of india dating the youngest subduction related granites along the southern margin of asia and dating the postorogenic indus molasse group deposits within the suture zone cannot provide such a precise or reliable age of collision ophiolite obduction onto the indian passive margin occurred during the latest cretaceous and predated initial collision of the two continental plates unconformities occur beneath the late maastrichtian marpo formation and beneath the danian stumpata formation on the

palaeomagnetic estimates of crustal shortening in the himalayan thrusts and zangbo suture this article reports new palaeomagnetic results from precisely dated late palaeocene limestones from the former northern margin of the indian subcontinent now in tibet between the major himalayan thrusts and the india tibet suture zone convergence in the suture and intracontinental thrusting can be estimated separately and are respectively found to be of the order of 550 km 650 km and 400 km 400 km comparison with kinematic models derived from magnetic anomalies constrains the age of the collision at about 50 myr

kinematic evolution of a continental collision constraining the himalayan tibetan orogen via bulk strain rates abstract we investigated temporal variations of the bulk strain rate across the himalayan tibetan orogen which impact the magnitudes rates and distribution of deformation across the orogen the present day strain rate estimated from geodesy is 5 6 10 16 s 1 and estimation of past rates depends on the orogenic shortening rate and effective orogen width plate circuit reconstructions provide constraints on time varying india asia convergence rates showing a marked deceleration since initial collision at ca 58 ma geologic evidence suggests that most of the tibetan crust started deforming shortly after initial collision which simplifies estimation of the initial orogen width we examined several kinematic models 1 greater indian and tibetan crust started deforming immediately after collision 2 only tibetan crust deformed initially 3 plate convergence was decoupled from crustal shortening with tibetan crust deforming slower than plate rates or 4 a hard india asia collision at ca 45 ma following closure of the xigaze backarc models 1 3 and 4 yield early cenozoic bulk strain rates that match present day rates 5 6 10 16 s 1 whereas model 2 yields faster rates 1 2 10 15 s 1 that must have decreased through time to avoid shortening exceeding total plate convergence using these bounds we constrain crustal shortening across the entire orogen and along its southern and northern margins defined by the himalaya and qilian shan respectively application of these models to tibetan crustal thickening suggests that the plateau reached its present day value 70 km by ca 15 ma which corresponds to the onset of lateral deformation e g strike slip and normal faulting lateral deformation in the himalayan tibetan orogen may have resulted from progressive crustal thickening and reorientation of the intermediate principal stress axis at the thrust belt scale our modeling yields shortening rates and magnitudes that match geologic observations this approach provides testable external kinematic constraints to guide future geological and geophysical investigations

an early india asia contact paleomagnetic constraints from ninetyeast ridge odp leg 121 new paleomagnetic results from sedimentary rock and basement of the ninetyeast ridge ocean drilling program leg 121 sites 756 758 detail the northward movement of the indian plate for the past 80 m y analysis of the combined paleolatitude age profile indicates a distinct reduction in india9s northward movement rate at 55 ma interpreted as completion of suturing of greater india and asia india9s northward motion slowed from 18 19 5 cm yr to 4 5 cm yr for the location of site 758 comparison of this profile with paleomagnetic data from the wider himalayan region indicates that initial contact between northwestern greater india and southern asia was already established by cretaceous tertiary time this supports a possible causal link between the india asia convergence and the deccan traps extrusion

midcrustal discontinuities and the assembly of the himalayan midcrust detailed quartz lattice preferred orientation lpo data define two structural discontinuities in the exhumed high grade metamorphic core of the himalaya exposed in the upper tama kosi region of east central nepal the structures are marked by abrupt breaks in a general trend of up structural section increasing quartz lpo defined deformation temperatures deformation associated with the upper structural discontinuity which occurs within sillimanite grade rocks is postpeak metamorphism in both the hanging wall and the footwall new geochronologic data constrain the timing of metamorphism in the hanging wall of the upper discontinuity to between 24 and 16 ma indistinguishable from previously published ages for the footwall movement across this structure represents early miocene strain localization and thickening in the himalayan midcrust movement across the lower discontinuity which occurs between staurolite and kyanite grade rocks appears to be synmetamorphic with material in its footwall at approximately 10 ma but postpeak metamorphism for material in its hanging wall this movement is interpreted to reflect the underplating and incorporation of material into the metamorphic core the recognition of two thrust sense discontinuities in the exhumed himalayan core in the tama kosi region is consistent with other similar structures recognized along the himalaya the widespread nature of these structures reinforces that they are important to our understanding of the evolution of the kinematics of large hot orogens

eocene neotethyan slab breakoff in southern tibet inferred from the linzizong volcanic record abstract formation of the linzizong volcanic successions in the lhasa terrane southern tibet has long been related to northward subduction of the neotethyan oceanic slab under asia here we report new 40ar 39ar age results for the volcanic rocks recovered from a large area 29 n to 32 n and 85 e to 93 e that together with literature data delineate two discrete stages of volcanism these are a widespread cretaceous stage and an intense but spatially confined paleogene stage the latter occurring only in the southern part of the lhasa terrane resulted in the linzizong volcanic successions our data furthermore suggest southward migration and intensification of the volcanism in the lhasa terrane with magmatic flare ups at ca 50 ma while the volcanic successions consist dominantly of calc alkaline rocks typical of arc lava geochemistry those formed during the flare up period show significant compositional variations from low k tholeiitic through calc alkaline to shoshonitic magma suites these observations enable us to interpret the volcanic southward migration and following flare ups as the consequences of rollback and breakoff of the subducted neotethyan slab that occurred ahead and in the early stage respectively of the india asia collision our interpretation that involves a major eocene tectonomagmatic activity and concomitant topographic uplift in southern tibet is consistent with himalayan metamorphic constraints regional sedimentary records and seismic tomography

a review of indian phanerozoic palaeomagnetism implications for the india asia collision abstract an overview is presented of the indian apparent polar wander path apwp for the phanerozoic and in particular for post late palaeozoic times this apwp is compiled on basis of data available at october 1981 from peninsular and extrapeninsular indo pakistan and from dsdp cores from the indian plate one of the more important and newly recognized features of this apwp is a large scale triassic jurassic loop this loop indicates a changeover from a late palaeozoic early mesozoic northwards and counter clockwise rotational movement with greater india reaching moderately low southern latitudes into a southwards and clockwise rotational movement during the early to middle jurassic recognizable likewise in apwp s from other gondwana continents this loop reflects the opening of the neotethys studies of extrapeninsular regions up to and north of the indus tsangpo suture zone have shown wide spread presence of magnetic overprints which delineate two regionally confined age groups younger overprints 20 40 m y predominate in the more external thrust zones older overprints 50 60 m y in contrast are found in the more internal zones both north and south of the indus tsangpo suture zone the latter are interpreted to reflect a late phase of relaxation in the early tertiary collision of greater india with south central asia or off shore island arcs which occurred at equatorial to low northern palaeolatitudes 0 10 n subsequent northwards movement over 2500 3000 km or more and impingement of greater india into southern asia resulted into large scale underthrusting of greater india along the main central thrust beneath southern tibet and to clockwise rotation of thrust units in the western himalaya a discrepancy between indian palaeomagnetic data and results available todate from southern tibet is discussed

potassic ultrapotassic intrusions at the southwestern margin of the yangtze craton southwestern china petrogenesis and implications for the metal and fluid source of non arc porphyry cu mo au deposits abstract magmatic rocks can reveal partial melting processes in the lower crust and mantle therefore the petrogenesis of both ore barren and ore bearing magmatic rocks can provide key insights into the deep geological processes that control porphyry cu mo au deposits pcds here we investigate the petrogenesis of potassic ultrapotassic igneous rocks in the southwestern yangtze craton swyc to constrain their magmatic sources and assess their role in the formation of pcds these igneous rocks can be divided into three suites ore barren granite porphyry lamprophyre and ore bearing quartz monzonite u pb dating of zircons indicates that these potassic ultrapotassic intrusions crystalized simultaneously between 35 4 and 33 6 ma the lamprophyres have low sio2 contents and high mgo and k2o contents exhibiting an ultrapotassic affinity they are depleted in high field strength elements hfses nb ta zr hf and ti and enriched in large ion lithophile elements liles rb k sr and ba the enriched sr nd and hf isotopic compositions of the ore barren lamprophyres suggest that they were derived from low degree partial melting of lithospheric mantle that had been metasomatized by subduction related fluids during the proterozoic the ore barren granite porphyries have high sio2 and k2o contents with high k calc alkaline to shoshonitic characteristics these rocks have low mgo cr ni and co contents all samples exhibit high sr y ratios and highly fractionated rare earth elements rees patterns with weak eu anomalies combined with their low total ree contents 75 81 ppm and ehf t values which are similar to neoproterozoic granulite xenoliths we conclude that the ore barren porphyries are adakites derived from thickened neoproterozoic lower crust the ore bearing intrusions show variable sio2 and high na2o k2o contents plotting in the monzonite to quartz monzonite fields in a sio2 vs na2o k2o diagram these samples have much higher total ree contents 346 671 ppm than the ore barren intrusions the homogeneous sr nd isotopic compositions and linear trends on harker diagrams suggest that the magma that formed the ore bearing rocks underwent fractional crystallization of mainly amphibole and accessory minerals water contents are estimated to have been 9 12 wt at 0 8 gpa on the basis of the retention of plagioclase and low zircon saturation temperatures which suggests that the primitive magmas of the ore bearing intrusions were derived from water fluxed melting rather than dehydration melting the additional water required to promote water fluxed melting was probably derived from underplated poassic ultrapotassic mafic magmas the high total ree contents sr y and la yb n ratios indicate that the primitive magmas of ore bearing intrusions were probably derived from partial melting of potassic ultrapotassic lower crust formed by the underplating of mantle derived potassic ultrapotassic magma these results combined with previous research show that mantle derived potassic ultrapotassic magmas can provide metals and fluids required for the formation of pcds

can a primary remanence be retrieved from partially remagnetized eocence volcanic rocks in the nanmulin basin southern tibet to date the india asia collision paleomagnetic dating of the india asia collision hinges on determining the paleogene latitude of the lhasa terrane southern tibet reported latitudes range from 5 n to 30 n however leading to contrasting paleogeographic interpretations here we report new data from the eocene linzizong volcanic rocks in the nanmulin basin which previously yielded data suggesting a low paleolatitude 10 n new zircon u pb dates indicate an age of 52 ma negative fold tests however demonstrate that the isolated characteristic remanent magnetizations with notably varying inclinations are not primary rock magnetic analyses end member modeling of isothermal remanent magnetization acquisition curves and petrographic observations are consistent with variable degrees of posttilting remagnetization due to low temperature alteration of primary magmatic titanomagnetite and the formation of secondary pigmentary hematite that unblock simultaneously previously reported paleomagnetic data from the nanmulin basin implying low paleolatitude should thus not be used to estimate the time and latitude of the india asia collision we show that the paleomagnetic inclinations vary linearly with the contribution of secondary hematite to saturation isothermal remanent magnetization we tentatively propose a new method to recover a primary remanence with inclination of 38 1 35 7 40 5 95 significance and a secondary remanence with inclination of 42 9 41 5 44 4 95 significance the paleolatitude defined by the modeled primary remanence 21 n 19 8 n 23 1 n is consistent with the regional compilation of published results from pristine volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks of the upper linzizong group corrected for inclination shallowing the start of the tibetan himalaya asia collision was situated at 20 n and took place by 50 ma

lower cretaceous xigaze ophiolites formed in the gangdese forearc evidence from paleomagnetism sediment provenance and stratigraphy the india asia suture zone of southern tibet exposes lower cretaceous xigaze ophiolites and radiolarian cherts and time equivalent asian derived clastic forearc sedimentary rocks xigaze group these ophiolites have been interpreted to have formed in the forearc of the north dipping subduction zone below tibet that produced the gangdese magmatic arc around 15 20 n or in the forearc of a sub equatorial intra oceanic subduction zone to better constrain the latitude of the ophiolites we carried out an integrated paleomagnetic geochronologic and stratigraphical study on epi ophiolitic radiolarites chongdui and bainang sections and xigaze group turbiditic sandstones unconformably overlying the ophiolite s mantle units sangsang section detrital zircon u pb geochronology of tuffaceous layers from the chongdui section and sandstones of the xigaze group at the sangsang sectionprovides maximum depositional ages of 116 5 3 1maand128 8 3 4ma respectively for the chongdui sectionand an asian provenance signature for the xigaze group paleomagnetic analyses integrated with rock magnetic experiments indicate significant compaction related inclination shallowing of the remanence within the studied rocks two independent methods are applied for the inclination shallowing correction of the paleomagnetic directions from the sangsang section yielding consistent mean paleolatitudes of 16 2 n 13 n 20 9 n and 16 8 n 11 1 n 23 3 n respectively these results are indistinguishable from recent paleolatitude estimates for the gangdese arc in southern tibet radiolarites from the chongdui and bainang sections yield low paleomagnetic inclinations that would suggest a sub equatorial paleolatitude but the distribution of the paleomagnetic directions in these rocksstrongly suggests a low inclination bias by compaction our data indicate that spreading of the xigaze ophiolite occurred in the gangdese forearc and formed the basement of the forearc strata

paleomagnetism of the upper cretaceous red beds from the eastern edge of the lhasa terrane new constraints on the onset of the india eurasia collision and latitudinal crustal shortening in southern eurasia abstract the late cretaceous location of the lhasa terrane is important for constraining the onset of india eurasia collision however the late cretaceous paleolatitude of the lhasa terrane is controversial a primary magnetic component was isolated between 580 c and 695 c from upper cretaceous jingzhushan formation red beds in the dingqing area in the northeastern edge of the lhasa terrane tibetan plateau the tilt corrected site mean direction is d s i s 0 9 24 3 k 46 8 95 5 6 corresponding to a pole of plat plon 71 4 273 1 with a 95 5 2 the anisotropy based inclination shallowing test of hodych and buchan 1994 demonstrates that inclination bias is not present in the jingzhushan formation the cretaceous and paleogene poles of the lhasa terrane were filtered strictly based on the inclination shallowing test of red beds and potential remagnetization of volcanic rocks the summarized poles show that the lhasa terrane was situated at a paleolatitude of 13 2 8 6 n in the early cretaceous 10 8 6 7 n in the late cretaceous and 15 2 5 0 n in the paleogene reference point 29 0 n 87 5 e the late cretaceous paleolatitude of the lhasa terrane 10 8 6 7 n represented the southern margin of eurasia prior to the collision of india eurasia comparisons with the late cretaceous to paleogene poles of the tethyan himalaya and the 60 ma reference pole of east asia indicate that the initial collision of india eurasia occurred at the paleolatitude of 10 8 6 7 n since 60 5 1 5 ma reference point 29 0 n 87 5 e and subsequently 1300 910 km post collision latitudinal crustal convergence occurred across the tibet the vast majority of post collision crustal convergence was accommodated by the cenozoic folding and thrust faulting across south eurasia

palaeolatitude and age of the indo asia collision palaeomagnetic constraints summary ongoing controversies on the timing and kinematics of the indo asia collision can be solved by palaeomagnetically determined palaeolatitudes of terranes bounding the indo asia suture zone we show here based on new palaeomagnetic data from the linzizong volcanic rocks 54 47 ma near the city of lhasa that the latitude of the southern margin of asia was 22 8 4 2 n when these rocks were deposited this result combined with revised palaeomagnetic results from the northernmost sedimentary units of greater india and with apparent polar wander paths of india and eurasia palaeomagnetically constrain the collision to have occurred at 46 8 ma 95 per cent confidence interval these palaeomagnetic results are consistent with tomographic anomalies at 15 25 n that are interpreted to locate the tethyan oceanic slab that detached following collision and with independent 56 46 ma collision age estimates inferred from the timing of slowing down of india high pressure metamorphism the end of marine sedimentation and the first occurrence of suture zone and arc detritus on the greater indian margin when compared with apparent polar wander paths of india and eurasia the 46 ma onset of collision at 22 8 4 2 n implies 2900 600 km subsequent latitudinal convergence between india and asia divided into 1100 500 km within asia and 1800 700 km within india

paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of southern tibet since middle cretaceous time new paleomagnetic data and synthesis during the second french chinese paleomagnetic campaign in tibet in the summer of 1981 we sampled the middle cretaceous red beds of the takena formation and the cenozoic volcanics of the lingzizong formation a detailed analysis of about 400 specimens of red beds reveals a stable component of normal magnetization n in the north of the lhasa block north of the nyainqentanglha range and two stable components in the south lt ht where the red beds are more strongly folded and are unconformably overlain by the lingzizong volcanics all three components are carried by hematite blocking temperatures range from 400 to 600 c for lt and up to the neel temperature of hematite for both n and ht lt is shown to postdate part of the folding of the takena whereas n and ht both indicate a positive fold test at the 99 probability level in addition a small less than 10 of the natural remanent magnetization antiparallel component is superimposed in most samples and may be consistent with a model of long term acquisition of a chemical remanent magnetization for the red beds analysis of the volcanics reveals a single stable component with mixed polarities carried either by hematite or magnetite the paleomagnetic directions indicate that 1 the lhasa block stood at 12 5 3 n by upper cretaceous and at 13 5 6 5 n in the paleocene eocene thus confirming the limited displacement of the margin of eurasia between albian aptian deposition of the red beds and eocene onset of the india asia collision these values imply crustal shortening by as much as 1900 850 km north of the block since the upper cretaceous and by 1400 1200 km south of the block since the onset of the collision 2 southern tibet formed a single tectonic unit by middle cretaceous time and 3 differential rotations are observed within the block and are related to the collision these rotations are discussed in the frame of a recent propagating extrusion tectonics model this study confirms the close paleogeographic relationship between indochina khorat plateau and southern tibet prior to the india asia collision

constraints on the collision and the pre collision tectonic configuration between india and asia from detrital geochronology thermochronology and geochemistry studies in the lower indus basin pakistan abstract knowledge of the timing of india asia collision is a fundamental prerequisite for understanding the evolution of the himalayan tibetan orogen and its role in global climate oceanic chemistry and ecological evolution despite much active research the basic pre collision tectonic configuration and the timing of terminal india asia suturing remain debated for example debates regarding when and how the intervening kohistan ladakh arc was sutured with india and asia still remain elusive some models propose the arc collided with asia at about 100 ma with india asia collision at ca 55 ma whilst a newer model proposed the arc s collision with india at 50 ma and subsequently with asia at 40 ma another example is the recent proposition that an oceanic greater india basin separated the tethyan himalaya microcontinent from the remaining indian plate until 20 25 ma with the consumption of this oceanic basin marking the final collision at this time these controversies relate to whether the commonly documented 50 ma contact represents the terminal india asia suturing or the amalgamation between various arcs or microcontinents with india or asia here we present an integrated provenance study of geochronology thermochronology and geochemistry on the late cretaceous pleistocene sediments from the lower indus basin on the indian plate the detrital zircon u pb and fission track data show a reversal in sediment source from a pure indian signature to increasing inputs from the suture zone and the asian plate between the middle paleocene and early oligocene the nd and sr isotopes narrow down this change to 50 ma by revealing input of asian detritus and the establishment of a nd sr isotopic pattern similar to the present day indus fan by 50 ma with no significant variations up section contrary to what might be expected if later major collisions had occurred our isotopic data indicate that greater india was occupied by a fluvial deltaic system analogous to the present day indus and named as the paleo indus which has been transporting asian detritus southward across the suture zone and kohistan ladakh arc since 50 ma suggesting no other ocean basins intervened between india and asia after this time in this region our data require that in the west the india asia collision were accomplished by 50 ma

burma terrane part of the trans tethyan arc during collision with india according to palaeomagnetic data convergence between the indian and asian plates has reshaped large parts of asia changing regional climate and biodiversity yet geodynamic models fundamentally diverge on how convergence was accommodated since the india asia collision here we report paleomagnetic data from the burma terrane at the eastern edge of the collision zone and famous for its cretaceous amber biota to better determine the evolution of the india asia collision the burma terrane was part of a trans tethyan island arc and stood at a near equatorial southern latitude at 95 ma suggesting island endemism for the burmese amber biota the burma terrane underwent significant clockwise rotation between 80 50 ma causing its subduction margin to become hyper oblique subsequently it was translated northward on the indian plate by an exceptional distance of at least 2000 km along a dextral strike slip fault system in the east our reconstructions are only compatible with geodynamic models involving a first collision of india with a near equatorial trans tethyan subduction system at 60 ma followed by a later collision with the asian margin

paleomagnetism of the oligocene kangtuo formation red beds central tibet inclination shallowing and tectonic implications abstract a paleomagnetic study on the red beds of the oligocene kangtuo formation fm was carried out in the gerze basin of the lhasa terrane a total of 700 samples were collected from 37 sites stepwise thermal demagnetization revealed that the main magnetic carrier is hematite the natural remnant magnetization nrm consists of two components a low temperature component ltc is identified below 300 c and is interpreted to be a recent viscous overprint whereas a high temperature component htc unblocks at 665 690 c and is interpreted to be the primary magnetization the htc distributions show a clear east west elongated distribution which is considered as reflecting inclination flattening of deposited magnetic remanence carriers after inclination calibration using the e i method the htc could pass both a reversal test and a fold test at 95 confidence level showing the mean direction at ds 340 3 is 44 2 with k 63 0 and 95 3 1 corresponding to a paleopole at 71 7 n 339 3 e a95 3 1 and the paleolatitude of the sampling site at 25 9 3 1 n the paleolatitude is consistent with that expected from the coeval pole of the qiangtang terrane obtained from volcanic rocks suggesting that there has been no paleomagnetically discernable latitudinal motion between the qiantang and lhasa terranes since 30 ma comparing our new data with the apparent polar wander paths apwps of east asian blocks cogne et al 2013 europe and india besse and courtillot 2002 we have reached the following conclusions 1 there is no significant paleolatitudinal difference observed between the lhasa terrane and other central and northern asian terranes at 30 ma 2 the observed paleolatitude of the kangtuo fm is 8 0 4 9 lower than the expected paleolatitude deduced from the data of stable europe highlighting the asian inclination anomaly phenomenon but is 4 6 5 1 higher than that deduced from the data of the india plate likely presenting a 506 561 km shortening between the india and lhasa terrane since the oligocene it is inferred that this amount of shortening has been absorbed mainly by the himalaya orogenic belt

the geological evolution of the tibetan plateau the geological evolution of the tibetan plateau is best viewed in a context broader than the india eurasia collision zone after collision about 50 million years ago crust was shortened in western and central tibet while large fragments of lithosphere moved from the collision zone toward areas of trench rollback in the western pacific and indonesia cessation of rapid pacific trench migration 15 to 20 million years ago coincided with a slowing of fragment extrusion beyond the plateau and probably contributed to the onset of rapid surface uplift and crustal thickening in eastern tibet the latter appear to result from rapid eastward flow of the deep crust probably within crustal channels imaged seismically beneath eastern tibet these events mark a transition to the modern structural system that currently accommodates deformation within tibet

tethyan subducted slabs under india abstract tomographic imaging of the mantle under tibet india and the adjacent indian ocean reveals several zones of relatively high p wave velocities at various depths under the hindu kush region in northeastern afghanistan and southern tajikistan a regional northward dipping slab is seen in the entire upper 600 km of the mantle and is apparently still attached to the lithosphere of the indian plate under northern pakistan this same slab shows a roll over structure with the deeper portion overturned and dipping southward as can also be seen in the distribution of earthquake hypocenters farther east southeast e g in the vicinity of nepal a well resolved anomaly below 450 km depth is connected to the slab under the hindu kush but seems to be separated from the lithosphere above 350 km these upper mantle anomalies are interpreted as the remnants of delaminated sub continental lithosphere that went down when greater india continued to converge northward with asia after 45 ma the deeper high velocity anomalies under the indian sub continent appear clearly separated from the shallower ones as well as from each other and are inferred to represent remnants of oceanic lithospheric slabs that have sunk into the lower mantle and were subsequently overridden by the indian plate they occur at depths between 1000 and 2300 km and occasionally descend down to the core mantle boundary the anomalies form three parallel wnw ese striking zones we interpret the two southern zones as remnants of oceanic lithosphere that was subducted when the neo tethys ocean closed between india and tibet in the cretaceous and earliest tertiary the northern deep mantle zone under northern afghanistan the himalayas and the lhasa block in southern tibet may represent the last subducted remnant of the paleo tethys ocean which is thought to have closed before the hauterivian stage of the early cretaceous the middle zone continues southeastward as a rather straight high velocity zone towards sumatra where it becomes convex southward and parallel to the subduction zone under the sunda arc comparison of this straight middle zone near india with the shallower upper 600 1000 km northern zone which displays a cusp like shape near the yunnan sw china syntaxis of the eastern himalayas supports the notion that the shallow northern zone represents later subduction than the deeper middle zone the suggestion of a counterclockwise rotation 20 of the indian plate during tertiary indentation of asia is supported by these features the present day latitudes of 5 35 n of the deep slabs under india and adjacent areas correspond to the approximate paleolatitudes of the cretaceous subduction zones the slab remnants in the middle mantle occur therefore near the ancient locations where they started their downward journey which implies that lateral movements in the deeper mantle were not large

how long is an aftershock sequence the occurrence of a mainschok is always followed by aftershocks spatially distributed within the fault area the aftershocks rate decay with time is described by the empirical omori law which was inferred by catalogues analysis the sequences discrimination within catalogues is not a straightforward operation especially for low magnitude mainshocks here we describe the rate decay of the omori law obtained using different sequence discrimination tools and we discover that when the background seismicity is excluded the sequences tend to last for the temporal extension of the catalogue

miocene post collisional shoshonites and their crustal xenoliths yarlung zangbo suture zone southern tibet geodynamic implications the convergence between the indian plate and the southern margin of the eurasian continent created an active continental margin from late jurassic until about 40 ma ago which then evolved to form the himalaya and the tibetan plateau during the continental collision stage post collisional magmatism in southern tibet north of the yarlung zangbo suture zone yzsz has been active since 45 ma and is related to normal faulting and extensional tectonism to date no such magmatism was reported within the yzsz itself this paper reports on the discovery of miocene shoshonites within the yzsz they are significant because the magma traveled at least in part through oceanic crust thus limiting interaction with the continental crust to the mid crustal level and which affected the post collisional magmatic rocks occurring in the northern part of the subduction system in addition xenoliths and xenocrysts of crustal origin in these rocks constrain the nature of metamorphic rocks underlying the yzsz at mid crustal level the geochemical signatures of the shoshonitic rocks including nd and sr isotope systematics indicate derivation from a garnet bearing middle continental crustal source crustal imprint complicates modeling of the petrogenetic processes which occurred prior to mid crustal ponding of the magma which took place between 11 and 17 ma at depths of 40 to 50 km the significant role of crustal contamination raises serious concerns about models proposed for similar magmatic activity elsewhere in the himalaya and the tibetan plateau

implications of shortening in the himalayan fold thrust belt for uplift of the tibetan plateau 1 recent research in the himalayan fold thrust belt provides two new sets of observations that are crucial to understanding the evolution of the himalayan tibetan orogenic system first u pb zircon ages and sm nd isotopic studies demonstrate that 1 greater himalayan medium to high grade metasedimentary rocks are much younger than true indian cratonic basement and 2 these rocks were tectonically mobilized and consolidated with the northern margin of gondwana during early paleozoic orogenic activity these observations require that greater himalayan rocks be treated as supracrustal material in restorations of the himalayan fold thrust belt rather than as indian cratonic basement in turn this implies the existence of greater himalayan lower crust that is not exposed anywhere in the fold thrust belt second a regional compilation of shortening estimates along the himalayan arc from pakistan to sikkim reveals that 1 total minimum shortening in the fold thrust belt is up to 670 km 2 total shortening is greatest in western nepal and northern india near the apex of the himalayan salient and 3 the amount of himalayan shortening is equal to the present width of the tibetan plateau measured in an arc normal direction north of the indus yalu suture zone this information suggests that a slab of greater indian lower crust composed of both indian cratonic lower crust and greater himalayan lower crust with a north south length of 700 km may have been inserted beneath the tibetan crust during the cenozoic orogeny we present a modified version of the crustal underthrusting model for himalayan tibetan orogenesis that integrates surface geological data recent results of mantle tomographic studies and broadband seismic studies of the crust and upper mantle beneath the tibetan plateau previous studies have shown that incremental mesozoic and early cenozoic shortening had probably thickened tibetan crust to 45 55 km before the onset of the main cenozoic orogenic event thus the insertion of a slab of greater indian lower crust with maximum thickness of 20 km tapering northward could explain the cenozoic uplift of the tibetan plateau the need for tibetan crust to stretch laterally as the greater indian lower crust was inserted may explain the widespread east west extension in the southern half of the plateau our reconstruction of the himalayan fold thrust belt suggests that indian cratonic lower crust of presumed mafic composition and high strength should extend approximately halfway across the tibetan plateau to the banggong suture from there northward we predict that the tibetan plateau is underlain by more felsic and therefore weaker lower crust of greater himalayan affinity two slab break off events are predicted by the model the first involved neotethyan oceanic lithosphere that foundered 45 35 ma and the second consisted of greater indian lithosphere most likely composed of greater himalayan material that delaminated and foundered 20 10 ma asthenospheric upwelling associated with the break off events may explain patterns of cenozoic volcanism on the tibetan plateau although the model predicts a northward migrating topographic front due solely to insertion of greater indian lower crust the actual uplift history of the plateau was complicated by early middle tertiary shortening of tibetan crust

restoration of cenozoic deformation in asia and the size of greater india a long standing problem in the geological evolution of the india asia collision zone is how and where convergence between india and asia was accommodated since collision proposed collision ages vary from 65 to 35 ma although most data sets are consistent with collision being underway by 50 ma plate reconstructions show that since 50 ma 2400 3200 km west to east of india asia convergence occurred much more than the 450 900 km of documented himalayan shortening current models therefore suggest that most post 50 ma convergence was accommodated north of the indus yarlung suture zone we review kinematic data and construct an updated restoration of cenozoic asian deformation to test this assumption we show that geologic studies have documented 600 750 km of n s cenozoic shortening across and north of the tibetan plateau the pamir hindu kush region accommodated 1050 km of n s convergence geological evidence from tibet is inconsistent with models that propose 750 1250 km of eastward extrusion of indochina approximately 250 km of indochinese extrusion from 30 to 20 ma of indochina suggested by se asia reconstructions can be reconciled by dextral transpression in eastern tibet we use our reconstruction to calculate the required size of greater india as a function of collision age even with a 35 ma collision age the size of greater india is 2 3 times larger than himalayan shortening for a 50 ma collision the size of greater india from west to east is 1350 2600 km consistent with robust paleomagnetic data from upper cretaceous paleocene tethyan himalayan strata these estimates for the size of greater india far exceed documented shortening in the himalaya we conclude that most of greater india was consumed by subduction or underthrusting without leaving a geological record that has been recognized at the surface

outward growth of the tibetan plateau during the cenozoic a review abstract the surface uplift history of the tibetan plateau tp offers a key testing ground for evaluating models of collisional tectonics and holds important implications for processes ranging from global cooling to the onset of the asian monsoon various models have been proposed to reveal the surface uplift history of the tp but controversies remain we evaluate these models using data from sedimentology and stratigraphy structural geology magmatism exhumation and paleoaltimetry studies structural analyses indicate that thrust belts which spread from the central tp outward toward its surrounding margins accommodated most of the india asia convergence and facilitated crustal shortening and thickening in the central tp eocene adakitic rocks located in the qiangtang and the lhasa blocks likely were generated by partial melting of an eclogitic source paleogene 50 30 ma potassic rocks only occur in the qiangtang block whereas late oligocene late miocene 26 8 ma potassic rocks occur both in the qiangtang and lhasa blocks low temperature thermochronologic ages in the central tp are older than 40 35 ma whereas those in the margins are younger than 20 ma mostly late miocene and pliocene pleistocene in age independent paleoaltimetry estimates suggest that the lhasa and qiangtang terranes attained their current elevations during the eocene most likely due to the initial collision between india and lhasa whereas the hoh xil basin area to the north and himalayas to the south were still low even below sea level in the latter case we argue for an inside out growth pattern for the tibetan plateau the tp grew southward and northward from a nucleus of high topography and is likely to continue expanding along the mazar tagh fault to the northwest the kuantai shan hei shan longshou shan to the northeast the longquan shan to the east and the shillong plateau to the south if the northward force of india would not diminished

cretaceous tertiary geology of the gangdese arc in the linzhou area southern tibet abstract knowledge of the cretaceous tertiary history of upper crustal shortening and magmatism in tibet is fundamental to placing constraints on when and how the tibetan plateau formed in the lhasa terrane of southern tibet the widely exposed angular unconformity beneath uppermost cretaceous lower tertiary volcanic bearing strata of the linzizong formation provides an excellent geologic and time marker to distinguish between deformation that occurred before vs during the indo asian collision in the linzhou area located 30 km north of the city of lhasa a 3 km thick section of the linzizong formation lies unconformably on cretaceous and older rocks that were shortened by both northward and southward verging structures during the late cretaceous the linzizong formation dips northward in the footwall of a north dipping thrust system that involves triassic jurassic strata and a granite intrusion in the hanging wall u pb zircon geochronologic studies show that the linzizong formation ranges in age from 69 ma to at least 47 ma and that the hanging wall granite intrusion crystallized at 52 ma coeval with dike emplacement into footwall cretaceous strata 40ar 39ar thermochronologic studies suggest slow cooling of the granite between 49 and 42 ma followed by an episode of accelerated cooling to upper crustal levels beginning at 42 ma the onset of rapid cooling was coeval with the cessation of voluminous arc magmatism in southern tibet and is interpreted be a consequence of either 1 tertiary thrusting in this region or 2 regional rock uplift and erosion following removal of overthickened gangdese arc lower crust and upper mantle or break off of the neo tethyan oceanic slab

anomalous low palaeomagnetic inclinations from oligocene lower miocene red beds of the south west tien shan central asia summary we studied oligocene to lower miocene red beds from the western margins of the south west ghissar range the westernmost part of the tien shan fold belt central asia a total of 19 sites were sampled on both limbs of a gentle syncline after removal of an unstable component at 200 to 300 c the natural remanent magnetization in these red beds from 18 sites is accounted for by one characteristic component chrm which persists up to 680 c intermediate directions of the geomagnetic field were recorded at five sites after tilt correction the overall mean direction for the remaining 13 sites is d 3 i 30 k 19 95 8 9 both the reversal and the fold tests are positive haematite is found to be the main remanence carrier in these red beds the calculated mean declination fits well with the reference data besse courtillot 1991 and no rotation with respect to eurasia is detected in accord with geological data in contrast the mean inclination is about 30 shallower than expected we argue that this result is not due to large scale northward transport of the area mean inclinations showing a similar amount of shallowing were also reported from the tadzhik and fergana basins and kirghiz tien shan from various rock types thomas et al 1993 1994 and we are of the opinion that neither inclination error nor compaction could have led to such a consistent pattern the analysis of all reliable early tertiary palaeomagnetic results extracted from the global paleomagnetic data base for the northern part of the eurasian plate reveals that inclination anomalies are very common in this data set whatever the rock type the general tendency is a progressive increase in the anomaly amplitude from the atlantic ocean to central asia the size and localization of this tertiary field anomaly is comparable with the present day non dipole field anomaly this suggests that there may have been a long term standing non dipole anomaly in the tertiary earth magnetic field perhaps correlated to major features of the contemporaneous plate tectonics for example the india asia collision

magnetization age from paleomagnetism of the copper harbor red beds northern michigan usa and its keweenawan geologic consequences the copper harbor formation on lake superior s keweenaw peninsula records the transition from volcanic to sedimentary infilling of north america s 1 1 ga keweenawan rift radiometric dating shows t

mid eocene high sr y granites in the northern himalayan gneiss domes melting thickened lower continental crust abstract within the himalayan collisional belt granotoids occur along two sub parallel belts the northern himalayan gneiss domes nhgd and the high himalayan crystalline series hhcs in the yardoi area of nhgd two mica granite a new type granite occurs in the core of the yardoi gneiss dome ygd dala and quedang from north to south and extends at least 50 km long these granites have similar mineral composition elemental and radiogenic isotope geochemistry and age of formation shrimp zircon u pb dating indicates that the yardoi and the quedang two mica granites formed at 42 6 1 1 ma and 42 8 0 6 ma respectively similar to the dala pluton these two mica granites have 1 high sio2 68 wt al2o3 15 wt and a cnk 1 0 2 relatively high sr and lree but low y 40 and up to 250 and la yb 30 4 very weak or no eu anomalies and 5 as compared with those in the himalayan leucogranites low initial sr 87sr 86sr i

palaeomagnetic results from the tibetan plateau palaeomagnetic measurements were carried out on 1325 oriented samples collected from 246 sites on a traverse of the tibetan plateau from lhasa to golmud in 1985 crossing the lhasa terrane qiangtang terrane and kunlun terrane high blocking temperature high coercivity statistically grouped magnetizations were isolated from the following units lhasa terrane cretaceous takena formation mid cretaceous nagqu volcanics mid cretaceous qelico volcanics qiangtang terrane norian batang group volcanics kimmeridgian yanshiping group paleocene to eocene fenghuoshan group kunlun terrane visean to namurian dagangou formation dykes of the triassic igneous province the triassic data from the kunlun terrane triassic and lower tertiary data from the qiangtang terrane and the cretaceous data from the lhasa terrane indicate palaeolatitudes ca 20 s of their present position within the eurasian frame of reference a possible interpretation is that the terranes successively accreted to eurasia and remained in the southern position until the convergence of india drove them northward via a process of tectonic shortening and or displacement of continental crust the carboniferous data from the kunlun terrane are consistent with moderate southern hemisphere latitude well separated from eurasia which was in the northern hemisphere at this time implying the existence of ocean crust between these blocks during the carboniferous

global plate motion frames toward a unified model 1 plate tectonics constitutes our primary framework for understanding how the earth works over geological timescales high resolution mapping of relative plate motions based on marine geophysical data has followed the discovery of geomagnetic reversals mid ocean ridges transform faults and seafloor spreading cementing the plate tectonic paradigm however so called absolute plate motions describing how the fragments of the outer shell of the earth have moved relative to a reference system such as the earth s mantle are still poorly understood accurate absolute plate motion models are essential surface boundary conditions for mantle convection models as well as for understanding past ocean circulation and climate as continent ocean distributions change with time a fundamental problem with deciphering absolute plate motions is that the earth s rotation axis and the averaged magnetic dipole axis are not necessarily fixed to the mantle reference system absolute plate motion models based on volcanic hot spot tracks are largely confined to the last 130 ma and ideally would require knowledge about the motions within the convecting mantle in contrast models based on paleomagnetic data reflect plate motion relative to the magnetic dipole axis for most of earth s history but cannot provide paleolongitudes because of the axial symmetry of the earth s magnetic dipole field we analyze four different reference frames paleomagnetic african fixed hot spot african moving hot spot and global moving hot spot discuss their uncertainties and develop a unifying approach for connecting a hot spot track system and a paleomagnetic absolute plate reference system into a hybrid model for the time period from the assembly of pangea 320 ma to the present for the last 100 ma we use a moving hot spot reference frame that takes mantle convection into account and we connect this to a pre 100 ma global paleomagnetic frame adjusted 5 in longitude to smooth the reference frame transition using plate driving force arguments and the mapping of reconstructed large igneous provinces to core mantle boundary topography we argue that continental paleolongitudes can be constrained with reasonable confidence

when and where did india and asia collide timing of the collision between india and asia is the key boundary condition in all models for the evolution of the himalaya tibetan orogenic system thus it profoundly affects the interpretation of the rates of a multitude of associated geological processes ranging from tibetan plateau uplift through continental extrusion across eastern asia as well as our understanding of global climate change during the cenozoic although an abrupt slowdown in the rate of convergence between india and asia around 55 ma is widely regarded as indicating the beginning of the collision most of the effects attributed to this major tectonic episode do not occur until more than 20 ma later refined estimates of the relative positions of india and asia indicate that they were not close enough to one another to have collided at 55 ma on the basis of new field evidence from tibet and a reassessment of published data we suggest that continent continent collision began around the eocene oligocene boundary 34 ma and propose an alternative explanation for events at 55 ma

india asia collision and the cenozoic slowdown of the indian plate implications for the forces driving plate motions the plate motion of india changed dramatically between 50 and 35 ma with the rate of convergence between india and asia dropping from 15 to 4 cm yr this change is coincident with the onset of the india asia collision and with a rearrangement of plate boundaries in the indian ocean on the basis of a simple model for the forces exerted upon the edges of the plate and the tractions on the base of the plate we perform force balance calculations for the precollision and postcollision configurations we show that the observed euler poles for the indian plate are well explained in terms of their locations and magnitudes if 1 the resistive force induced by mountain building in the himalaya tibet area is 5 6 10 12 n m 2 the net force exerted upon the indian plate by subduction zones is similar in magnitude to the ridge push force 2 5 10 12 n m and 3 basal tractions exert a resisting force that is linearly proportional to the plate velocity in the hot spot reference frame the third point implies an asthenospheric viscosity of 2 5 10 19 pa s assuming a thickness of 100 150 km synthetic euler poles show that crustal thickening in the tibetan plateau was the dominant cause of the cenozoic slowdown of the indian plate

the cenozoic rotational extrusion of the chuan dian fragment new paleomagnetic results from paleogene red beds on the southeastern edge of the tibetan plateau abstract paleomagnetic studies were conducted on the eocene and oligocene strata at the western part of the chuan dian fragment in order to describe the crustal deformation induced by continuous penetration of the indian plate into eurasia during the late cenozoic high temperature magnetic components with unblocking temperatures of 680 c were isolated and positive fold and or reversal tests reveal the primary nature of the magnetization the tilt corrected site mean directions obtained from the oligocene and middle early eocene strata are respectively ds 200 9 is 31 3 k 52 8 95 7 7 and ds 29 7 is 32 0 k 44 9 95 5 6 comparison of these results with previous paleomagnetic data from the chuan dian fragment shows that the western and central parts of the chuan dian fragment experienced 20 integral clockwise rotation relative to east asia since the middle miocene however the eastern part of the chuan dian fragment has experienced different rotational deformation relative to east asia since the pliocene because of the intense regional crustal deformation and activity on fault systems the eastern boundary of the chuan dian fragment was bounded by the yuanmou luezhijiang left lateral strike slip fault prior to the pliocene and then substituted by the xiaojiang left lateral strike slip fault since the pliocene due to the eastwards spreading of the clockwise rotational movement of the chuan dian fragment the evolutionary characteristics of the ailaoshan red river and xianshuihe xiaojiang strike slip faults were controlled by the difference between the clockwise rotational extrusion velocities of the chuan dian fragment and the indochina block

new tertiary paleomagnetic poles from mongolia and siberia at 40 30 20 and 13 ma clues on the inclination shallowing problem in central asia we report results of a paleomagnetic study of 490 cores from 59 sites corresponding to 52 distinct basaltic flows from mongolia and siberia khaton sudal 39 4 ma 44 5 n 101 4 e taatsyn gol 1 31 5 ma 45 4 n 101 3 e 2 28 0 ma 45 5 n 101 1 e ust bokson 19 9 ma 52 1 n 100 3 e and taatsyn gol 3 12 7 ma 45 5 n 101 0 e stepwise thermal and alternating field demagnetizations isolated a stable high temperature component htc of magnetization in most specimens which we interpret as the primary magnetization of these basaltic lava flows the four corresponding paleopoles appear consistent with coeval paleopoles from other asian effusive formations however except for the 12 7 ma paleopole the paleopoles are systematically far sided from the european apparent polar wander path apwp with respect to site locations corresponding to anomalously shallow inclinations in tertiary asian effusive formations in the hypothesis of a dipolar magnetic field in the tertiary this indicates a 1000 1500 km position of the siberia craton and amuria block farther south than expected at 40 and 30 ma tectonically this interpretation implies decoupling and relative rotations between the western and eastern parts of eurasia between the cretaceous and present we show that if siberia were located more to the south the 15 20 paleolatitude anomaly generally observed in sedimentary formations from central asia reduces to a more reasonable average value of 7 which could result from the superimposition of shallowing mechanisms due to sedimentary processes and northward motion of asian blocks under the effect of ongoing penetration of india into eurasia in the tertiary

cretaceous tertiary shortening basin development and volcanism in central tibet the geologic map pattern of the qiangtang terrane in central tibet defines a 600 km long and up to 270 km wide east plunging structural culmination it is characterized by early mesozoic blueschist bearing melange and upper paleozoic strata in the core and mainly triassic jurassic strata along the limbs in the western qiangtang terrane 84 e the culmination is unconformably overlain by weakly deformed mid cretaceous volcanic flows and tuffs along the bangong suture to the south 32 n 84 e mid cretaceous nonmarine red beds and volcanic rocks lie unconformably on jurassic suture zone rocks these relationships demonstrate that west central tibet was above sea level during the mid cretaceous and experienced significant denudation prior to mid cretaceous time growth of the qiangtang culmination is inferred to have initiated during southward emplacement of a thrust sheet of early mesozoic melange and upper paleozoic strata during the early cretaceous lhasa qiangtang collision the north south width of the inferred thrust sheet provides a minimum slip estimate of 150 km at 84 e decreasing eastward to 70 km at 87 e paleogene deformation in the qiangtang terrane is characterized by widely distributed mainly north dipping thrust faults that cut eocene oligocene red beds and volcanic rocks in their footwall along the bangong suture the north dipping shiquanhe gaize amdo thrust system cuts 64 and 43 m y old volcanic tuffs in its footwall and accommodated 40 km of post mid cretaceous shortening the tertiary south dipping gaize siling co backthrust bounds the southern margin of the bangong suture and marks the northernmost limit of mid cretaceous marine strata in central tibet cretaceous deformation and denudation in central tibet is attributed to northward underthrusting of the lhasa terrane beneath the qiangtang terrane along the bangong suture this model implies that 1 cretaceous strata along the bangong suture and in the northern lhasa terrane were deposited in a flexural foreland basin system and derived at least in part from the qiangtang terrane and 2 the central tibetan crust was thickened substantially prior to the indo asian collision although its magnitude is poorly known tertiary shortening in the qiangtang terrane is more prevalent than in the lhasa terrane this difference may be attributed to the presence of underthrust melange in the deeper central tibetan crust which would have made it weaker than the lhasa terrane during the indo asian collision

combined paleomagnetic and geochronological study on cretaceous strata of the qiangtang terrane central tibet abstract a combined paleomagnetic and geochronological investigation has been performed on cretaceous rocks in southern qiangtang terrane 32 5 n 84 3 e near gerze central tibetan plateau a total of 14 sites of volcanic rocks and 22 sites of red beds have been sampled our new u pb geochronologic study of zircons dates the volcanic rocks at 103 8 0 46 ma early cretaceous while the red beds belong to the late cretaceous rock magnetic experiments suggest that magnetite and hematite are the main magnetic carriers after removing a low temperature component of viscous magnetic remanence stable characteristic remanent magnetization chrm was isolated successfully from all the sites by stepwise thermal demagnetization the tilt corrected mean direction from the 14 lava sites is d 348 0 i 47 3 k 51 0 95 5 6 corresponding to a paleopole at 79 3 n 339 8 e a 95 5 7 and yielding a paleolatitude of 29 3 5 7 n for the study area the chrm directions isolated from the volcanic rocks pass a fold test at 95 confidence suggesting a primary origin the volcanic data appear to have effectively averaged out secular variation as indicated by both geological evidence and results from analyzing the virtual geomagnetic pole vgp scatter the mean inclination from the late cretaceous red beds however is 13 1 shallower than that of the 100 ma volcanic rocks after performing an elongation inclination analysis on 174 samples of the red beds a mean inclination of 47 9 with 95 confidence limits between 41 9 and 54 3 is obtained which is consistent with the mean inclination of the volcanic rocks the site mean direction of the late cretaceous red beds after tilt correction and inclination shallowing correction is d 312 6 i 47 7 k 109 7 95 3 0 n 22 sites corresponding to a paleopole at 49 2 n 1 9 e a 95 3 2 yielding a paleolatitude of 28 7 3 2 n for the study area the chrm of the red beds also passes a fold test at 99 confidence indicating a primary origin comparing the paleolatitude of the qiangtang terrane with the stable asia there is no significant difference between our sampling location in the southern qiangtang terrane and the stable asia during 100 ma and late cretaceous our results together with the high quality data previously published suggest that an 550 km n s convergence between the qiangtang and lhasa terranes happened after 100 ma comparison of the mean directions with expected directions from the stable asia indicates that the gerze area had experienced a significant counterclockwise rotation after 100 ma which is most likely caused by the india asia collision

cenozoic tectonic evolution of qaidam basin and its surrounding regions part 1 the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and northern qaidam basin cenozoic qaidam basin the largest active intermountain basin inside tibet figures importantly in the debates on the history and mechanism of tibetan plateau formation during the cenozoic indo asian collision to determine when and how the basin was developed we conducted detailed geologic mapping and analyses of a dense network of seismic reflection profiles from the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and northern qaidam basin our geologic observations provide new constraints on the timing and magnitude of cenozoic crustal thickening in northern tibet specifically our work shows that the southernmost part of the qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and contractional structures along the northern margin of qaidam basin were initiated in the paleocene early eocene 65 50 ma during or immediately after the onset of the indo asian collision this finding implies that stress was transferred rapidly through tibetan lithosphere to northern tibet from the indo asian convergent front located 1000 km to the south the development of the thrust system in northern qaidam basin was driven by motion on the altyn tagh fault as indicated by its eastward propagation away from the altyn tagh fault the eastward lengthening of the thrust system was spatially and temporally associated with eastward expansion of qaidam basin suggesting thrust loading was the main control on the basin formation and evolution the dominant structure in northern qaidam basin is a southwest tapering triangle zone which started to develop since the paleocene and early eocene 65 50 ma and was associated with deposition of an overlying southwest thickening growth strata sequence recognition of the triangle zone and its longevity in northern qaidam basin explains a long puzzling observation that cenozoic depocenters have been located consistently along the central axis of the basin this basin configuration is opposite to the prediction of classic foreland basin models that require the thickest part of foreland sediments deposited along basin edges against basin bounding thrusts restoration of balanced cross sections across the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt and northern qaidam basin suggests that cenozoic shortening strain is highly inhomogeneous varying from 20 to 60 both vertically in a single section and from section to section across the thrust belt the spatially variable strain helps explain the conflicting paleomagnetic results indicating different amounts of cenozoic rotations in different parts of qaidam basin the observed crustal shortening strain also implies that no lower crustal injection or thermal events in the mantle are needed to explain the current elevation 3000 3500 m and crustal thickness 45 50 km of northern qaidam basin and the southern qilian shan nan shan thrust belt instead thrusting involving continental crystalline basement has been the main mechanism of plateau construction across northern qaidam basin and the southern qilian shan nan shan region

reply to comment by eduardo garzanti on when and where did india and asia collide we thank eduardo garzanti for his comment garzanti 2008 on our recent paper aitchison et al 2007 a traditional approach is to apply occam s razorand view our planet s most significant orogenic zone as aresponse to closure of a one ocean two continent conver gence system however a vast body of new data has beenobtained in the decades following widespread acceptance ofthis conservative model by the scientific community wecontend that significant details are lost with this conven tional view critically it is now clear that the northernmargin of india experienced not one but two quite discretecollisions during the paleogene

chains clumps and strings magnetofossil taphonomy with ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy magnetotactic bacteria produce intracellular crystals of magnetite or greigite the properties of which have been shaped by evolution to maximize the magnetic moment per atom of iron intracellular bacterial magnetite therefore possesses traits amenable to detection by physical techniques typically narrow size and shape distributions single domain size and arrangement in linear chains and often crystal elongation past strategies for searching for bacterial magnetofossils using physical techniques have focused on identifying samples containing significant amounts of single domain magnetite or with narrow coercivity distributions searching for additional of traits would however increase the likelihood that candidate magnetofossils are truly of biological origin ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy fmr is in theory capable of detecting the distinctive magnetic anisotropy produced by chain arrangement and crystal elongation here we present analyses of intact and lysed magnetotactic bacteria dilutions of synthetic magnetite and sedimentary samples of modern carbonates from the great bahama bank oligocene miocene deep sea muds from the south atlantic and pleistocene lacustrine deposits from mono basin california we demonstrate that fmr can distinguish between intact bacterial magnetite chains collapsed chains and linear strings of magnetite formed by physical processes we also show that sediments in which the magnetization is likely carried by bacterial magnetite have fmr spectra resembling those of intact or altered bacterial magnetite chains

position of the lhasa terrane prior to india asia collision derived from palaeomagnetic inclinations of 53 ma old dykes of the linzhou basin constraints on the age of collision and post collisional shortening within the tibetan plateau the lhasa terrane comprises the southern eurasian margin since at least mid cretaceous therefore paleomagnetic data from the lhasa terrane are crucial to reconstruct the pre collisional southern margin of eurasia previous paleomagnetic data from the cretaceous takena formation provide a rough constraint on the pre collisional paleolatitudinal position of the southern eurasian margin however paleogene paleomagnetic data from the lhasa terrane which can provide more direct constraints are very limited in addition reliability of the existing data is ambiguous because of a possible later overprint in our new study 17 sites were drilled from mafic dykes intruded in the t1 unit of the linzizong formation of the linzhou basin near lhasa for paleomagnetic studies figure 1 the dykes were ar 40 ar 39 dated to c 53 ma by yue and ding 2006 from ten sites a higher coercivity component demagnetized between 20 and 100 mt could be isolated detailed rockmagnetic analyses reveal ti rich titanomagnetite as the remanence carrier which suggests that the rock is not much altered and the remanent magnetization is likely of primary origin this is supported by a positive fold test the occurrence of normal and reverse polarity directions within single sites the subvolcanic character of the dykes and the within site scatter as well as the scatter between site mean directions indicate that paleosecular variation is recorded within sites tilt correction was performed using the bedding of overlying fluvial lacustrine sediments and tilt angles of ignimbrite columns postdating the dyke emplacement bedding corrected directions give an overall mean direction of d i 12 3 27 2 95 10 6 k 21 7 n 10 corresponding to a paleolatitude of 13 2 5 8 n at a reference location on the suture zone 20 n 90 e comparison with previous cretaceous data mainly from the takena formation yields a stable position of the lhasa terrane during cretaceous and early eocene this indicates that no large north south crustal shortening occurred along the southern eurasian margin between late cretaceous and early eocene the difference between expected paleolatitudes determined from the apwp of eurasia and observed paleolatitudes reveals relative northward movement of the lhasa block of ca 1847 763 km since early eocene this is attributed to indentation of india into asia and implies a considerable amount of north south crustal shortening two models of greater india were used to determine the extended northern margin of india ali and aitchison 2005 proposed a greater india based on bathymetric features in the eastern indian ocean and patzelt and others 1996 determined the paleolatitude of northern india using paleomagnetic investigations on paleocene sediments of the zongpu formation at gamba and duela intersection of the pre collisional southern eurasian margin and the northern margin of india yields a collision age of the indian and eurasian continents of c 5349 ma an initial collision within this time range is in accordance with previous studies based on paleomagnetic or geologic data e g patriat and achache 1984 klootwijk and others 1992 guillot and others 2003 a significantly later collision age at the eocene oligocene boundary as proposed by aitchison and others 2007 is not in agreement with our new and previous paleomagnetic data from the lhasa block