## 5 Conclusions  
Overall, this study provides detailed patterns of the spatial distribution characteristics of major active faults and structural discontinuities in the crustal lithosphere and upper mantle, revealing the tectonic evolution mechanisms of the Tibetan Plateau and Pamir Plateau.  
We found 15 faults that cut through the lithosphere, mostly distributed in the Pamir Plateau, the Himalayan orogenic zone and northern Tibet. They are the Chaman fault, Shyok suture zone, Altyn-Tagh fault, Karakash fault, Karakoram fault, Talas-Fergana fault, Kashgarr-Yeshgar transfer system, Rushan-Pshart suture zone, Sangri-Nacuo fault, Main Frontal thrust, Burmese fold belt, Yadong-Gulu fault, Gaoligong fault, Sagaing fault and Nujiang fault.  
In the Pamir Plateau, we have elucidated two tectonic mechanisms of two famous geodynamic phenomena. The first explains why intense seismicity is confined to the western upper crust of the Pamir Plateau. It could be explained as a significant fragmentation of crustal material, mostly caused by the gravitational collapse of sedimentary rocks from western Pamir into the Tajik-Afghan basin. The second is the tectonic signature of intense intermediate-depth seismicity beneath Pamir-Hindukush. Two distinct structures with opposite Bouguer gravity anomalies indicate that they belong to the Indian and Eurasian plates, respectively. In the Tibetan Plateau, the lateral discontinuity of the deep medium is consistent with the mechanism of abundant geothermal resources beneath the Yadong-Gulu fault. The Indian plate is ruptured at the base of the lithosphere, leading to upwelling of the soft flow ring along the rift and intrusion into the lithospheric interior.  
Most importantly, we have revealed different tectonic features of the western and eastern Himalayan syntaxes. Tectonic discontinuities in the WHS are widespread at all depths. However, tectonic discontinuities in the EHS are more complex and not well defined between depths of 10 km and 85 km. These tectonic features suggest that the closed structure was only formed to the west. This is the basic mechanism responsible for the tectonic escape of the Tibetan Plateau. Based on this finding, we could conclude that the spatial distribution of crustal horizontal deformation patterns in the Himalayas is related to the interaction between the Indian and Eurasian plates in the deep crust and upper mantle.  
[PERSON] conceived and designed this study. [PERSON] performed the Bouguer gravity anomaly correction and wavelet multiscale decomposition calculations. [PERSON] analysed the tectonic characteristics of the Himalayan tectonic belt and the eastern Tibetan Plateau. [PERSON] analysed the tectonic characteristics of the Pamir Plateau and the Western Tibetan Plateau. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province, grant number 2021 JQ-562.  
Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** All the data used in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.  
**Acknowledgments:** We are grateful to the UCSD for providing free-air gravity anomaly data. We also appreciate [PERSON] (Group of Dynamics of the Lithosphere, Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra ([PERSON]), CSIC 08028 Barcelona, Spain) for sharing their Fortran 90 code to compute Bouguer gravity anomalies.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.