page_title: Bangong suture
section_title: Cenozoic reactivation
hierarchical_section_title: Bangong suture / Cenozoic reactivation
caption_attribution_description: English: Cross section depicting the tectonic evolution of the Bangong suture zone from the early Jurassic to the early Cretaceous.
context_page_description: The Bangong suture zone is approximately 1200 km long and trends in an east–west orientation, and a key location in the central Tibet conjugate fault zone. Located in central Tibet between the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes, it is a discontinuous belt of ophiolites and mélange that is 10–20 km wide, up to 50 km wide in places. The northern part of the fault zone consists of northeast striking sinistral strike-slip faults while the southern part consists of northwest striking right lateral strike-slip faults. These conjugate faults to the north and south of the Bangong intersect with each other along the Bangong-Nujiang suture zone.
context_section_description: Suturing of microcontinents was followed by the continued northward drift of the Indian subcontinent, colliding with Eurasia during the Cenozoic, about 45-55 million years ago.  Since the India-Eurasia collision, the convergence rate with Eurasia is predicted to have slowed by more than 40% between 20 and 10 Ma due to crustal thickening. The high Tibetan plateau resisted further crustal thickening leading to the slowing of convergence and subsequent migration of crustal shortening to the flanks of the plateau.  The closure of the Neo-Tethys Ocean occurred at this time, as the southern edge of Eurasia (marked by the Lhasa terrane), collided with India. The penetration of the India into Eurasia reactivated the suture zone (which is located in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau), causing northward movement of both thrust faults and strike-slip faults. Strike-slip faults were responsible for moving mostly undeformed continental blocks eastward, away from the main convergent zone.
caption: Cross section depicting the tectonic evolution of the Bangong suture zone. 1. An oceanic backarc basin forms separating the Amdo basement from the Qiangtang terrane. Slab rollback is a possible explanation for this extension. 2. Continued subduction of oceanic crust in the early-middle Jurassic. Closure of the oceanic back arc basin causes ophiolite obduction and a period of metamorphism in the Amdo basement. 3. In the early Cretaceous, the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes collide creating the Bangong suture. A foreland basin also forms at this time. Cross section is modified from Guynn et al., 2006.[7]
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