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Yuan J, Yang Z, Deng C, Krijgsman W, Hu X, Li S, Shen Z, Qin H, An W, He H, Ding L, Guo Z, Zhu R. Rapid drift of the Tethyan Himalaya terrane before two-stage India-Asia collision. Natl Sci Rev 2020; 8:nwaa173. [PMID: 34691680 PMCID: PMC8310735 DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2020] [Accepted: 07/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The India-Asia collision is an outstanding smoking gun in the study of continental collision dynamics. How and when the continental collision occurred remains a long-standing controversy. Here we present two new paleomagnetic data sets from rocks deposited on the distal part of the Indian passive margin, which indicate that the Tethyan Himalaya terrane was situated at a paleolatitude of ∼19.4°S at ∼75 Ma and moved rapidly northward to reach a paleolatitude of ∼13.7°N at ∼61 Ma. This implies that the Tethyan Himalaya terrane rifted from India after ∼75 Ma, generating the North India Sea. We document a new two-stage continental collision, first at ∼61 Ma between the Lhasa and Tethyan Himalaya terranes, and subsequently at ∼53−48 Ma between the Tethyan Himalaya terrane and India, diachronously closing the North India Sea from west to east. Our scenario matches the history of India-Asia convergence rates and reconciles multiple lines of geologic evidence for the collision.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Zhenyu Yang
- College of Resources, Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
| | - Chenglong Deng
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Wout Krijgsman
- Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht HD 3584, The Netherlands
| | - Xiumian Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210029, China
| | - Shihu Li
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Zhongshan Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Huafeng Qin
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Wei An
- State Key Laboratory of Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210029, China
| | - Huaiyu He
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Lin Ding
- College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Zhengtang Guo
- Innovation Academy for Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Rixiang Zhu
- State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
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