Rapid drift of the Tethyan Himalaya terrane before two-stage India-Asia collision.

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, diachronousl

SUBMITTER: Yuan J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8310735 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature