Oblique Stepwise Rise and Growth of the Tibetan Plateau

@article{TapponnierStepwise, abstract = {Two end member models of how the high elevations in Tibet formed are (i) continuous thickening and widespread viscous flow of the crust and mantle of the entire plateau and (ii) time-dependent, localized shear between coherent lithospheric blocks. Recent studies of Cenozoic deformation, magmatism, and seismic structure lend support to the latter. Since India collided with Asia \~{}55 million years ago, the rise of the high Tibetan plateau likely occurred in three main steps, by successive growth and uplift of 300- to 500-kilometer-wide crustal thrust-wedges. The crust thickened, while the mantle, decoupled beneath gently dipping shear zones, did not. Sediment infilling, bathtub-like, of dammed intermontane basins formed flat high plains at each step. The existence of magmatic belts younging northward implies that slabs of Asian mantle subducted one after another under ranges north of the Himalayas. Subduction was oblique and accompanied by extrusion along the left lateral strike-slip faults that slice Tibet's east side. These mechanisms, akin to plate tectonics hidden by thickening crust, with slip-partitioning, account for the dominant growth of the Tibet Plateau toward the east and northeast.}, author = {Tapponnier, Paul and Zhiqin, Xu and Roger, Francoise and Meyer, Bertrand and Arnaud, Nicolas and Wittlinger, Gerard and Jingsui, Yang }, citeulike-article-id = {695049}, doi = {10.1126/science.105978}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {basin, strike-slip, tectonics, tibet}, number = {5547}, pages = {1671--1677}, posted-at = {2006-06-13 18:08:53}, priority = {5}, title = {Oblique Stepwise Rise and Growth of the Tibetan Plateau}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.105978}, volume = {294}, year = {2001} }

TY - JOUR ID - TapponnierStepwise L3 - citeulike-article-id:695049 TI - Oblique Stepwise Rise and Growth of the Tibetan Plateau JF - Science VL - 294 IS - 5547 SP - 1671 EP - 1677 N2 - Two end member models of how the high elevations in Tibet formed are (i) continuous thickening and widespread viscous flow of the crust and mantle of the entire plateau and (ii) time-dependent, localized shear between coherent lithospheric blocks. Recent studies of Cenozoic deformation, magmatism, and seismic structure lend support to the latter. Since India collided with Asia ~55 million years ago, the rise of the high Tibetan plateau likely occurred in three main steps, by successive growth and uplift of 300- to 500-kilometer-wide crustal thrust-wedges. The crust thickened, while the mantle, decoupled beneath gently dipping shear zones, did not. Sediment infilling, bathtub-like, of dammed intermontane basins formed flat high plains at each step. The existence of magmatic belts younging northward implies that slabs of Asian mantle subducted one after another under ranges north of the Himalayas. Subduction was oblique and accompanied by extrusion along the left lateral strike-slip faults that slice Tibet's east side. These mechanisms, akin to plate tectonics hidden by thickening crust, with slip-partitioning, account for the dominant growth of the Tibet Plateau toward the east and northeast. KW - basin KW - strike-slip KW - tectonics KW - tibet AU - Tapponnier, Paul AU - Zhiqin, Xu AU - Roger, Francoise AU - Meyer, Bertrand AU - Arnaud, Nicolas AU - Wittlinger, Gerard AU - Jingsui, Yang PY - 2001/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.105978 ER -