A model of the evolution of the lithosphere of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogen

Abstract

The Himalayan-Tibetan orogen is one of the active orogens on Earth. The processes caused by the collision of two continents have attracted attention of many researchers, and over the past decades, a large amount of geological and geophysical data has accumulated, on which models of the evolution of the region are based. The paper presents a model of the evolution of the Tibet plateau and the adjacent mountain chains, which complies with the modern concepts of the structure of the crust. The reference parameters of this model are the data on the values of stresses and on the patterns of the spatial distribution of principal stresses obtained in our own tectonophysical studies in region, as well as in other intracontinental orogens and in subduction zones between lithospheric plates. The basic assumptions of the model are the factors of the long stage of the Indian plate underthrusting beneath the Eurasian continent, metamorphic processes in the submerged slab (oceanic lithosphere) and in the continental lithosphere above it, combination of absolute horizontal movements of the Eurasian and Indian plates, small-scale convection in the upper mantle and vertical movements of matter, both in the continental lithosphere itself and in the upper mantle.

Keywords

• tectonophysics
• stresses
• intracontinental orogen
• tibet
• denudation
• lithospheric plates