Distributed deformation in southern and western Tibet during and after the India‐Asia collision

Abstract

Field and radiometric data are used to describe and date strain and stress states in southern (longitude 88° to 91°E, latitude 28° to 30°N) and western Tibet (longitude 79° to 82°E, latitude 30° to 34°N). We factorize deformation into syncollisional and postcollisional, and we present stretching lineation and displacement orientation maps, two sections across the Indian shelf sequence, and stress orientations calculated from mesoscale fault slip data. In southern Tibet, syncollisional stretching and displacement directions trend 9°±46° and displacement is top to south. Synkinematic, low‐grade metamorphism is dated at 50 Ma at one locality in the Indian shelf sequence underlying the main mantle thrust of the Indus‐Yarlung suture. This implies Paleocene onset of continental collision for the investigated section. Postcollisional structures comprise a “backthrust” group, which includes foreland‐ and hinterland‐directed thrusts, reverse and strike‐slip faults, and folds. It dominates postcollisional deformation, is concentrated along the Indus‐Yarlung suture, and portrays N‐S compression (σ 1 trend of 8°±17°, σ 2 of 97°±17°). A “strike‐slip” group consists of conjugate strike‐slip faults, is concentrated in east trending, narrow, highly deformed zones, and indicates that N‐S compression is locally compensated by E‐W extension (σ 1 of 15°±29°, σ 3 of 103°±30°). Synkinematic muscovite dates postcollisional deformation as late early Miocene (17.5 Ma) at one locality at the suture. Strike‐slip and oblique normal (σ 3 of 60°±23°, σ 1 of 144°±21°) and normal (σ 3:114°±16°) faulting, dated between late Miocene and Recent and including active deformation, represents (dominant) E‐W and minor N‐S extension due to E‐W stretching of southern Tibet and oroclinal bending along the Himalayan arc. Restoring syncollisional and postcollisional deformation yields a minimum of 67% (258 km) shortening across the Indian shelf sequence. Incorporating recently published contraction estimates across the eastern Himalaya yields minimum shortening between undeformed India and the Indus‐Yarlung suture of 66% (536 km). The Himalaya‐Tibet orogenic system south of the Indus‐Yarlung suture had an initial width of ≥811 km in the southern Tibetan section. In western Tibet, imbrication of an ophiolite sequence of the Bangong‐Nujiang suture is top to south (stretching lineation trend of 15°±18°), and σ 3 of active deformation trends ESE. Faulting along the Shiquanhe fault zone, which transfers displacement from the northern part of the Karakorum fault to a system of rifts in western central Tibet, indicates dextral strike‐slip alternating with sinistral‐oblique normal faulting and block rotations around vertical axes during a prolonged shearing history. The Indian Shelf sequence south of Mount Kailas shows top to south imbrication (stretching lineation trend of 52°±60°). Both Indian shelf rocks and (?Oligocene‐Miocene) Kailas conglomerates record backthrusting and backfolding (σ 1 of 33°) and Recent E‐W extension (σ 3 of 85°±28°).