T208 Earthquakes and Deformation in Eastern North America and Other Continental Interiors: What We Know, What We Don’t, What We Think, and Which Is Which?

Tuesday, 6 November 2018
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 238-239

TEARING OF INDIAN MANTLE LITHOSPHERE FROM HIGH-RESOLUTION SEISMIC IMAGES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR LITHOSPHERE COUPLING IN SOUTHERN TIBET

Paper number: T208-6
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:55 PM – 3:10 PM

Authors

Abstract

What happened to the Indian mantle lithosphere (IML) during the Indian–Eurasian collision and what role it has played on the plateau growth are fundamental questions that remain unanswered. Here, we show clear images of the IML from high-resolution P and S tomography, which suggest that the subducted IML is torn into at least four pieces with different angles and northern limits, shallower and extending further in the west and east sides while steeper in the middle. Intermediate-depth earthquakes in the lower crust and mantle are located almost exclusively in the high-velocity (and presumably strong) part of the Indian lithosphere. The tearing of the IML provides a unified mechanism for Late Miocene and Quaternary rifting, current crustal deformation, and intermediate-depth earthquakes in the southern and central Tibetan Plateau and suggests that the deformations of the crust and the mantle lithosphere are strongly coupled.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2018AM-319676

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