Elsevier

Gondwana Research

Volume 26, Issue 2, September 2014, Pages 608-626
Gondwana Research

GR focus review
The coupling of Indian subduction and Asian continental tectonics

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2014.04.003Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Global tomography evidences Indian continent subduction and breakoff.

  • After complete breakoff at the OCT, Indian continent subduction resumes.

  • Mantle flow generates by oceanic subduction drags the Indian continent in the mantle.

  • Indian slab breakoff generated localized stress pulses in Asian continent.

Abstract

In order to understand the potential controls on Asian tectonics during the subduction of the Tethys and Indian lithospheres, we reconstruct the coupled subduction-continent deformation history using tomographic imaging, kinematics constraints and numerical modeling.

The global P-waves tomographic images of the mantle below the India-Asia collision zone provide constraints on the deep structure of continents and subduction history. Linking the slab positions in the mantle to the Asian tectonics reconstructions and the Indian plate kinematics, we reconstruct the timing and location of successive subduction and breakoff events, showing one major breakoff occurred between India and the Tethys Ocean ~ 45 Ma. In the western syntax, a vertical slab continuous to the continent is shown to override the deeper detached Tethys slab. In the central region similar structure is found with a detached slab, yet closer to the Tethys slab. In the eastern syntax, no slab is imaged. It is inferred that after Tethys slab had broke off, subduction only resumed in the center of the margin, while underthrusting took place at both extremities of the convergent margin. During following convergence, a second breakoff event detached the central Indian slab from the margin ~ 15 Ma ago, which renewed Indian lithosphere underthrusting below Asia. This most probably occurred when the Tibetan Plateau was already uplifted, implying that uplift is not a direct result of underthrusting.

Numerical models of breakoff during subduction illustrate the controls of slab detachment on the complexities of the Indian margin. In these models the subduction of continental lithosphere resumes after breakoff only where this is entrained by the mantle flow associated with the long lasting oceanic slab sinking, that is in the center of the margin, while converging continent edges underthrusts the upper plate. Furthermore, the breakoff during subduction has profound implications on the Asian intra-plate tectonics. In the models, the breakoff is rapidly followed by large stresses in the upper plate interiors, propagating at large distance from the margin, along a belt oriented at ~ 45° from the trench. The long-term evolution of the Asian continental tectonics shows drastic changes in the fault pattern, with successive strike-slip faulting across the Asian continent, which are in agreement with the mechanisms illustrated by the models. Transient large coupling at the trench caused by the breakoff events during India-Asia convergence offers an explanation for episodic nucleation of lithospheric faults within the Asian continent and their link to deep processes.

Introduction

Since almost one century, field observations in Tibet have been interpreted to infer the deep structure of the India/Asia collision zone, and to constrain models of continental deformation during collision. The first model by Emile Argand in 1924 proposed that the Indian continent stamps the Asian one and slides below it, uplifting the Tibetan Plateau (Argand, 1924). Since then, a large amount of data has been collected, that has revealed many complexities in the system and has led to controversial interpretations. Numerous analog and numerical models have been proposed, but no consensus has been reached upon the behavior of the continental lithosphere leading to the Tibetan Plateau formation (Fig. 1).

One kind of models focuses on the uniform altitude of the Plateau (Fielding et al., 1994). Analog models using silicone, and numerical models of viscous continental lithosphere successfully reproduce a viscous uniform thickening migrating northward of the Asian continent due to its indentation by the Indian continent (e.g. England and Molnar, 1997), or a uniform thickening of only the lower crust (Royden et al., 2008). The deformation of such viscous lithospheres has been successfully coupled to the subduction process in a Newtonian viscous mantle (e.g. Funiciello et al., 2003). The subduction of the Indian continent, pulled down in the mantle by the still attached Tethys oceanic slab has been simulated unless India is scraped off its upper crust and part of its lower crust (Capitanio et al., 2010). The subduction in these conditions generates the advance of the trench and the indentation of the upper plate, which thickens and spreads laterally homogeneously (Bajolet et al., 2013).

Another kind of model focuses on the large thrusts observed in the Himalaya and the Tibetan Plateau, and the large strike-slip faults in Tibet. Analog models using sand, and numerical models of elasto-plastic continental lithosphere have successfully reproduced the building of a wedge with periodic localized thrusts thickening the crust, over a subduction zone, like observed in the Himalaya, or over a wide sub-horizontal intracrustal decollement, like the Northern Tibet's (e.g. Malavieille, 1984, Smit et al., 2003, Buiter et al., 2006). Analog models using plasticine, of plastic continental lithosphere have succeeded to reproduce wide strike-slip faults crossing the whole Asian continent, allowing for large horizontal motion of continental blocks. Yet, they do not address the thickening of Tibet, prevented by a glass on top of the plasticine (Peltzer and Tapponnier, 1988). Multi-layered sand-silicone (rigid/ductile) models of the crust generate strike-slip faults and thrusts, either homogeneously distributed or localized depending on the brittle-to-ductile strength ratio, but do not generate large horizontal motion nor reproduce northward propagation of thickening, which is instead occurring only in front of the indenter (Schueller and Davy, 2008). No numerical model has addressed the large strike-slip faulting accommodating hundreds of kilometers of displacement along thousands of kilometers long fault zones, due to the localization and high amplitude of the deformation on a very thin zone compared to a wide continent. To date, few models have explored the link between such intra-continental strike-slip faulting and the subduction process (Capitanio and Replumaz, 2013, Li et al., 2013).

Models have inferred different implications on the deep structure of the collision zone (e.g. Willett and Beaumont, 1994, Johnson, 2002). The global P-waves tomographic images of the mantle below the collision zone have been intensely used during the last 15 years to constrain such deep structure. Positive P-wave anomalies have been interpreted as mapping the slab position below the collision zone, which has been useful to constrain the subduction history of the Tethys ocean and northern part of Indian plate (van der Voo et al., 1999, Hafkenscheid et al., 2006, Negredo et al., 2007, Li et al., 2008, Replumaz et al., 2010a). The interpretations have been used to constrain models of continental subduction and breakoff (e.g. Wortel and Spakman, 2000, Negredo et al., 2007, Capitanio et al., 2010). Yet, the interactions between the continental subducting plate and the upper plate deformation during the collision between Asia and India have been relatively less investigated. In this paper, we relate the deep tomographic observations to Asian tectonics reconstructions (Replumaz and Tapponnier, 2003) and Indian plate kinematics (Patriat and Achache, 1984). On the basis of recent numerical models (Capitanio and Replumaz, 2013), we discuss the evolution of the Asian tectonics as the result of the upper plate coupling with the Indian subduction during the collision period.

Section snippets

Mantle structure

High wavespeed anomalies are commonly interpreted as remnants of slabs, with deeper anomalies representing older subduction events (e.g. van der Hilst et al., 1997, Bijwaard et al., 1998, van der Meer et al., 2010). We use the P-waves global tomographic model of Bijwaard et al. (1998) to elucidate the 3D mantle seismic structure beneath the collision zone (Fig. 2). This model has been updated by Villaseñor et al. (2003) by including arrival times of earthquakes from 1995 to 2002 listed in the

Asian tectonics constraints on the over-riding plate deformations

The deformation of the Indian crust is to the first order that of a crustal wedge over a subducting lithosphere (e.g. Lavé and Avouac, 2000, Johnson, 2002). Such a crustal wedge is composed of successive thrusts rooting on an intra-crustal sub-horizontal decollement, the Main Himalayan Thrust, which thickened the entire brittle upper crust and part of the lower crust, forming the Himalaya range (Bollinger et al., 2006). It has been successfully reproduced by numerical and analogue experiments

Numerical models constraints on subducting-upper plates interactions

Global tomography has revealed a complex Indian slabs geometry, corresponding to successive episodes of subduction and breakoff (Fig. 2, Fig. 3). The Indian continental lithosphere has subducted down to the lower mantle, detached from the dense oceanic Tethys slab (Fig. 5). This interpretation is consistent with models showing that the recovered continental lithospheric buoyancy can drive subduction, thus no attached dense oceanic slab (Capitanio et al., 2010). To model the Indian continent

Discussion: Linking Asian tectonics to deep lithospheric processes

We further show here that the global P-waves tomographic images of the mantle below the collision zone are useful to constrain the deep structure of the continents and their subduction history. By linking the slab positions shown by tomography to Asian tectonic reconstructions (Replumaz and Tapponnier, 2003) and Indian plate kinematics (Patriat and Achache, 1984), we infer successive subduction and breakoff events, and give an estimate of the timing of these events (Fig. 5). Such temporal

Conclusion

We explore the coupling between the deep subduction of the Indian continent and the tectonics of the Asian continental upper plate interiors. The long-term evolution of both lithospheres during convergence has been deduced from remnants of slabs in the mantle shown by P-waves global tomography. Successive episodes of subduction and breakoff have been evidenced (Fig. 2, Fig. 3). A complete breakoff most likely occurred at about 45 Ma at the transition between the Tethys Ocean and the Indian

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by a grant from Labex OSUG@2020 (Investissements d’avenir – ANR10 LABX56) and the ANR DSP-Tibet.

Tomographic images were made using the graphic program P developed by Wim Spakman.

Anne Replumaz is a CNRS Senior Researcher at ISTerre (Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université Grenoble Alpes, France). She received her PhD at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France). She has dedicated her career on using quantitative field data at a pertinent scale to constrain the processes driving the continental deformation during the India/Asia collision. She has quantified the slip-rate of faults, used to make a complete reconstruction in time and space of the motion

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    Anne Replumaz is a CNRS Senior Researcher at ISTerre (Institut des Sciences de la Terre, Université Grenoble Alpes, France). She received her PhD at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France). She has dedicated her career on using quantitative field data at a pertinent scale to constrain the processes driving the continental deformation during the India/Asia collision. She has quantified the slip-rate of faults, used to make a complete reconstruction in time and space of the motion along faults, which was pertinent to compare the crustal deformation with the mantle tomographic positive anomalies, and to constrain analog and numerical models of continental deformation. She has published her results in international journals of broad impact.

    Fabio Antonio Capitanio is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He received his MSc from Roma Tre University, Italy, and the PhD from ETH, Switzerland. His research fields include tectonics, geophysics and geodynamics, with a focus on the mechanics of the convergent margins and continental tectonics. He has published many publications in international journals of broad impact. He is the recipient of the 2012 Jason Morgan Early Career Award by the American Geophysical Union, and the 2013 Discovery Early Career Award by the Australian Research Council.

    Stéphane Guillot, Director of Research at CNRS of Grenoble, is a specialist of Himalayan geology. He currently works in active convergent zones (Asia, Alps, Oman). He published more than 100 publications and participated to the publication of book dedicated to Himalaya and Tibet geodynamic evolution (Mascle G., Pêcher A. and Guillot S., 2012 – The Himalaya-Tibet Collision. Book series, Geological Society of Nepal).

    Ana-Maria Negredo-Moreno is Professor of Geophysics at the University of Madrid (Spain). She is an internationally recognized expert on numerical modeling with an emphasis on subduction processes.

    Antonio Villaseñor is a staff scientist at the Spanish National Research Council's Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (ICTJA-CSIC). He received his undergraduate training and Ph.D. in Physics (1995) from the University of Barcelona, Spain. After postdoctoral stays at the U.S. Geological Survey (Golden, USA), University of Colorado (Boulder, USA) and University of Utrecht (The Netherlands) he joined ICTJA-CSIC in 2004. His main research interests include the study of global instrumental seismicity and earthquake tomography. He has studied volcanic systems using local earthquake travel times, the Eurasian continent using surface waves from earthquakes and correlations of ambient noise, and the whole Earth's mantle using teleismic travel times. Currently he is also involved in the study of induced seismicity caused by fluid injection.

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