Stretching the Tibetan Plateau
Nature Geoscience
January 13, 2015
The stretching and extension of the Tibetan Plateau is partly caused by the northward movement of the Indian Plate beneath the Eurasian Plate, reports a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience. Previously the extension of the plateau was largely thought to be the result of it collapsing under its own weight.
Richard Styron and colleagues use a computer model to simulate the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau as the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. The model results confirm that the entire plateau has been collapsing under gravity and stretching out eastwards since roughly 16 million years ago.
However, the simulations also show that a second wave of extension began a few million years later. This later wave, occurring at a faster rate than the initial rifting, moved from south to north in tandem with the northward subduction of the Indian Plate. The researchers suggest that as the Indian Plate is progressively forced northwards, farther beneath the Eurasian Plate, the crust at the surface stretches over it.
doi: 10.1038/ngeo2336
Research highlights
-
Jan 15
Environment: Seagrass meadows may facilitate marine plastic removal from the seaScientific Reports
-
Jan 15
Planetary Science: Mercury may have shrunk less than previously thoughtCommunications Earth＆Environment
-
Jan 13
Environment: Polyester fibres found to be widespread in the ArcticNature Communications
-
Dec 23
Planetary science: Over 100,000 new craters identified on the MoonNature Communications
-
Dec 22
Conservation: Agricultural expansion could cause widespread biodiversity declines by 2050Nature Sustainability
-
Dec 18
Geology: Alpine summits may have been ice-free during life of Tyrolean IcemanScientific Reports
