Tectonics of- Miocene—Early Pleistocene (The Himalayan Tectonic Period, 23–0.78 Ma)

Abstract

The Himalayan movements were first recognized by Huang TK (1945) correlated with the New Alpine movements of Europe. At the time of Huang’s studies in France during the 1930s, it was considered that the Alpine Orogeny had occurred in two phases, an “Old Alpine” (Mesozoic) phase and a “New Alpine” (Cenozoic) phase, however, he did not think so recently. Huang considered that the Himalayan movements should include all the tectonic events occurring during the Cenozoic. This view has commonly been accepted and applied in China over last sixty years. However, as described in earlier chapters in this volume, both the Sichuanian and North Sinian Tectonic Events occurred within the Cenozoic. In the early Mesozoic the Himalayan and adjacent continental blocks were attached to Gondwana. Subsequently these blocks were separated from Gondwana and moved gradually northwards until they converged and collided with the southern margin of Eurasia in the Banggongco—Nujiang and Yarlung Zangbo Collision Zones. In the Siuchuanian and North Sinian stages the separated blocks still lay within the Tethys Ocean, right to the south of Asia. The collision zones, which resulted in the Himalayan Tectonic Zone and the Himalayan Mountains, did not form until the Neogene.