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Crustal shortening in convergent orogens: Insights from global positioning system (GPS) measurements in northeast India

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Journal of the Geological Society of India

Abstract

Deformation in active mountain belts like the Himalaya is manifested over several spatial and temporal scales and collation of information across these scales is crucial to an integrated understanding of the overall deformation process in mountain belts. Computation and integration of geological shortening rates from retrodeformable balanced cross-sections and present-day convergent rates from deforming mountain belts is one way of integrating information across time-scales. The results from GPS measurements carried out in NE India indicate that about 15–20 mm/yr of convergence is being accommodated there. Balanced-cross sections from the NE Himalaya indicate about 350–500 km of shortening south of the South Tibet Detachment (STD). Geothermobarometry suggest that the rocks south of the STD deformed under peak metamorphic conditions at ∼ 22 Ma. This indicates a geological convergence rate of ∼ 16–22 mm/yr which appears to be fairly consistent with the GPS derived convergence rates. Approximately 1.5 to 3.5 mm/yr (∼ 10–20 %) of the total N-S of the present-day convergence in the NE Himalaya is accommodated in the Shillong Plateau. In addition, ∼ 8–9 mm/yr of E-W convergence is observed in the eastern and central parts of the Shillong Plateau relative to the Indo-Burman fold-thrust belt. Balanced cross-sections in the Indo-Burman wedge together with higher resolution GPS measurements are required in the future to build on the first-order results presented here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, Bangalore, 560 037, India

    Malay Mukul & Sridevi Jade

  2. Department of Physics, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784 028, India

    Anjan Kumar Bhattacharyya

  3. North East Space Application Centre, Umiam, 793 103, Meghalaya, India

    Kuntala Bhusan

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Mumbai, 400 076, India

    Malay Mukul

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  1. Malay Mukul
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  2. Sridevi Jade
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Correspondence to Malay Mukul.

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Mukul, M., Jade, S., Bhattacharyya, A.K. et al. Crustal shortening in convergent orogens: Insights from global positioning system (GPS) measurements in northeast India. J Geol Soc India 75, 302–312 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-010-0017-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-010-0017-9

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