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collision of their respective plates and incorporated Tethys
ophiolite.
Source: After Park (1992).
Figure 25.5 Tectonics and related land systems in the
Himalayas and East Asia region. Collision, indentation and
lateral extension continue to elevate orogens and pull rifts
and ocean basins apart.
Source: Modified from Windley (1995).
This is the younger and less complex Asian extension of Alpine-Middle Eastern Tethyan
orogens in Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Cenozoic collision and continuing indentation by the
Indian plate are creating a narrow 250-350 km-wide orogen of ocean ophiolite,
accretionary prism and continental crust with A-subduction intrusions. They represent
progressive Tethys Ocean closure and eventual continental collision, c . 40 Ma ago.
Terranes are stacked in four parallel units forming the Himalaya ranges along a 2000 km
front, arc-on to the continent, from Kashmir to northern Burma. The Karakoram batholith
to the north-west is a related orogen, currently experiencing the highest global uplift
rates. Stretches of the rivers Tsangbo (Brahmaputra), Sutlej and Indus, like the Stikine,
Columbia and Colorado in North America and the upper Rhine, Inn and Rhône in the
Alps, are antecedent , pre-dating and continuing to incise their way through emergent
structures.
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