Investigation of the Timing and Strain Magnitude of Late Cretaceous-Tertiary Thrusting in Central and Northern Tibet

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

0106677 Yin & Horton Current hypotheses concerning the formation of the Tibetan plateau are widely different in terms of their predicted strain distribution and temporal evolution of the plateau. If the uplift involved little upper crustal shortening and was passively uplifted, shortening strain should be small and synchronous. If the uplift was due to large shortening that doubled the upper crustal thickening, strain should be significant and diachronous across the plateau. This project will attempt to evaluate upper crustal deformation and therefore test these two models for the evolution of the Tibetan plateau. Results are expected to provide new constraints on how and when the Tibetan plateau was constructed and allow various mechanisms for uplifting the plateau to be quantified.