Expanse of Greater India in the late Cretaceous

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116330

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Volume 542, 15 July 2020, 116330

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116330 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Western Tethyan Himalaya was at a paleolatitude of 5.0±1.6°N at 70 Ma.
•
Greater India extended ∼2700 km farther north from the present-day margin of India.
•
Greater India acted as a single entity together with India since the Early Cretaceous.
•
India began colliding with Asia at 55±5 Ma in the western Himalayas.
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Greater India's leading margin shaped the present India-Asia plate boundary.

Abstract

Knowing the original size of Greater India is a fundamental parameter to quantify the amount of continental lithosphere that was subducted to help form the Tibetan Plateau and to constrain the tectonic evolution of the India-Asia collision. Here, we report paleomagnetic data from Upper Cretaceous rocks of the western Tethyan Himalaya that are consistent with a model that Greater India extended ∼2700 km farther north from its present northern margin at the longitude of 79.6°E before collision with Asia. Our result further suggests that the Indian plate, together with Greater India, acted as a single entity since at least the Early Cretaceous. The pre-collision geometry of Greater India's leading margin helped shape the India-Asia plate boundary. The proposed configuration produced right lateral shear east of the indenter, thereby accounting for the clockwise vertical axis block rotations observed there.

Introduction

The Indian subcontinent formed part of Gondwanaland before rifting away in the Cretaceous (Veevers et al., 1975). Paleogeographic reconstructions suggest that India's northern margin extended farther off the Western Australian margin in the past (Powell et al., 1988), but has since been subducted under Asia. This lost landmass is called Greater India. The size of Greater India bears on some questions at the forefront of continental geodynamics. To what extent can continental crust be subducted? How much of the doubly-thickened crust on the plateau was derived from horizontal shortening of existing crust, how much from the addition of accreted crust, and how much from thermal buoyancy? Knowing how much lithosphere was consumed plays a critical role to understand the extent that the Tibetan plateau formed from continental subduction/underthrusting versus accretion (Tapponnier et al., 2001; van Hinsbergen et al., 2019).

Paleomagnetic studies have been increasingly carried out in Tibet to unravel the tectonic history surrounding the amalgamation of Asia. A recent paleomagnetic study of Lower Cretaceous rocks from two localities separated by ∼9° in longitude along strike of the Tethyan Himalaya (Fig. 1) proposed that Greater India extended at least 2675±720 and 1950±970 km farther north from the present northern margin of India (Meng et al., 2019). If Greater India acted a single plate since at least the Early Cretaceous, crustal material riding along with Greater India should track the plate's motion during its northward journey after rifting from Gondwanaland since ∼130 Ma. However, magnetic remanence in Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene rocks from the Tethyan Himalaya may be secondary (overprinted) (Appel et al., 2012) or of questionable primary origin (Huang et al., 2017a; Patzelt et al., 1996; Yi et al., 2011, 2017). More paleomagnetic data from Upper Cretaceous rocks are therefore needed to provide better estimates for the pre-collisional configuration of the Tethyan Himalaya. We thus carried out a paleomagnetic study of Albian (∼105 Ma) and Maastrichtian (∼70 Ma) marine sedimentary rocks (Fig. 2) in southwestern Tibet (Fig. 1) to better define the paleogeography of Greater India.

Section snippets

Geology and sampling

Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous ophiolite and mélange define the Indus-Yarlung suture that demarcates the India-Asia plate boundary. Asia's southern limit contains Lower Cretaceous-Lower Paleogene shallow marine forearc deposits (Xigaze basin) and a Cretaceous-Eocene magmatic arc that extends E-W for more than 1000 km (Fig. 1). Bounded by thrust and detachment faults, Tethyan Himalayan sedimentary rocks crop out south of the suture, spanning ∼150 km N-S and ∼1500 km E-W (Fig. 1B). The sedimentary

Experimental design and statistical analyses

Zongshan limestone microfabrics (Fig. 3) and chemical analyses (Fig. 4) were analyzed using a Zeiss SUPPA 55 field emission scanning electron microscope at the China University of Geosciences (Beijing). Elemental concentrations were measured with an Oxford energy dispersive spectrometer. Hysteresis parameters were measured with a MicroMag 3900 vibrating sample magnetometer at the Paleomagnetism and Geochronology Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Thermal stepwise demagnetization

Petrography and rock magnetism

Scanning electron microscopy together with energy dispersive spectra of Albian and Maastrichtian limestone samples show similar features with no sign of metamorphism. Most opaque minerals are iron oxides, <2-5 μm in diameter (Fig. 3, Fig. 4). Magnetite and titanomagnetite often exhibit sub-rounded to rounded textures, as do rutile and quartz (Fig. 3A, B, C, D,E, I), which are textures typical of detrital grains. Calcite matrix is compressed around the oxide grains (Fig. 3A, B, and D); euhedral

Cretaceous paleomagnetic data from the Tethyan Himalaya

Debate surrounds the origin of magnetic remanence in Upper Cretaceous to Paleogene marine sedimentary rocks from the Tethyan Himalaya. Carbonate rocks from the Tingri area (Fig. 1) have post-folding remanences carried by magnetite that was formed by the oxidation of iron sulfide (Huang et al., 2017b). On the other hand, these same rocks near Gamba (Fig. 1) yielded positive fold and reversal tests (Patzelt et al., 1996; Yi et al., 2011), in addition to a magnetostratigraphy compatible with

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no competing financial interests. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Jun Meng.

Acknowledgments

We thank the editor An Yin and reviewers Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen and Erwin Appel for their constructive comments on the manuscript. We acknowledge Xiaodong Tan, John Geissman, Qingsong Liu, Andrew Roberts, Chorng-Shern Horng, Alexandra Abrajevitch, Huafeng Qing, Zhiming Sun, Baochun Huang, Xiumian Hu, Xin Li, Xi Chen and Zhiyu Yi for stimulating discussions and Manuela Weiss, and Shuai Li for assistance with laboratory work. Wentao Huang kindly provided the data from his G-Cubed 2015 paper.

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Citation Excerpt :
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Expanse of Greater India in the late Cretaceous

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Geology and sampling

Experimental design and statistical analyses

Petrography and rock magnetism

Cretaceous paleomagnetic data from the Tethyan Himalaya

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgments

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Earth-Sci. Rev.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Cretac. Res.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Tectonophysics

Tectonophysics

J. Asian Earth Sci.

Earth-Sci. Rev.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Earth-Sci. Rev.

Tectonophysics

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Comput. Geosci.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

Pyrrhotite remagnetizations in the Himalaya: a review

Geol. Soc. (Lond.) Spec. Publ.

Next-generation plate-tectonic reconstructions using GPlates

Paleomagnetism

Paleomagentic results from Alaska and their tectonic implications

PaleoMac: a Macintosh™ application for treating paleomagnetic data and making plate reconstructions

Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst.

Dispersion on a sphere

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A